Can you picture it? You are quietly walking along with your own dog or babysitting dog. In the distance a siren sounds and soon a police car passes by. Your dog has obviously heard this too and suddenly starts howling along with the siren. Just what is the reason they do this? Perhaps even more interesting, why do some dogs do this and not others?
Dogs as we know them now are sweet to people, used to being in the house and if size permits (or the dog just thinks she is small) they like to sit on laps. They have not always been this way, of course. Dogs are descended from wolves and that bond becomes very evident when it comes to howling. Wolves and dogs can hear high-pitched sounds much better than humans. Wolves use howling to contact each other when they have lost the rest of the pack. Now, of course, your dog is obviously no longer a wolf but this behavior is still ingrained in its DNA. A siren is very similar to the howling of wolves and dogs because of the high tones and therefore triggers the behavior to participate in this.
But why does one dog do this and not the other?
No research has yet been done on this difference in behavior but what seems to us the most logical explanation is that no one dog is the same. Like humans, no one dog is alike and so some dogs will feel the urge to cry along less strongly. This is nothing to worry about. On the contrary, it's a lot nicer on your own ears 😉
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