Pet Tips
Tip – 36 – Howling dogs – why dogs howl
Howling is a form of communication in dogs. It is a way for dogs to signal their presence to other dogs that are often located far away. It is common in wolves and coyotes, both relatives of today’s domestic dog.
Domestic dogs that howl, especially those that howl excessively are usually doing this because they are bored and lonely. Getting extra toys, and giving your dog more attention and exercise will help to stimulate your dog and reduce excessive howling. If you make your dog sleep outside all night, it’s no wonder the dog howls a lot. Bring the dog inside!
Sometimes dogs will howl when they hear sirens or other loud higher pitched sounds like clarinets and flutes. These sounds may even come from a television set. Dogs do this as an instinctive response to hearing what they interpret to be another howl (dog in the distance). They are not doing this because it hurts their ears.
So my dog has been howeling for the passd three days I’m thinking maybe somethings hurting him,but when I go n check him out he seems happy like nothings bothering him but whn I go bak into the house he continues to howel. Why Do u think that is I’m so confused
Dogs often howl when they are bored, so there’s a good chance that’s exactly what your dog is telling you. Next time you go to check on your howling dog, maybe try playing with him for 10 minutes and see if that helps. Just a thought. good luck! Marko
My Dachsund, age 9, has started howling at night. ALL NIGHT LONG. It is maddening! We can’t bring him inside because since his back surgery 5 years ago, he is incontinent. Has no feeling whatsoever about when he is urinating or defecating. But he’s been sleeping outside (technically, in our sunroom with the door open to outside).
Is it loneliness and old age with his condition? His body gets pretty twisted up but his tail wags happily. Is there a med that vets can prescribe to help him if it is night pain causing howling?
In my experience, domestic dogs usually howl continually at night because they are bored. Dogs are social creatures (pack animals) and it considers your family its pack. It wants to sleep with its family as it is hardwired to do, not alone all night, every night in your backyard.
There are doggie diapers available for these incontinence conditions and i would discuss this with my vet.
Good luck – Marko
I will look into the diapers. He’s been alone only the past few months since our other dog died. We are contemplating getting a young dog so maybe that will help.
Thanks for your input.
No problem on the input. Now that you say you had a dog that passed, it makes even more sense that your dog is bored and lonely, thus the howling. Still, I’d suggest that solving the incontinence issue through diapers and letting your dog sleep inside might well solve this problem quickly. Good luck again. Marko
Our new cocker spaniel who is 2 years old and a rescue will start to howl in the middle of the night so far 3 times in the last month. He has been with us only a month and has adapted really well and bonded to our family without any adjustment whatsoever. He has been with us a month now and was wondering why he is doing this. He does sleep in our bed and is usually cuddled up with us. To me he almost seems like he is having night terrors like children sometimes go through. It takes me holding him and calling out his name over and over for him to snap out of it and then he goes back to bed. Not sure if this is as a result of any abuse he may have encountered before he was rescued. He gets lots of exercise and love in our family. Any ideas why this happening and how to help him?
If it’s not boredom, and it’s not an instinctual response from a noise heard outside (like another dog howling or an ambulance siren that can sound like howling to a dog) then I’d call my vet. Good luck.
We have a 1 year old Brittney and every morning when my alarm ringtone goes off he starts to (sing ) or howl to the ringtone. It seems like he is trying to sing the song, but then he goes into a howl. He jumps on our laps and licks our faces. He also gets very cuddly and lays close to us once the song is over. Is this because he knows we are getting up and leaving for work or does he like the song? We sometimes play it durning the day and he gets very playful. He seems to like it, but I will change the ringtone if it makes him sad.
In this regard the howling (and this is just an opinion) seems seems rather automatic like the automatic howling response some dogs have when hearing an ambulance. Given that he gets all cuddly afterward, it seems positive to me. IMO, he likely likes the regular interaction the song provides.
Hi Marko, I have to agree with you completely that in average cases, the howling is just out of boredom, rather than pain or being irritated.
I wanted to share though, how my dogs use howling and maybe get some of your input. I have 3 small/medium sized dogs, all mixes, two girls, one boy (the puppy); and they are all inside dogs. Our two girls did not howl before he came into the picture. He seems to have happily introduced them to it. About once a day, usually at a time when it’s quiet in the house, they literally form a circle or a line, and howl, like real wolves. The male puppy has a really low tone to his howl and the girls are high pitched. They are wagging their tails while they do this and seem to really enjoy it. I let them do it as much and as long as they want since they apparently feel it is an important activity! Not to mention, it’s pretty funny, and cute.
My dog, an Akita, only howls when I sing her name in a particular pitch. She comes up to me, her face near mine, wagging her tail. She seems to enjoy doing it and is very loving afterward. Can you tell me if this is instinctive pack behavior or just an oddity of my gorgeous dog.
Hi, my dog who is three years old has been howling for the passed three days. However he has been active all day we walk him for 20 min and play with him but still he howls at night around 2- 4 am. Why is this?
Hello, My dog is a 6 yr old chocolate lab. Our dog howls whenever our son cries. Our son is now 10 months old and has started to do “baby talk” and shout “ah-ah” a lot. Our dog now howls when our son does this too. It is making everyone in the house crazy. As well, we live in a semi-detached home and I know that the elderly lady who lives next door is home all day listening to the dog howling, the baby crying and me yelling at the dog to stop it. Please help! The only advice I have been given is to buy a shock collar, which I am not sure I have the heart to do.
I have a 13 year old dog who is very active acts like a puppy into everything toys, running off with our socks, we had to have our 16 year old dog put down two weeks ago. Since then we have been taking our dog out twice a day morning and evening, he is never on his own longer then seven hours and that only for a few days over a month. We take him to places that accept dogs like to family and friends. I feel my dog is grieving so have been given him extra attention, thats the advice offered by the vets. But when am in the house trying to do chores, just living life, my dog will sit and howl and cry. I have tried to be firm with him as he cant have attention all the time.Am just not sure what to do next, am hoping in time he will not be grieving as much and stop the noise.
The howling may be to try to find where the other dog is. It’s very sad but it should stop on its own. If not I’d call my vet. Good luck!
Hi, I have a 5 year old Miniature Doberman and tonight for the first time he started howling while completely asleep, I move close to him and accidentally hit the bed, he woke up looked at me and continue sleeping .. I had goose bumps because he never howl before, not even when awake! Is there any explanation for this? It got me by surprised, he scared me! LOL
Dogs have the ability to dream, so if I had to guess I’d guess that the dog was dreaming and howling at something in the dream. Just a guess though, feel free to post this on the forum to see what others may think of this.
Hello,
My dog is an outside dog
My dog barks all night long, but its crazy that she starts barking at a certain time of night which is around 11p.m. I wish I could bring her inside but I can’t ( Dad’s rules not mine) I go to work and school during the the week from 6a.m. to 6p.m so by the time I come home I am dog tired.(no pun intended) lol, so all I do is feed her play with her for about 10 minutes, then go back into the house. I have been told by some neighbors that when she starts barking their dogs start barking. I love my dog very much and my dad wants to get rid of her. I don’t want to get rid of her she is my baby. I rescued her so there is no way I could give her away. I spend time with her on the weekends. Its just during the weeknights that she’s goes stark raving mad. Before finding her a new home is there anything that I could do. She is 1 yr. old German Shepard/Chow mix. Princess is her name.
Sidenote: Is there a way I could get her to stop tearing up everything in the backyard and digging deep holes. Everyone tells me that she is just in the puppy stages.
This is a problem.
Dogs are social animals. They are pack animals. They crave interaction. especially from the ones that adopted them. They view you guys as the leader….but the dog spends its life outdoors, alone.
They should NOT be left in the backyard alone and when they are, they try to amuse themselves by doing anything…like barking and digging. Your dog is neglected/lonely, period. You would be lonely too if you had 10 minutes of interaction a day.
This dog simply needs more interaction from its human family and it needs to sleep indoors.
Given your dad’s rules, your house, imo, is no place for a dog and your family should not have allowed you to adopt it.
This 1 year old breed is also VERY active and needs hours of exercise a day. Just because it is alone outside all day…doesn’t mean it’s getting the exercise it deserves/needs.
Here’s a tip on how to get some dogs to stop digging….http://www.pets.ca/dogs/tips/terriers-and-digging-pet-tip-214/
Good luck.
So my dog Coke is 15, she’s starting to go blind and her hearing is very limited. Her sister passed away in July and we recently got another dog to keep her company during the day when we’re not home. Recently however, Coke will sit up out of no where and just start howling. She can be sitting right next to me and still just howls and howls. She used to howl at the door when we were outside and she knew we were there, but she’s never done it being with us. It’s worrying me some. I’m attributing it mostly to decrease in her senses but is there anything else it could possibly be?
It could be the onset of dementia..but old bodies, either human or canine, tend to suffer from multiple problems as they get really old.
This is pure speculation on my part though and your dog should see a vet to be sure what’s going on.
Good luck!
Had my 15 year old dog put sleep a couple of months ago. My other dog that is 10 years old has been missing his best friend so much so he started howling when left in the house. We need to get him a friend. We got a puppy.We thought i was a good idea, but now both of them howl when i go out. What was i thinking. We have just made things even worse…….I love my dogs so much and would never consider getting rid off them. Any ideas what to do? .Maybe i need to see a trainer to help me.
A trainer is an awesome idea – get one REFERRED by someone you trust. If you have a video camera that can be set up to record when u are not home…that would help the trainer. Good luck!
Ok, so i’ve got a 4 year old husky/shepard. i adopted her from an abusive home and about 2 weeks ago she was attacked by a pitbull. shes around me ALL day and is completely lavished with attention. we have her sleep outside at night so we dont have to worry about things being chewed and/or one of the other animals missing (cats) and lately shes been whining and howling and insists on being inside, which i am more than fine with but it becomes quite a hassle as of late. is it possible to make this dog self sufficient? i understand the whole pack and they see us our the leader…but i cant take her with me everywhere i go and watch over her all the time. I NEED SLEEP TOO
Not sure what to suggest, you are trying to get a dog to act against its nature, it rarely works well.
If this were my dog, I’d let her sleep inside.
Our outside male american bull dog gets played with daily and is walked/runned daily as well. As soon as we come back from the activities and we go back inside, he starts howling. He has been trying his best to escape and has become difficult to contain him, he chews on things, and is starting to dig; he has plenty of toys and is giving treats while we try to teach him how to behave. We are thinking that our neighbors female dogs are in heat because he has never done that before, we were advised to neuter him but will that help? Everyone is also saying that he is just in his horrible 2′s, we have tried keeping him in our inclosed deck but he has chewed up one of our sofas we had there for company. Any suggestions?
Neutering might well help. Good luck!
My dog howls at my flute playing. I thought it was too high for him. But now I know that he’s just responding to another howl. Thanks.
Hi my Dog Hutch never used to howl before but we recently moved to another house and ever since he howls a lot and a lot and he seems to be bored but i take him for a walk like an hour but that doesnt help at all what do you thing he is doing this??
This is a better post for the forum. You left out critical info
– how old is dog
– when does the dog get this 1 hour walk
– breed of dog etc.
when does the dog howl? please post this in the forum.
thx – marko
To marko…My poodle is 11 years old which howls when go out. I also have a 14 week old puppy. We brought the puppy as a few months ago i had my 15 year old dog put to sleep. I take the dogs for walks in the morning and afternoon. If iam going out. I always take them out before i go out somewhere. Still not working……neighbours said still howling and ive heard them as i walk up to my front door. tryed every trick in the book and still does not work….
My dog is about 6 years old in human years, and it just recently started howling I know she may be bored and everything but, she is really old so im wondering if its a badthing or not?
As far as i know – not a bad thing and doesn’t indicate illness…just boredom.
Good luck!
a couple of weeks ago, i inherited a dog whose owner passed away two months ago. she is a 5 or 6 year old standard poodle. her owner was very elderly/had dementia and the dog basically slept with her on her bed at night and got a few absent-minded pets during the day from her (the owner). the elderly woman’s caretakers often just ignored the poodle, except to feed her. no one could train this dog to sit (she was from a kennel when she was 2 or 3). eventually, i trained her to do that and then she learned to lay down, too. she is very obedient, wants to please, and is very affectionate. the live-in caretaker of the former owner had a collection of small dogs, mainly chihuahuas, that the poodle spent most of her time with, outdoors. the poodle used to howl just on occasion if shut into a room by herself, at her previous home, but didn’t howl if left in the back yard without any humans (but, she was kept company by a gaggle of chihuahuas). since she moved in with me, she has gotten a heap of attention. we sleep in the same room and she sleeps on my bed when she feels like it, i take her outside at least three times a day, play with her all the time, cuddle with her, pet her when she wants me to, and give her chew toys. she also gets to go out sometimes to a dog park and sometimes to my friend’s house where there’s a huge back yard and two big dogs to play with. the problem is that more than half the time, if i just walk outside and leave her in my place, she will start to howl just after a couple of minutes. my neighbors tell me that she howls for prolonged periods if i leave her @ home alone for a few hours. if i can’t find someone to watch her (keep her company) in the day, she spends up to 4 or 5 hours alone, but i try to avoid that as much as possible. if i am outside and she howls, i do not immediately rush in and shower her w/ affection, because i don’t want to reward the behavior, and i could never go outside to do anything if i came back in every time she howls. when i do come back inside, i ignore her for about 10 seconds and then pet her. when i leave (either for a few minutes or for part of the day), i do not make big fanfare. i simply leave and don’t want to make it seem like a big deal. i am thinking of getting a small dog to keep her company, but now i read in some of these posts that the new dog will simply learn to howl too (if the poodle keeps it up even if she has a little dog friend). what am i doing wrong? why does she do this even if i’m just ten steps away from my door?
This sounds like separation anxiety to me. I’d recommend getting a reference for a a trainer or a dog behaviourist to come to your home to tailor make a program for you and your dog.
Good luck.
Hi there, I have a similar situation to one of the above posts. I have an 11 month old son and my 5yo mastiff/st Bernard howls/whines every time my son “talks”. It is almost deafening and goes on multiple times daily. My dog actually moves towards my son when this goes on. I’ve tried things to stop this (giving treats, bones, exercise, attention, toys etc) and nothing helps, he will even howl when he’s eating if the baby starts. Any suggestions will be helpful and may keep me out if therapy
thanks.
Forgot to mention that I have posted this on YouTube. If you’re interested, search username MissMaddyJ in YouTube and you’ll find the videos. . I am considering contacting a boarded behaviourist about this. It was amusing for the first couple minutes but it really has become intolerable. Thanks again.