how to understand the emotions behind a dog's bark?

Question

can you distinguish between a happy bark, angry bark, bored bark, lonely bark etc etc. i'm clueless!

i fail to understand why my dog barks when he does. i presume its angry bark all the time. am i right?

Answer 1

He's not angry all the time (:
He may be bored or want you to be around him.
My dog barks when she wants attention or whimpers when she's hungry.
In time you guys will get your own unique communication methods and it'll all work out.

Answer 2

Pay attention to the body language that goes along with the bark. There are different types of barks..happy/excited is usually more high pitched and short..aggressive is usually coupled with the head being lowered but body standing tall, hair standing up on the back..wanting something like...'throw the ball bark' is just an average 'woof'..at least that's my dogs different barks..they also have whines and sighs too! But don't assume it's always an angry bark.

Answer 3

The barking I hear the most is the kind when a dog has been left out in someone's backyard all day. You can easily recognize it because it's continuous and repetitive. One of my neighbors has a dog that I think is a German shepherd because of its bark. The dog doesn't actually bark that much but gives out a yip about every 30 seconds.

Answer 4

Barking all the time isn't an angry dog. That's how they talk. When you talk all the time, does that mean you are always angry? No.. listen to his bark, watch his body language, his tail, ears and everything else. It'll give you an indication as to what he is feeling.

Answer 5

You learn the difference based on context. There's an "alert bark" that some dogs do a lot. It's basically "HEY! Some thing's happening!" It'll come with time, as a lot of it is based on the individual dog.

Answer 6

There are several types of barks Also their are different ways they wag their tails and other things such as play bow when they want to play. A really good book that tells you what these and several other thing mean is called "How to speak dog" by Dr. Stanly Coren.

Answer 7

My female boxer has about 3 or 4 diffent barks...The i,m hungry bark,i want to go out bark ..The queit daddys sleeping bark and the no your not coming in my yard bark...They are all different...If you recorded them I could tell you which is which!!!!

Answer 8

Deep/growl=angry
Whine=playful
Yelp=stop stepping on my tail

And they've figured out that the dry whisper dogs make is actually an equivalent to them laughing. It's the sort of dry pant we see, kind of like when a cat purrs.

Answer 9

check out this book
"For the Love of Dog" by Patricia McConnell. It is about emotions and dogs. very interesting