Not all dogs of course. Case in point: I have two full grown dogs. The male sees a car go by and looks at it. The female on the other hand go’s nuts and barks her fool head off. Of course, this is the same dog that barks at the wheels of my lawn mower as I push it past her.
Why do some dogs chase cars (or wheels) anyway? Granted, it isn’t the most important question ever asked but my kids keep asking me and I can’t find a reasonable explanation from Google.
WAG…
My guess is it is the strength of the dog’s prey response that gets them going. Movement is usually what kicks off the prey drive in predators. Hold your hand real still and your cat will probably just stare at it. Start moving it around and POW…kitty attack.
It’s not so different in dogs. I’ve personally faced down dogs (in one case a big German Shepherd) by standing there and staring at it. As soon as I started to move away the dog would clearly make ready to come after me. When I stopped and stood still and stared at it it just stared back unwilling to come get me (we did that for 30 minutes or more before the owner finally came along and recalled the dog).
My guess is that a moving car simply kicks in the chase instinct in your one dog. Either that instinct is less well developed in the other dog or, more likely, it has figured out that cars aren’t worth chasing and just doesn’t want to.
We are a foster home for strays and abandoned dogs. It is my theory that dogs with a stronger hunting instinct tend to go after moving things. Cars are like a big animal running away. DOmestic dogs are in a perpetual state of puppyhood. Just as wild young animals play as a precursor to hunting, our adult puppies are still engaging in this play.
As for the barking without chasing, that seems to be protection of the homestead.
I can relate. It is like a fanatic fisherman watching big fish swimming around. You just can’t resist.
Of course, I have nothing to back up my theory.
I’ll say right up front that I don’t know this for a fact, but my theory is as follows:
Cars and other moving objects get chased because they’ve entered the dog’s territory and are, to the dog’s perception, already fleeing the dog. Moving objects stir that instinct in dogs to chase down prey (or maybe in working breeds, start herding it). The barking can be to scare off this thing that’s entered their property.
Observing my own dog, I know he’ll bark and run alongside joggers, bikers, and some cars. As soon as the people stop or just walk calmly, he stops barking and chasing. Better yet, if they talk to him, he’ll put his head down, sidle over with tail wagging, and just ooze, “Aw, shucks, guess you’re a friend after all.” Even if he’s never met them before. What a sweet creature he is!
Thanks for the replies! But I’d still like to know what makes my brainless dog bark at the wheels on the lawnmower. I tend to tell the kids that she does it just because she’s an idiot. Unfortunately, that isn’t a good enough explanation for my kids. Of course, when I tell them the answer to something and they don’t believe it, I’ll pull out the good old Brittanica and show them. Of course, they still think it must be a mistake or something. sigh…
I’m not sure it necessarily has to be the flight of the large car-animal that triggers the chasing. My dog will, when on her leash, time the car, and star moving slowly in the direction it’s traveling, so that she can burst into a full sprint as it passes her. That seems to indicate a certain amount of premeditation, but it could just be that she knows from past experience that cars will “run away.”
Some dogs are just nuts, and there’s no accounting for the weird phobias and loves they develop.
Take my grandmother’s dog, for instance. A lovely Welsh Terrier named Dawndee. Dawndee was psycho. She would bark like mad if she so much as caught sight of any of the following:
A shovel
A rake
A garden hose
She barked non-stop whenever she was riding in a car that was crossing a bridge. She would snap awake out of a dead sleep the instant the nose of the car entered the bridge. Bizarre.
She would bark at slugs, pick them up with her mouth and toss them into the air over and over again. She would pick up rocks and carry them around, also worrying the rocks with her teeth. She would find tennis balls wherever my granparents took her, including numerous mountain trails.
No accounting, I tell you.
This was answered by a reliable source in the early 70’s:
“To read the lettering on the hubcap.”
-Snoopy
OK fellow smart guys, here’s one for you–my dog only barks at some vehicles passing by. Specifically pickup trucks. No cars, UPS trucks, etc., just pickups. Of course anyone who enters the yard is fair game, but only pickups passing by in the road.
My theory is that he was abused as a pup (he adopted us as a stray several years ago) by a Hispanic who beat him with things and who drove a pickup. BTW, he hates Hispanic males, and you can’t approach him with things in your hand–he slinks away and hides. He’s a big nutjob, but we love him.
That’s odd Xploder, I was pondering the same thing about a 1/2 hour ago.
My nieghbor’s male dog Jabber chases all vehicles. I almost ran over the stupid dog, right in front of their four children the day after the attacks. Just what I needed, something to set my adrenalin running at full speed along with all that had happened, then to think that I might have killed their stupid dog in front of all the kids.
Their other dog, a dacshund (weiner dog,) always seems to be loose.
I would love to hear a vet explain this so I can go over to my nieghbor’s house, leave an explanation and how they can break the dog of this habit.
Well, my dog, the female one anyway, seems to just hate wheels. This is rather odd I find. At first, I thought maybe it was because it wolled instead of walking like anything else, but no, she loves to play with balls. It’s really weird. She even tries to attack my son’s bicycle tires as he rides by until he stops. Then of course, she’s fine with the damn thing.
I guess I’ll just keep with the theory that she happens to be an idiot.
Of my 2 dogs, our pit bull is ball-happy. I can’t even watch a soccer match on TV without him putting his nose against the screen. He also had something against the vacuum and the lawn mower. He went after the wheels on the lawn mower, which I think reminded him of his ball. I broke him of attacking the lawn mower and vacuum by sending him outside when I vacuum and inside when I mow the lawn and gradually introducing him to the offending machinery, making him sit at a distance form them and praising him for exercising restraint. He has a lot of prey drive too. I think in his case it was the combination of prey drive and being allowed to chase his ball.
I still think that a wheel and a ball is like prey in the way it moves. A wheel has to confuse a dog. “There are parts moving up…and DOWn AT THE SAME TIME. ROWF! ROWF!”
For an animal programmes for running, darting things, a wheel would be troublesome. But why not all dogs? Some probably just don’t make any connection. To tem it is another one of tham damn human wierd things.
We get a lot of abandoned dogs. I find that they are quirky in general, but i Think for a reason. My dog was always afraid of loud noises. Never understood until I was putting my shotgun together one day. As soon as she saw it…BAM under the bed. She is a bird dog and I bet they took her out too young and made gun shy…literally. .
But dogs are also idiots. I chalk that up to reincarnation of former doofus people.
About the lawnmower and vacuum cleaner, my dog does the exact thing. Even if I was pushing my lawnmower at a really low speed, he would try to jawlocked with the wheel. Methink it has something to do with the engine noise, since dogs have very sensitive hearing, the sound of an engine running might irritates them to no end.
I think he looks at the hair dryer funny also.
(sidenote, if you want to really drive your dog wild, have them chase the beam from a flash light. That always keep me, and him, amuse for hours).