(no subject)

[conuly]

Watch on YouTube

The camera angles work really hard to make the dogs look vicious and dangerous, but they can't fool me! Those are some happy, friendly puppers!

Comments

[calimac]

It's certainly true that, in my experience, dogs can't act. I saw a stage production of Of Mice and Men. One of the characters is a dog, and they had a dog. The dog in the story is old and sick, but the dog playing the part was neither old nor sick, and did not remotely look it, to the point where it might have been better omitted, though the dog was well-behaved and knew its cues.

But it's because dogs can't act that, when a dog barks at me, as they nearly all do, I believe its hostility is genuine.

[conuly]

Oh. But barking doesn’t generally mean “go away or I’ll bite”. A lot of the time it means “hi, I’m a dog!” or “um, are you eating that thing you are blatantly eating and would you consider sharing with me?” or “I am excited! Yay!”

[lilysea]

My next door neighbour has a small Scottish terrier that barks its head off

when I put rubbish in my outside bins; also

when I move the outside bins; also

when anyone walks down my driveway.

There's a tall opaque metal fence between us, so it can't see me and I can't see it.

what does this barking mean?

I always thought it meant "I am defending my backyard"

or "Alert To My Humans, Someone Is Moving Around Behind The Fence"

[conuly]

I mean, I'd have to see and know the dog in question. It might well be territorial barking, but even if it is, that doesn't necessarily mean aggression. It might be "Yup, this is my spot and that's yours, let's all stay where we belong!" or "Human, I am alerting you to something, but it may or may not be a big deal!" or even "I get attention for barking my fool head off when something is around outside the fence, so here I go again!"

[lilysea]

It doesn't sound like the dog is saying

"I want to bite you"

it sounds like the dog is saying

"Do you MIND"

or "I wish to register a complaint"

or "cut it out!"

I tried talking in a friendly voice when taking the rubbish out, but that just massively increased the storm of barking.

The barking doesn't bother me - as I said, the dog sounds annoyed/irritated but not threatening -

I was just curious what it meant in dog.

The dog also barks up a storm when school kids and their adults walk past on their way to school, but unless there are humans around like

- me + bins
- me + rubbish
- posties/couriers
- schoolkids + adults

it's completely silent.

Interestingly/weirdly, when an actual burglar was hiding in the dog's garden and the dog's outbuilding (laundry) for hours, the dog didn't make a peep, I'm guessing because it was too scared of the burglar?