Different barks for different things...

[SadKen]

My young gsd learned a new trick this week. OH has been in Dubai, and when I said he'd be 'home soon' little one responded with a high pitched bark, the same as he does when OH actually comes home. This is a different bark to the one he uses in answer to 'who's there' which is a deep, throaty, loud bark sometimes with a growl. He's now doing this every time I use each phrase.

I find the different barks fascinating! Anyone else's dog do similar?

 

[Dry Rot]

Yes. Definitely. But it is very difficult to mimic their barks so the dog understands what you say back to them. I'm serious!!! Much simpler to use human speech which they seem to find easier to understand! Clearly there are subtleties to barking that we just don't "get". Like the policeman in 'Ello, 'Ello who always gets it wrong!

 

[Dobiegirl]

Its amazing the different barks they have and the nuances of body language to go with it, I can always tell if its someone who has walked down the road to someone walking in the field over the road. The squirrel who comes to the bed table has a more urgent excited response, the postman is very similar but he always brings them a treat but their bark is less shrill somehow.

 

[Leo Walker]

Yup! Mine are whippety type lurchers and rarely bark, but they are sooo expressive! They generally communicate by sad faces. My dog has more faces for sad than eskimos have words for snow! But he also has a few barks used to really press his point home! There is the i need a wee NOW bark, the I'm hungry bark, the someone just knocked on the door and startled me bark, the having a fun time playing bark and the worst one is the, the I'm bored and fed up and you need to fix that bark and the give me attention NOW bark! I understand the exact meaning of them all. My OH hadnt even had a dog before and it took a while for him to get up to speed, but now he knows straight away what they mean