© Christopher Pledger
Women were better than men at recognising when a dog was being playful or threatening, or feeling fear, scientists discovered.
For the study, 40 volunteers listened to different growls recorded from 18 dogs that were guarding their food, facing a threatening stranger, or playing a tug-of-war game.
Overall, participants correctly classified 63 per cent of the growl samples - significantly more than would be expected by guesswork alone, said the researchers.
Each growl type was also recognised above chance level. The human listeners identified 81 per cent of the "play" growls but were less good at recognising food guarding and threatening growls.
Dr Tamas Farago and his team from Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary wrote in the journal Royal Society Open Science: "Participants associated the correct contexts with the growls above chance.
"Moreover, women and participants experienced with dogs scored higher in this task."
During play, dogs produced a larger number of shorter, less separated, growls than when they were aggressive or fearful, the research showed.
Play growls and food guarding growls also had distinctively different pitch characteristics.
As well as identifying growl contexts, the volunteers also had to rate growls on a sliding scale according to five emotional states - aggression, fear, despair, happiness and playfulness.
Context had a "significant effect" on reading dog emotions, said the scientists. Playful growls were rated lowest for aggression, and food guarding growls highest.
The scientists concluded: "Our results ... indicate that dogs communicate honestly their size and inner state in serious contest situations, where confrontation would be costly, such as during guarding of their food from another dog.
"At the same time, in contexts with assumedly more uncertain inner states, such as in play or when threatened by a stranger, they may manipulate certain key parameters in their growls for an exaggerated aggressive and playful expression.
"According to our results, adult humans seem to understand and respond accordingly to this acoustic information during cross-species interactions with dogs."
Reader Comments
I can tell you this by being around chickens 24/7 (They live in my space) that they talk FAR more than dogs.
They have a wider range of emotion and empathy. Yet they are treated MUCH worse by humans.
Chickens are seriously misunderstood and horribly mistreated due to the lack of view of them as a thinking and feeling being.
Yet, we all LOVE Fido don't we? heh
If they don't know you their threat vocalizations are in everything they "say".
But, they view me as alpha or Rooster so they do indeed talk directly to me.
They see a threat, they will run to me and jump in my lap and tell me all about it.
If they are hungry, it is yet another type. If they are craving something specific for food the vocalizations are different for every different food type. If they want snuggles they not only jump in my lap, but tell me about it too in yet another vocalization. I could go on and on :-)
We've all heard the dog that's been put outside to do it's business and now wants to come in. Intermittent single yaps with long spaces in between.
And then there's the bark they do when their space is invaded by someone they don't know. They can go pretty 'nuts' under those circumstances.
Take for instance a hen's egg song. There is not just 1 singular egg song. So far from 2 of my girls I have noticed no less than 5 variations. I have determined what 3 of them mean.
The egg song itself I think is extremely misunderstood. The loud long and sometimes viewed as obnoxious song of their people :-)
It is that song that I once thought was only for eggs. But it also has various types and meanings. One of the Buff Orphingtons I have will use this method of communication very often. It is her primary means it seems. She does "coo" and make "bok bok" like sounds. But mostly it is the song when she is really trying to talk.
Both of the Buffs "song speak" alot. But the smaller beta hen is the most vocal.
I have learned this song from them mostly. Tho my Becky as pointed out below also has slight variations as well.
While writing these out instead of thinking them as in my first post, I do understand more than 3 :-) Guess I should document more.
I have distinctly heard these songs that to the untrained ear would sound exactly the same but in order of commonality:
Fear/being startled. (so far seems to be same song for both)
Loneliness (This was a shocker when I figured this one out. As it is vastly different than all others)
Insecurity (the most similar to the lonely song, but slightly different)
Wanting food/treats (yes there is actually an egg song for this it seems lol)
Physical discomfort/feeling sick or in pain
Anxiety (either positive meaning bored but playful, or anticipating/hearing treat bags out of sight -or- negative meaning anticipation of a change like someone leaving. I am sure there is a subtle difference between them but not listened for it yet) Both my girls know when I pick up my keys I am leaving for a few hours. They will get anxious over this.
And lastly, the actual egg lay.
I don't have the song calls on video. But I do video them once in a while.
I usually just sit and do remote administration and code while they share the same space and I sit and admire/watch them.
Sometimes I rarely get any work done as my Goldie will always be in my lap for snuggles. She is the talker but rarely sings.
My Becky on the other hand is my singer. We have 4 in total, the other 2 are in the livingroom as the 2 pairs do not get along.
Those 2 are big time singers. They have the widest range of vocalizations of all 4.
The living room pair are year old Buff Orphingtons. (just over a year old and sisters)
My Goldie is a Red Star and Becky is an Amber Link. (both just over 2 years old)