[nagdu] Barking

[Wayne Merritt]

Greetings. my first guide, a yellow Lab, only barked when he saw
something that disturbed him or when he was worried about something,
such as watching some family members carrying a chair through a door,
or when someone on the streets of New York stared at us during
training. My current guide,a shepherd named Gucci, doesn't bark all
that often. In her puppy profile, it said that she will often whine or
bark or yip if she needs to go outside. This has proven to be the case
several times, especially early in our home time last fall. After
awhile though, it got hard to interpret her wines and whimpers to mean
if she needed to go out, or if she was expressing her opinion. These
days, when she expresses her opinion on something, I reply with
something like, "Exactly, I couldn't have said it any better," or,
"Right, you said it."

On barking though, she has been known to bark or yip when I'm playing
with her. I can usually tell the meaning of these noises though, since
they sound more high pitched and I expect that she's saying something
like, "Okay, come on, stay still so I can get to you. Stop moving
around!" We've developed several games at home you see. She has also
been known to give a low woof at night whenever we're staying with
family or have family over and she sees someone come through a door or
walk down a hall. Even though she knows who they are and can probably
tell who they are, being at night and totally dark, I've been told by
said family member that it's quite startling to have this shepherd
make the unexpected low woofing sound. I've tried to correct her when
I hear them, but sometimes I dont' catch it when it happens, and
correcting her really hasn't made much of a difference. I dont' think
that this is a problem though. It's actually kind of comforting. If
someone were to ever come into my room or apartment unexpected, they
would have to get by the woofing shepherd, which doesn't sound like a
bad thing in these weird days.

Wayne and The Gooch

On 10/7/09, The Pawpower Pack <pawpower4me at gmail.com> wrote:
> Annalisa,
>
> My dog also vocalizes in her dreams.  My problem is that I can't hear
> it so it just goes on and on without me knowing.  Then after the
> meeting is finished, lots of people come up and tell me about it and I
> would be totally clueless.
>
> Laveau, being a Doberman is more mouthy than your average lab, I'd
> imagine.  She barks or makes a kind of rumbling noise when she's
> surprised at something, like when she saw a horse for the first time.
> She also barks sometimes at home.
>
> My seven year old golden Mill'E is the mouthiest dog I've ever had.
> She barks when she plays, she grumbles and mutters to herself when she
> does tasks for me in the home like picking up objects or alerting me
> to sounds.  Her muttering increases if she has to do a repeated task,
> like say pick up a box of dropped paperclips, or if she is emptying
> the dryer of an especially stubborn pair of jeans which are tangled
> up.  I can't hear it any more, but I used to love to listen to her
> talking while she worked.  She never did it outside the home, though.
>
> Rox and the Kitchen Bitches
> Bristol (retired), Mill'E SD. and Laveau Guide Dog, CGC.
> "Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you
> earn it and win it in every generation."
> -- Coretta Scott King
> pawpower4me at gmail.com
>
> Windows Live Only: Brisomania at hotmail.com
> AIM: Brissysgirl Yahoo: lillebriss
>
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