i was listening to “what do you know”, the delightful NPR program form Michael Feldman, and his news quiz mentioned that wild dogs don’t bark. in fact, he said, some researchers have theorized that barking may be an imitation of humans’ voices. so my question is thusly:
do dogs in cultures where other languages are spoken bark in a significantly different matter? i know that the words for a dog’s noise vary from country to country, but i always assumed that it was a result of onomanopoia (spell check, PLEASE) and phonetic variation. can anybody gimme a hand here?
I’m having a real hard time with that premise, JB… SOME breed(s)of dog may not bark, but all wild dogs? Australian Dingoes have been wild and barking for thousands of years.
Actually, according to Dingo Farm Australia, a pure bred Dingo has these characteristics “No bark, no body odour, no dew claws on hind legs, breed only once per year, recognised Dingo colours.” Dingoes are decended from wild Asian dogs that cannot bark.
Wolves do bark. Nova: What’s in a howl says, “Even though wolves bark, woof, whine, whimper, yelp, growl, snarl and moan a lot more often than they howl, it is howling that defines the wolf, and fascinates us.”
Well, I can’t explain this at all. I looked up the AKC papers on my Dingo and they confirm that she IS a purebred.
She BETTER BE after all the money I paid for her! I can’t wait to get her into the big-money dog shows.
See, it says right here: Purebred Tubulidentata! And she DOES bark, so don’t tell me Dingos don’t bark.
LOL ! !
tcburnett, I looks like you got ripped off at the dog store. I bet they even forged the Pedigree. March down there and tell the manager you have a bone to pick with him (sorry). Demand your money back. Tell them you want a real non-barking dingo, damnit!!
I’ve seen African wild dogs in, well, Africa. They don’t bark, they sort of yelp. I don’t know how they act when you domesticate them though. But these bastards smelled so foul, I wouldn’t let them within 200 meters of my house!
So, dingos only bark when they’re around “normal” dogs? Interesting. Just how difficult is it to turn a dingo into a pet?
Just how much do you guys really know about dingoes? The last time I saw one was when I was fishing on a beach along the edge of the Nullabor Plain, near the head of the great Australian Bight. It was maybe 200 metres away, at the top of a large sand dune behind the beach. It looked very scrawny and its fur was orange, not the classic tan/fawn colour usually associated with the “typical” dingo.
A purebred dingo would be a difficult concept to achieve now, because their numbers have been infiltrated by feral dogs. Thus it is easily possible that they may bark.
nonono! the point isn’t that wild dogs (dingos, feral dogs)can’t bark, it’s that they don’t (but remember, i heard this on the radio- i’m not vouching for its veracity). tc, the fact that your dingo does bark seems to support the contention in the OP.
namely, that the dingo may be imitating your voice as best it can, hence the woofing and ruffing.
but back to the original question- do dogs in countries where the language sounds sufficiently different from english (e.g., chinese, arabic, basque) bark significantly differently?
p.s.- tcburnettif in fact your dog is a good impersonator, how good of a meryl streep does it do?
You know, I put it right in my post. And I only hid it a little bit. Bear saw right through me and so did evilbeth, but they didn’t snitch. But now I want to fess up. Somebody do a search for Tubulidentata. We’ll clear this Dingo story up pretty soon now.
Ha… this reminds me of one of my favorite one-panel cartoons, entitled “If dogs could talk.” The dog has a speech balloon over his head. It says "Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! "
