You’ve likely seen those viral videos of the just-born puppies trying out their howls for the first time. Howling is a natural part of canine life and behavior, although some dogs do it far more often than others.
While their breed, age, temperament, and environment may play a minor role, why do dogs howl? We have five of the most common reasons your dog may howl and what (if anything) you can do about it.
How Do Dogs Howl?
The cuddliest lap dog and the most ferocious guard dog have one thing in common — they both descended from wolves. It took a lot of steps to take them from Canis lupus to Canis familiaris, but the ancestral DNA is evident when you compare many of their intrinsic social behaviors.
One of the ways our dogs take after their lupine counterparts is their ability to howl. Like barking and growling, howling is a vocalization that dogs use to communicate. The same anatomy is responsible for all of these sounds — the larynx (also known as the “voice box”).
Inside the larynx are the vocal cords, two muscular bands that open and close to protect the lungs from aspiration. The vocal cords also vibrate when air moves through them, which helps your dog communicate with you and its packmates.
The amount of force combined with frequency determines the type of vocalization your dog is able to make. For example, barking occurs at a fairly high frequency, usually above 1000 Hz. Howling is more diverse and can vary from 150 to more than 1000 Hz, as dogs can do it quietly or extremely loudly, depending on the situation.
Why Do Dogs Howl?
Until we invent a device that lets us directly translate what our pets are trying to tell through their barks and howls, we have to rely on researchers, veterinarians, and animal behaviorists in interpret. Luckily, there is plenty of research behind why they may perform this behavior and what it may mean.
So, why do dogs howl? We have five of the most likely reasons.
Dogs Howl To Communicate With Other Dogs
Our dogs may be far removed from their wild ancestors, but they are still driven by many of the same urges. Before they were tamed, wolves only communicated with other wolves. If they did encounter a human, they weren’t sticking around to try to talk to them; they were either fighting or, most likely, running in the opposite direction.
At its core, howling is a vocalization meant to communicate with other members of the same species when left alone. Howling dogs may make these loud noises as a way of reaching other pack members, especially if they are outside of the visual range a long distance away.
