This strongly indicates to me that some dogs are just smarter than others.
Or better at communicating via vocalization.
This thread seems to dovetail nicely with the one about mirror recognition.
One thing I have learned in having dogs (or, more properly living with dogs) is that each have a genuinely distinct personality. And some are delightful fluffheads who can’t find their way out of a paper bag without instructions and others are amazingly bright.
We used to use the term co-evolution to describe how canines and early H. sapiens developed. I suppose that term is moribund now.
“HOW DARE YOU LEAVE THIS HOUSE, DON’T LEAVE ME HERE ALONE, HERE I AM, PAY ATTENTION TO ME, DON’T LEAVE!”
And,
“OH MY GOD THANK GOD YOU ARE HOME NOW I TORE DOWN THE CURTAINS WAITING FOR YOU AND MY PAWS ARE TORN UP FROM TRYING TO GET THROUGH THE DOOR TO FOLLOW YOU! HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO ME COME SNUGGLE WITH ME RIGHT NOW!”
My Great Dane actually “talks” more than he barks. Low almost talking sounds is his preferred methods of communication. I swear he says “I love you”, Just like Scooby.
my doberman Doug is this way as well. but i have been watching it evolve. he used to whimper and cry and make shrill sounds when he asked for things and i pretended not to understand him (usually he was saying “TOUCH MY HEAD OMG I WANT PETS SO BAD.”
now, the longer i pretend not to understand him, the more his vocalizations start to resemble words. i am convinced if i keep at this long enough, he’ll learn english.
for that matter, i am constantly impressed with how many words he just “gets.” i have always talked to him like a roommate. like a person. one day it dawned on me that i could say “dude, please back up a little” and he just does. bath time, i say “sorry bro, you have to get in the shower now…” and he reluctantly will. it’s pretty nice. “please go over there,” and he will.
Looking at the transcript on the site, the evidence doesn’t look too strong. Unless it was a double-blind test, there’s no knowing what quantity of Clever Hans Effect and Confirmation Bias there might have been. I.e. the person asking what the dog sounded like might look tense if the listener moves their hand to circle a wrong answer and relaxes when they move their hand to circle the right answer, which people pick up on unconsciously and change their answer. Alternately, the people asking the questions might interpret the listener’s vague description into a much more precise answer than they should, because they know what the correct answer is and feel it’s “close enough”.
Of course, the testing might be nothing like how the transcript presents it, which was just a bit for the cameras, where the real test was a full double-blind study.
Nevermind, I just saw the online-quiz. I have to grant that I could discount some options as non-viable upon hearing each selection. (Though there was some residual noises like jumping about that gave away more information than just a bark and which should be cut out if possible.)
yeah…
you’re sciencing too hard. (or maybe not hard enough)…
the point is that domesticated dogs and humans co-evolved. wolves were picked out and bred due to working traits that benefited humans. over time, we’ve isolated different traits into various breeds. all this means that dogs and humans have a kinship that may not exist in any other two animals.
the program discussed many other aspects of the dog-human bond, such as how dogs demonstrate a left-face bias upon seeing a new human face (and they only do it with human faces. nothing else). this is a feature in understanding emotion.
dogs are one of the only animals that understand pointing (they tried it with chimps, to no avail).
all of these factors (and many, many more) seem to make a distinction about the dog-human connection. it is hypothesized civilization would have never been possible without domesticated dogs and their work-use.
so, while there very well could be flaws in the semantics of bark-analysis testing, it wouldn’t diminish the fact that humans should have a specific understanding of dog vocalizations–after all, we co-evolved to work specifically well together, so inherent communication skills would seem logical.
(all of this is beside another very crucial point: dogs incorporate humans into their “pack” mentality. we are their alpha, and they want to fit into our pack, and communicate as thus).
Dogs will also pick up vocabulary from their other pack-mates (as they see them), regardless of species. I’ve seen at least two different dogs learn to purr when contented, because that’s what the cats they were raised with did.
