Why do hounds howl?

[David Levine]

Why do hounds howl? We have a lovely year-old yellow lab named Sparky (Sparkle Plenty). When I play the flute (or the fiddle or the concertina) she howls. This isn’t a quiet whine but a full-fledged, deep in the throat howl. Most of the time her tail is wagging. She comes from another room to where I am playing, sits at my side, throws her head back and howls.
Somebody told me that the sound hurts her ears. I don’t think the sound hurts her ears because she doesn’t go away from the sound but moves closer to it. Even when I play very very softly she howls. Her tail wagging also tells me that she isn’t in pain.
Is it just that she wants to sing along with me? That howling is her way of making music? . This is not our first dog, nor our first lab, but she is the first howler. I would love it if somebody who knows why she does this would tell me the etiology behind Sparky’s howling. Thanks.
(PS. please, no cheap shots)

[BillG]

My Siberian Sheapherd was not too impressed with my flute but did a song and dance routine when I played the chromatic harmonica. My vet told me it was as you said, singing along and enjoying it. One of our cats comes in to the room I play flute in and curls up on the desk in front of me looking either at me or out the window - but always there when I play.

Doc Jones, where are your here?

BillG

[JS]

None of the three Lab pups we've had in the house for Guiding Eyes has seemed to want to either complain or join in with either flute or fiddle (although Liberty thought music-making a grand excuse to snort, flop to the floor, and fall asleep). Our Brittany, though, does seem to want to either complain or sing along to the fiddle, especially tunes in A with a lot of notes on the E string. So I posed the same question David asked (pretty much--she doesn't really howl, but she's quite vocal) over on Fiddle-l some time ago, and some folks suggested she was singing along. Doesn't sound like she's doing so happily, but there are a bunch of other rooms she could be in if she wanted. Flute seems to leave her totally unimpressed, but she was fascinated beyond belief (and quietly) when someone brought over a set of pipes.

[Loren]

Dogs and Wolves howl primarily as a form of communication: Having evolved as pack animals, often separated while hunting, Wolves developed the ability to locate one another and communicate over great distances by Howling, even without being able to see one another. This is why when one dog howls, others in the neighborhood will often join in, it's an evolutionary instinct.

As an aside, a few years back I spent some time in Alaska. The small town I was staying in (Girdwood) had a very large dog population (Alaskan's love their dogs), and one guy down the block from where I was staying (he was a friend of a friend)had a wolf hybrid - which was mostly wolf: Now I love dogs, have owned several, grew up with them, and have yet to meet a dog that really scares me, but this thing was really frightening up close - It was huge, nearly the size of a great dane, no kidding, yellow wolf eyes, and you did NOT look this animal strait in the eye for long because he'd start growling and moving towards on you......

Anyway, other dogs on the block would sometimes bark and howl a bit, causing a few more to join in. However, every now and again, this Wolf Dog would start to howl, an incredibly loud, low pitched sound, and before long, so many dogs would join in, it seemed like every dog in town, a couple hundred at least, were also howling - such was the power and carrying distance of this particular animal's howl. Impressive.

So David, when you play your flute, particularly when you hit certain notes, your dog is instinctivly reacting to the sound - he is, in effect, howling back, to communicate his location to you, his pack leader. Pretty cool, eh?

Loren

[jim stone]

Yeah, your dog thinks you're howling.
I've seen it happen to dogs listening
to harmonica.

[Loren]

Here's a very cool link I just found that gives more detail, and includes sound clips of different types of howls for differnt types of communication:



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/wolves/howl.html

Loren

[mutepointe]

our current dog of 8 years isn't a howler but she does have music preferences. she gets a daily dose of electronic keyboard music from my wife that is totally her favorite and she chills in oblivian. she'll laugh to flute music, she can take or leave guitar, and she can definitely leave the room when it's a whistle and i've made a squawk. i never noticed anything special about her behavior with a harmonica. we bought a silver horn that is not a band instrument at the neighborhood flea market. it has vavles and stuff but only plays one note. we bought the horn to call her home but the sound of that note so worries her that we hardly ever sound it. does anyone know any other instruments with which dogs have pros and cons?

[tommyk]

Well, about cats:
one of ours, our one purebred ("non-show quality" - pftha!) female Bengal, comes around immediately directly in front of my face meowing whenever my wife and I are speaking loudly to each other (i.e., talking from different rooms in the house, or even arguing!).
I understand that I, as "daddy cat", am roaring for the cubs to gather close, probably for safety reasons.
(Comes in handy for our walks around the block - all three girls follow us around a large two-block walk and they all look both ways before crossing any streets now.)

None of them hang around when I play the whistle; the second-oldest male even heads for the door to be let outside when ever he sees me touch my whisltles (and their wooden ones!).

Most of them are also put-off by the uilleann pipes; however, our polydactyl (a "Hemingway cat") female seeks me out when she hears the pipes, sits as close to me as she can in perfect cat shape, and stares lovingly (hungrily?) at the pipes.

Regarding your pooch:
I know that cats will often wag their tails (or hold them up) when happy, but that they'll also do so when in pain.
I don't speak dog, but that's a good question to ask a vet.
(I'd doubt that flute could really hurt their ears, but ya never know.)


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Tommy Kochel
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[Lambchop]

My parakeets delight in both whistle and flute. They chuckle along attentively and, on the rare occasions when I may be producing something "musical," they sing enthusiastically and . . . if it gets really good . . . they dance.

My late cockatiel found the whistles interesting, but detested the flute. On my shoulder one day when I picked up the flute and blew a few notes, she nipped my ear and then attacked the flute. It was clear that anything below the F hurt her ears, as she would shake her head miserably and would shriek if it continued. Normally unwilling to be in a room by herself, she gladly retired to another room during flute practice.

The bats at work refused to come out of their eaves the night I was practicing rolls on a rather screechy Little Black D while standing on the porch beneath waiting for them to come out.

[Hoovorff]

When I was in college, my Boehm flute lessons were at the flute professor's home. He had two large dogs--a German shepherd and a Lab. The only time they ever complained was on this one particular long tone exercise that involved downward fifths (D down to G, C# down to F#, etc.) As soon as this exercise began, all sorts of howling commenced. Those particular intervals seemed to simulate howls, I suppose. Kind or disconcerting when you're striving to sound your best, and there go the dogs. There's always a critic!

Jeanie

[Unseen122]

Our Brittany, though, does seem to want to either complain or sing along to the fiddle, especially tunes in A with a lot of notes on the E string.

She was singing a Bombarde part.

I have played at my gradparents' house and their cat is fascinated with my Whistle playing, but not so much by Flute. I played Pipes around a dog once, the dog ran and hid.

[JS]

Good one, Avery! She's got the volume for it, too.

[Jumbuk]

Our little 10-year old Maltese, Chloe, used to howl at my Bm Native American Flute. Not the others, just that one. Later on, I found she howls at B on my wooden (Irish) flutes. She is pretty close to that note with her howl, makes a nice drone (kind of!). As with most dogs, she gets agitated with high harmonics, but doesn't howl.

A year or so ago, my wife told me Chloe proved a hit with her choir, who were practicing at our house (I was out at the time). When a particular soprano hit a particular note (I bet it was a B), Chloe joined in every time.

[malem]

I have 2 dogs. One has no reaction, a cross german sheppard and bermese mountain dog. The other a rothweiler used to complain whenever I played the didgeridoo, or when drums are played, either a native drum or a djembe. She also complains (not holws) a bit when I play the whistle. But I am new to it, so I thought it was because my notes sometimes don't sound to good. When I play the silver traverse flute, no one reacts. I also have 3 cats and none react. I had a stingray in aquarium that would swim when I played guitar. She even had a favorite song to wich she always swam everytime, and more than for anything else. She really gave me the impression of liking the music.
She only reacted to my playing, not music from tapes.
and Lambchop you work with bats?
how fascinating! I just love bats! I rescued one that was found in a house in January last year. It survived and I realeased it in May. Had to feed it and keep it hibernating with the right conditions.

[David Levine]

As with nearly all behavioral quirks among animals, no one ever knows the etiology (big word). 
I'm sure you're aware that howling/baying is common when a siren (police siren, not the mythological type) wails. 
I don't agree with the "hurts their ears" thing at all.  They ought to scream, as when you step on a tail.
BTW, howling is generally a large breed trait.  Small dogs hardly ever howl.
 
My belief:  it is a lost form of communication, a forgotten language.  Domestic dogs don't howl at each other at all, but wild dogs, wolves and coyotes clearly communicate over long distances.  I always enjoy hearing coyotes calling out at night.
 
Who knows?
 
One suggestion:  If you don't like it, don't reward her with laughter, etc.  People inadvertantly train their dogs to do unlikeable things all the time.
John Gallagher

--Thanks Loren and all who have commented. Not one cheap shot!! Kudos for all. David