We have two Corgis, a male and female. They’re both great dogs and the male, in particular, is very docile and laid back. Last night my wife was talking to me about a story involving how quickly my son does Soduku and she made a sound to indicate how quickly he fills out the puzzle: sort of a “zzzhit, zzhut, zzzhit” sound to indicate writing quickly.
In a flash, both dogs jumped on my wife, barking crazily and the male – the one who is sooooo laid back – actually nipped her pretty hard, leaving a small puncture and a significant bruise. It was crazy.
The next morning the dogs were outside in the hallway, with the bedroom door closed, and we were talking about the incident. In doing so, she made that same sound again, and instantly the dogs went nuts. Thank god there was a door between us.
I had to test this myself, so later that morning I made that same noise myself when it was just me and the dogs in the kitchen. God help me, they went nuts and started attacking me!
What the hell is going on with these normally sweet, gentle dogs?
I’ve seen funny sounds trigger a reaction in dogs. My neighbors dog snapped at there son when he got a some toy that made an electronic sound. And that was otherwise the most well behaved dog you would ever see.
No idea why strange sounds set off animals. Had a cat that went tearing through the house whenever my husband made a screaming pig sound by sucking air into his throat. Scared the bejesus out of the cat and was quite useful keeping the cat out of places it shouldn’t be.
Just wondering if one dog is reacting to the other dogs reaction. Can you experiment with the dog and the sound when the dogs are separated? And can you record the sound and play it back? I used to have a dog that would not react to dogs recorded barking on the TV, or the computer. Until I recorded her bark, and she went batshit crazy when I played her bark back.
Whenever I sneeze, my dog comes running from wherever she is and looks at me in a very wide-eyed, concerned sort of way. She has always done it and shows no signs of being desensitized to it.
Very weird. I have had multiple dogs all my life and nothing like that, ever. The closest I can come is with my female Gordon Setter Kharma- If I blow a raspberry in her direction, she goes totally wild-eyes, stomps her front feet at me, tail wagging and runs in place in circles.
Did the sound your wife made sound like a bumblebee? My dog is not fond of bumblebees and will not go into the back yard, now that there are so many bees in the blooming rhododendrons.
I used to have a golden retriever/Chow mix. Very calm, mellow dog and very sweet. One Christmas my dad bought her a squeak toy, one of those rubber newspapers called the Daily Grrowl. Her reaction to it was priceless. Every time she heard it squeak, she would come running, whimpering and looking very concerned. She would pick it up and fawn over it as if it were a crying puppy. She was spayed and had never displayed any kind of maternal instinct before. But the sound of the toy set off something in her. She clearly wasn’t playing with it or attacking it. She seemed to be trying to comfort it. Especially if I “accidentally” stepped on it. She would start to whimper, then pick it up in her mouth and carry it around very carefully. She was very protective of it, but in a very caring, nurturing sort of way.
When our rescued dog Sadie was finally healthy enough to get spayed (had to wean her pups and complete treatment for full-blown heartworm infestation first) she had a “false pregnancy” reaction that can sometimes result from the hormone changes brought on by spaying. She gathered up her toys and brought them to her bed and lined them up like they were nursing.
One of my dogs, a female Pembroke Welsh Corgi, did this to shoes until we broke her of it. She’d get very protective of her shoe-babies and get snarly if anyone tried to do anything so terrible as wearing them.
