A dear friend (thank you Kathy!) sent me an autographed copy of a wonderful book, The Great Animal Orchestra, by Bernie Krause. Subtitled Finding the Origins of Music in the World’s Wild Places, the book is a “. . . travelogue of sound, based on a lifetime of study, (and) will leave you hearing–and seeing–nature as never before.”
What perfect timing! Earth Day is this coming Thursday, April 22nd, so it’s a great day to think about the chorus of sounds that surround us in nature. Earth Day encourages and exhorts and begs us to pay attention to Mother Earth, and focusing on the natural soundscape is a great way to do that. And what a great time of year to do so in the northern hemisphere–the air holds a symphony of signing birds right now. What a joy.
In addition, our first sheepdog competition will be in two weeks, and time will tell if my work this winter on improving my whistle signals has paid off. (More on that later in this post.) And so I find myself focusing on sound more than usual, the topic of this week’s post. It’s a bit of a potpourri, in part because it’s such a huge topic, and in part because, well, that’s where my head is right now.
First off, Krause’s book reminds us that we primates are so fixated on vision that sound designer Walter Murch called sound “the shadow sense” –one that exists all by itself in an ethereal, amorphous realm.We describe sounds with our visual sense, as in, “I see what you are saying.”
Insert picture of sound here
It’s such an irony; we humans are obsessed with language, and our ability to use it, and yet often clueless about what we are actually saying or hearing. In the chapter “Talking to Each Other,” I write in The Other End of the Leash about a time I called my Great Pryenees, Tulip, away from a dead squirrel by saying her name, and only her name. As if that would communicate to her what I wanted her to do. I finally came around and used sound to let her know what I wanted, and she complied.
As I concluded: “She did too [come when called], as soon as I got my act together and told her what I wanted. Since I’m an Applied Animal Behaviorist, a professional dog trainer, and my PhD research was on acoustic communication between trainers and working animals, you’d think I’d have this down by now. But there’s a catch: I’m a human.” And we humans are so very often clueless about the sounds we make.
What if this week was the week that we all focused anew on how we use sound to communicate to our dogs? I’ve certainly been focused on one aspect of that–I mentioned working on the whistles I use to cue the dogs when working sheep. I have made some progress, but the fact remains that I am a lousy whistler. Understandably, I get no small amount of teasing about it, given that my dissertation research began with an analysis of the structural components of the very same sounds. However, as I lamely try to explain, analyzing something doesn’t make you good at doing it. I’m like the sports physiologist trying to do gymnastics herself, rather than studying how fast-twitch muscle fibers relate to doing a cartwheel on a balance beam.
Here’s an example of what I’m working on:
Can you easily discriminate between the whistles? They mean: Walk Up toward the sheep, go clockwise, go counter clockwise, go counter clockwise just a few strides, and lie down or go slow–not in that order. (Please be kind. Note to self: Review Brené Brown’s comments on vulnerablity.)
My biggest challenge is making the first notes between Come Bye (go clockwise) and Walk Up different enough. You can even see that at the very beginning of the video when Maggie hesitates for a split second. But there’s more: I am working on making the whistles “sharper” (note the visual description!). And being consistent. And being loud enough to carry 400+ yards. Actually, full disclosure, I find it miraculous that the dogs ever actually know what I’m trying to say. All I can say here is: Wish me and my dogs luck in two weeks. We are going to need it.
Whistles are one thing, but like everyone else, I talk to my dogs all the time. The question is, how clear are we from the dog’s perspective? It’s obvious that acoustic communication is a topic I like to think about, given that there are 21 articles in my website’s The Learning Center on Acoustic Communication. The article’s range from “What Do Words Mean to Dogs?” to “It’s How You Say It” to “Quiet Please!”.
We can’t all focus on everything at once, however. There’s a long list of acoustic tweaks most of us could work on:
*** Be (more) consistent. (Inconsistency is the hobgoblin of human speech. And a reason to use the word, “hobgoblin,” a great set of sounds if I’ve ever heard them.)
*** Less is more. (Talk less and your dog will understand you better.)
*** Pay attention to pitch. (All my BCs respond to “That’ll Do” said in a low voice better than if in a normal pitch.)
*** Confirm definitions. (Does your dog define “Sit” like you do? What does she do if she is sitting and you say sit?”)
*** Amplitude is Not Your Friend. (Do you get louder if your dog doesn’t comply? You know that people increase the loudness of a phrase if it’s not understood, right? Doesn’t work with our species, so . . . )
*** What’s Your Dog’s Soundscape? (How much noise does your dog have to put up with in your home?)
I’m going to work on pitch. I have a high voice that conveys the authority of a baby squirrel.
Sadly, I am not as adorable, and I try not to squeak when I eat. (Note that I used the word “try”.) That said, this week I’m going to pay attention to the pitch of my voice. Low voices convey calmness and confidence, so that’s what I’m going for before the sheepdog trials. Calm and Confident, yup, that’s me. No idea who that person is who walks up to the post with her stomach churning.
What about you? Inspired to work on the sounds that you make to your dog or dogs? Don’t hesitate to add items to the list above too, I’m sure I’ve left something important out.
I’ll leave this section with a fun fact from The Great Animal Orchestra: In search of sounds from tide pools to record, Bernie inserted his microphone into the center cavity of an anemone, which expelled it with “a couple of loud, obscene grunts”. I’ll leave you with that . . . uh, “image?”
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: Skip and Maggie are loving the cool weather. I’m glad it’s not as hot as last week, 78 degrees was about to fry our hundreds of daffodils.
However, there are limits. I’ll have a lot of tender plants to cover up the next three nights, given the forecast. Buckets and towels are a northern gardener’s most important tools this time of year; here are some at work from a few days ago, covering Bleeding Hearts:
It will probably be 25 or so on Tuesday night here, so we’ll lose many of the daffodil flowers. I’ll be cutting a bunch of them on Tuesday morning, and savoring them as often as I can until then. I do hope the crabapples and plums don’t get their blooms killed, but, that’s April in Wisconsin, so we’re used to it. Below are some of the daffs on Willie’s grave:
Nellie, of course, had to photo bomb the photo:
Speaking of the sounds around us, we are surrounded by singing Chickadees, Song Sparrows, Nuthatches, Tufted Titmice, Cardinals and a host of other birds competing for territory and mates. My favorite this week is the woodpecker who is channeling Mike the chimpanzee, who rose to dominance by banging metal cans together. Our woodpecker (Downy? Hairy? Pileated?) has discovered that he can make an especially loud racket by drumming on a metal sign across the road. What a guy! I’ll keep my eye out for swooning females.
What about you? What’s in your soundscape this season? Have I inspired you to think about one aspect of how you use sound to communicate this week? Keep us posted, I’m all eyes, well, ears, well, you know.
Laura says
“I have a high voice which conveys all the authority of a baby squirrel.”
I laughed out loud at that. Thanks for making my afternoon. It’s Spring in the state just to the west of you, and so we have lots and lots of similar birds. The birdies are the thing I miss most in the winter up here, and I love it when I hear all of them again in the Spring. Right now, we have this seriously loud robin who is making a nice little nest in the tree outside our back windows. This robin is so loud when it sings, that one morning, I thought the bathroom window was actually open I could hear it that well. I don’t mind though, because robins are my favorite song bird. They sing so sweet, and I always talk to the birds when I hear them. I know that’s silly, but I ask how their day is going? Have they found food or a mate yet? Also, when I hear them in the morning, I remember a quotation from St. Francis, who said something like, the birds are singing praises for the new day. That always makes me smile.
For me, sound isn’t some “shadow sense,” it is vital for my survival. When I am about to cross a street, I have to listen to the traffic noises beside me. When I hear the serge begin, I can start to walk across, but it’s not as simple as that sounds. The motto when crossing a street is, “right in front, left behind.” It means, if the parallel traffic is on the left side of you, wait until the cars behind your shoulder start the traffic serge before you step out, and if the cars are on your right-hand-side, wait until the traffic in front of you moves. In a situation like this, I and my dog are really working together as a team. I’m responsible for listening, and judging when it’s safe to go based on the sounds I hear. My dog is entirely responsible for making a visual judgment, and stopping me if he sees a car or truck, or bike in my path. Sometimes, the responsibility is even more placed upon my dog, because there can be so much background noise, wind, construction sounds, that I can’t hear the traffic serge, and I have to rely even more on my dog to help me safely cross. This is why, right now, I really miss traveling with a dog. Doing street crossings without one is, candidly, scary. I can do it, but I really feel better with my dog there to be an extra safety net.
I pay attention to sounds much more than other people. It’s why there’s a myth out there that blind people have a super sense of hearing. We don’t. We just pay more attention to it because we have to.
In working with my dogs, sound is very important as well. I’ll never forget the first time I picked up the harness handle for my first workout ever with Marlin. I gave the hand gesture and said the command, “Forward.” My instructor said, “Say that a little louder, a little firmer.” She wasn’t telling me to yell at my dog, but just to say the command well enough so he could hear it, and firmly enough so that he knew I was confident. The command, “steady,” is said in a lower, drawn out tone, “steeeeeaady.” It’s the command to slow down. “Hop up,” can mean several things from, go faster, and so the pitch in my voice gets higher and more excited, to, stop sniffing that bush and keep going. My tone then is brisk and clipped to get my dog’s attention. When my dog has done a great job, there’s lots of high, squeaky praise on my end, so they know it’s a party.
I talk to my dogs all the time. I even sing to them, which they’ve all reacted differently to. Marlin stared at me and wagged his tail. Torpedo just stared at me and cocked his head, and Seamus got so excited that he ran and grabbed a toy.
Anyway, now that I’ve written a novel, I can’t wait to read other’s comments. I’d also like to say thank you for this post, because this topic about other senses besides vision needs to be talked about. Dog training is primarily so visual, that lots of blind dog-lovers, who would adore training their dogs, tend to be excluded from the dog training world because most trainers don’t know how to train any other way but visually. One of my friends who is a guide dog user, brought home a sweet rescue dog for her family. She went to some local training classes, but the program told her after a few sessions that they couldn’t work with her any more because they didn’t know how to teach her how to work with her dog in a non-visual way. It makes me admire even more the owner-trainers I know who train their own guide dogs, who then come out as well trained as from any school.
Kat says
I’ve always suspected that part of my popularity with dogs is that I don’t tend to chatter. I’m more likely to speak to them in gestures accompanied by a word or two. The exception is when I’m giving my dogs a bath. For some reason I feel the need to provide continuous narration while I’m washing them. I often wonder if they find that helpful or just annoying but even when I try to shut up during bath time it doesn’t last long and I’m right back to the continuous stream of words. I have no idea why bathtime brings out the chattering.
I’ve been noticing the soundscape around here more lately. We live on a hill above a main road so plenty of sirens pass by. I’ve learned to ignore them and for over a year so did D’Artagnan but now he’s decided to howl along. One of these days I’ll be in the right place with my phone to record it; meanwhile I’m realizing that we have sirens several times a week at all hours of the day and night. And I’m learning just how wide a vocal range a Great Pyrenees can exhibit.
HFR says
OT. Is it feasible that the sheep could learn the meaning of the whistles over time?
Lane says
I straddle two extremes in communicating with my dogs: Razzle, our 3 y-o Entlebucher, eavesdrops on everything I say and understands all too much of it, forcing us to discuss our plans in elegant variations of language. Squiggy, our 7 m.o. rescued Jack Russell (mix or badly bred) is not quite albino and deaf. Teaching cues with hand signals is easy, and she learns fast, but interrupting and redirecting behavior we don’t want it a real challenge. If only I could figure out how to say it with smell!
Barbara Martin says
I chatter and sing to my dogs all the time. I am retired, live with my very quiet husband, and have no one else to talk to. But, hey, they’re my companions aren’t they? I make up songs and stories for them using their names. I don’t know if they enjoy my vocalizing, but they don’t run away. They know I’m singing/talking about them so perhaps they think something good will happen. Dinner? (Their least favorite phrase is “Not time.”)
And, yet, when I give a voice command, they understand. Besides all the usual obedience commands, they know very useful commands such as “Go”, “Wait”, “Move”, “Bed”, “Off”, “Enough”, “Uh, uh”, and they know the words for lots of fun tricks, which have the added benefit of cookies. When Casey is standing at the window barking at ???, it annoys both me and my husband. It is very successful to call him in a high, sweet, singsong voice. “Casey, Casey, Casey, cooome here.” Works every time. Then I ask him to lie down near me and soon the ??? in the woods is forgotten. I have to confess I sometimes get annoyed with them and yell or scold. Not an excuse, but it is when I’m tired and in pain that I have less patience with them. So far they have forgiven me and still want to live here.
Julie Rice says
I am very impressed by your whistles and could easily hear the differences. In fact, by the end of the video, I was already recognizing the meaning of a couple of them so don’t sell yourself short and good luck in the trial.
Colleen says
I tend to have very loud, mostly higher pitched cues for my dog, my siblings are always very loud so that is probably why. And I talk way to much when my puppy is making decisions during training and often using my voice to intercede if she is doing something inappropriate like garbage raiding or going to far away from me.
Only two of my cues right now are actually sounds. It is a continuous ‘ssss’ for spin to the left and ‘tsh tsh tsh’ for spin to the right. She is still dependent on my hand for some guidance otherwise she offers every other behavior she knows. 🙃 She also loves to retrieve and I’ve started to teach her the names of her toys so maybe we can try to have them all in a room and she will bring me them by name. That would be pretty cool!
Catherine Noftz says
Sapsuckers are famous for banging on metal. Maybe your visitor is one of those cuties.
Heidi Rosin says
My takeaway was Brene Brown from whom I’ve learned so much!
Louise Mann says
What do you think the sheep think of your whistles? I thought they were responding to that as much as to your dog.
Christine Johnson says
I am trying to learn to modulate my voice in my sport also. In Agility I tend to use my high voice and all cues sound the same. My brilliant and patient trainer keeps reminding me to use lower tones, especially for certain commands. Example: my corgi had been having trouble in the weave poles at trials. I trained myself to say her command “poles” in a deeper, more emphatic tone. When I remember (!) to say the cue in that way she becomes very serious and does her poles beautifully in a workmanlike manner. When I forget and use my squeaky voice she approaches them with “I might do these, or not!” attitude. Amazing.
Susan Wroble says
Lovely post! I’ve been researching birdsong for a book in progress — and Donald Kroodsma’s THE SINGING LIFE OF BIRDS has, in the first chapter, exactly what you need to identify your woodpecker on sound alone. He converted the sounds to sonograms, then showed the sonogram picture with an accompanying CD to hear the sounds. The sonograms are a technique that may also be helpful as you work on further differentiating the whistles.
Amy says
Sooooo many thoughts on this topic! First: the video of baby squirrel has made my day 🙂
Sound vs. signaling/communication intent and dogs… when we moved to our current house about 5 years ago and did not yet know names of anyone living near us, we came up with our own references to the houses and people who lived in them. The couple on the corner with the yellow Lab, I dubbed “Dog Yeller” house. Frequently we’d hear the woman yell, “WILLLLOW!” again and again. No request or command, just the name, hanging in the air. And one time, when Willow was out of the yard and had crossed the street, he yelled, “Willow, come here! Come here!” followed immediately by, “Willow, stay! Stay!” when a car was approaching. I *KNOW* you were in my head, Trisha, as I thought, “Wow, this poor dog. Always sound but never a clear message.”
To push-back on your comment that your voice is high and not-confident, I have to agree with Mary Beard (~”Men do not want women to be above them, even in pitch.”) In encouraging women to be quiet, not participate in public life, and have no voice generally, the conjunction of low-pitch (typically male voices) with confidence, authority, a sense of calm has been perpetuated. Help break the paradigm, Trisha! You were my college professor and I’ve gone to your presentations several times. Never once did I think, “geeez, if only this speaker was confident and more calming.” Just the opposite. All voices can be confident, no matter the pitch.* I would say upswing is the confidence killer in anyone’s speech, no matter their sex.
*Yeah, I know higher pitch elicits quicker response, energy and excitement, and a low bark will always sound more “back off!” to us than a high yip-yip. But as humans who like to say we can act beyond our biological wiring, I’d still argue we can regard all pitches as having confidence, as well as those whose who communicate without pitch, like sign language users.
James G Thomson says
My Astro sometimes gets so distracted (or stubborn) fussing at him doesn’t even get a glance. But a low growl does, without raising the excitement that shouting does.
Lorraine says
I just finished listening to a podcast by a well known trainer who said we don’t talk to our dogs enough. She advocates telling your dog what you are going to do and what you are doing while you’re doing it. She says that dogs have an excellent ability to learn words and we can give them a lot more predictability (which some dogs crave) by keeping them informed about what is going on. I live alone and talk to my dog a lot. He knows many words ranging from toy names to my actions to people’s names and different treats.
Tam says
My standard poodle was intrigued by your whistles coming out of my phone .
He listened very intently.
I think because I have a whistle “tune” for them that means come in, you have treats waiting, that I use when I don’t want to shout out into the night here in the burbs.
Trisha says
Thank you Laura for making my morning! It’s so valuable to have the perspective of someone who can’t rely on vision. And I am stunned that a trainer would say they couldn’t figure out how to work with a dog without visual signals. Granted, yes, visual sooo much easier, but as you say, look at all the owner-trainers who train their own guide dogs. Wow. Inspiring.
Trisha says
Kat, you bring up such a good point, regarding the context of “chattering”. I love the idea of continuous talking to dogs as a way to soothe or even amuse. I think the chattering that tires dogs relates to when we are asking them to do something, and all the noise just gets tiring our confusing. I’m spitballing here, make sense?
Trisha says
HFR: Not only reasonable that sheep learn the whistles, but a big problem actually. That’s why you have to work sheep off of your own place, and why many people replace their sheep on a regular basis. I’m actually hoping to do a trade sometime soon, not wanting to just send my sheep to market and buy more. There’s no question that my sheep have a learned knowledge of the whistles (especially “Walk Up”, I doubt the flanks), and also of context. (They are MUCH more worried about Skip than they are Maggie, because Maggie wants to stay out of trouble and negotiate, Skip is packing guns when he gets in close.
Trisha says
Lane, I am adopting your perfect word for Razzle’s attention: “eavesdropping”. Too good!
Trisha says
Barbara, I love imagining you singing to your dogs. Kat too brought up the point that one can chatter and sign in some contexts and dogs either love it or don’t mind it at all. On reflection, I’d say that “less is more” when asking a dog to do something, while streams of sound can be fun, soothing or just plain bonding at other times. Makes sense? I’m still working through the different context in which this might be true . . .
Trisha says
Thanks Julie!
Trisha says
Catherine: We DO have sapsuckers here in spring, so that’s a wonderful piece of info. I know to look for their grid-like holes in wood, but didn’t know they love metal! Makes me love them even more!
Trisha says
Louise: Great observation. Sheep do indeed learn whistles, and the video has reminded me that I need to see if I can do a trade with someone else! It’s one of the reasons why it’s so important to work other people’s sheep, or keep waaaaay more than the tiny flock of 9 that I have!
Trisha says
I get the exact same response to my BCs when I’m asking something that they either rather not do at the time, or that takes them to concentrate. So interesting, isn’t it?
Trisha says
Susan, what’s the book on birdsong? Can’t wait to see it! And yes yes regarding the sonograms. I’m trying to figure out how to use a program that analyzes sound, but couldn’t even get past how to upload the whistles. Sigh.
Trisha says
Amy, fantastic points about what pitches are considered “confident” or authoritative. So much to unpack here. (And love that you took my class and remember my voice!) I agree completely about “upswing” (ending a statement with a rise in pitch, as if it was a question). It’s death to any kind of authority, and I hear it all the time now, especially from young women. I’d like to say that any pitch can convey confidence, but I am influenced by all the research on mammalian vocalizations, that correlate lower pitch with confidence, authority, size or threat. Not to mention the response of my dogs, who without question respond better to a lower pitch in some circumstances, especially responding to something that they’d rather not do (ie, being called away from the sheep). But I love your comments that as humans, we can go beyond our wiring. Hear hear!
Trisha says
Love this in so many ways Lorraine, because, as some other commenters have mentioned, chatting to our dogs can be a wonderful thing. I agree that dogs can indeed learn words in sentences, and that more talking can be good in some contexts. I’m wanting to amend that “less is more” in some contexts, not others!
Candace Weber says
I also find that pitch is important. For great recall I make a series of sounds that all 3 of my dogs respond to much more quickly and reliably than one word.
Mia Horberg says
Another wonderful post as always! I seem to need the reminder time and time again than amplifying my voice doesn’t help my dog have an “a-ha moment”. The chickadees, sparrows, finches, nuthatches, and stellar’s jays have been singing their hearts out starting around 5:30 am here in Seattle and while I definitely need all the beauty sleep I can get, I smile when I hear their chorus.
Laura says
Such awesome comments here. I know Seamus learned an astounding, at least to me, amount of words from just my talking to him. Whenever he’d hear me and my husband discussing going to sleep, either a nap, or actually going to bed for the night, he’d go in and put himself in his crate. He recognized individual ring tones, and would behaive accordingly depending on which one went off on my phone. I also think less is more in certain contexts, and doesn’t it make sense? I mean, I know I get annoied when I’m trying to concentrate on something and someone else is talking to me in the background. If our dogs could lift a paw in a stopping gesture and say “Hey… shut up for a second,” I’m sure they would. I also think this is why they, at least in part, ignore repeated cues, (sit… sit… sit.) I’ve observed that situation, even with my own dogs when I slip up and repeat a command several times, and I feel like my dog is, in that moment, behaving like little kids do who’s parents do the 1… 2… 3… warning with no consequences. What are you going to do after 3? Oh, nothing. How many times am I going to say sit? Oh, it doesn’t matter. All I’m doing is making noise at the dog by that point. I should find another way to convey what I want the dog to do.
Finally, Kat, I can’t stop smiling at the thought of you talking to your dogs while bathing them. I do it too. I tell them how good they are, and apologize when I have to wash near their head or eyes/nose, because I know it bothers them.
Finally, I’m going to look up that book on bird song. I figure, if I know what the vocalizations mean, I can understand what is going on with the birds. One last birdy story I want to tell. Just after we moved here last summer, I had the kitchen window open while I was working. Suddenly, all the nice sounds of the birds in the morning just, exploded into noise. The song birds went crazy, and even the crows went nuts. I looked towards the window, and then, every bird out there went silent. A few seconds later, I heard the shriek of a hawk flying over my house. So, that’s what it was. I think we should pay more attention to the sounds the animals around us make. Their own instincts could save our lives one day.
BARB STANEK says
Have to laugh out loud at the story of Tulip and the squirrel! Talk about being a human who is sometimes a dog trainer. When guests leave my home, I throw treats out the back door to get the dogs to go in the fenced backyard. Commands from me really don’t work well, as the dogs would prefer to go out the front door with the guests and romp uncontained through the countryside! The last time that I did it, I mentioned to my departing friend that what I was doing is indeed a time-honored dog training technique! LOL!
In any case, I just got hearing aids. I am loving returning to hearing things that I had lost because I’m at the age I am! I also noticed myself using a quieter voice when talking to my dogs. The other day, I had the puppy in the unfenced part of the yard, and found that when she was running at full speed away from me, I didn’t need to shout “my return to me” cue. Her hearing is just fine, thank you. And, it turns out, so are her recalls right now. Let’s hope that they stay that way!
Shivani says
I enjoy your posts so much. They’re just a boost to the day.
Oh….that baby squirrel. When I am really excited about a particular food I do a little wiggle which my husband calls my happy dance. I hope the baby squirrel’s squeaks were sort of like a food happy dance. So fun to hear those sounds.
I struggle with figuring out the balance between visual and auditory cues when working on a behavior. Pat Miller’s book, The Power of Positive Dog Training (which I love), provides steps for developing a new behavior, which ultimately assigns an auditory cue (without a visual cue). Since her book is not the first one I had when beginning to train Auggie, I focused much more on visual cues. I did assign both a gesture and a word, but he consistently complies with the gesture and sporadically complies with the word.
I work on being consistent and clear, so that he doesn’t have to work so hard. But I do have a tendency to feel insecure about what I’m doing. I definitely notice a difference in how Auggie learns when I feel confident and grounded as opposed to when I feel insecure. I did not know that bringing a dog home was going to force me to work on long-buried issues! He’s transforming my life 🙂
I’m living in a rural setting for the first time in my life. I’m enamored with all the sounds. I had such a hard time making the move, and now I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner in life. I’m sitting outside listening to cacophony of birdsong. It’s wonderful.
It’s so impressive to watch Maggie at work, and the partnership between you. The sheep did seem very responsive to the cues! That must be a challenge, to train the dog without training the sheep.
Well, today Auggie and I are working on not barking at bicyclists (him, not me). Although sometimes I understand the desire.
Maureen C Finn says
Here it’s the Northern Flickers that are most likely to rat-a-tat drum on the roof – they love metal flashing on the roof because it makes so much noise and they can really notify all the others. I’ve never seen any of the other woodpeckers here do this roof metal pounding (downy, hairy, pileated, sapsucker, red-breasted), but they probably do.
I live alone with three dogs and am somewhat noise sensitive myself. I find even music I like can be annoying to me after a while – so much air clutter! And I like to be able to hear what’s going on outside – e.g., a dog (not mine) barking regularly has me checking on my sheep to be sure a loose dog didn’t get in somehow, that sort of thing. And of course this time of year with the birdsong it’s glorious – favorite time of year! I like to stay tuned in to my surroundings, and I love quiet. Working from home has been such a boon this way – my company pipes in white noise all. day. long. at the office and it’s exhausting.
I do tend to talk to my dogs conversationally (goes back to that living alone – especially in the time of Covid!), and believe that even if they don’t understand the words they understand at least some of the meaning. I especially try to remember to do this on transports with rescue dogs – telling them it’s going to be okay and explain to them where they are going and why, what it will be like where they are going, and that they don’t need to worry, because we will take care of them. Probably helps me more than the dogs, but I think it’s important to explain to them what’s happening (a little woowoo, I know, but I do think they understand some of it). I do the same thing with my own of course – during a bath, or a trip to the vet (I often am nearly as nervous as they are going to the vet – I worry – so telling them it’s going okay is helpful to me as well!) My Rottweiler thinks the vet is a great way to socialize though – loves everyone there – I think she helps all of the staff with her friendly “doesn’t want to leave her new friends” demeanor.
But I’m not a chatterbox by nature. And of my three seniors, one can’t hear well (and has sight impairment too – he’s 16 yo), and the other is hard of hearing. I really have to raise my voice for them to hear me call to them. I find myself using more hand/arm signals (which have to be BIG MOVEMENT for the old guy). It makes me sad – they are both bird dogs, and hearing was such a huge part of what they “do” naturally – but they are still happy. Their hearing impairment makes me more careful with them though. They both love going down to the mailbox with me and while the 16 yo doesn’t move fast enough that I worry too terribly much near the road, the 11 yo is still zippy, so I call (loudly) him to me until cars pass. The 10 year old isn’t so interested in the trip down the driveway to the mailbox (Rottweiler economy), but she hears just fine.
And yes, I regularly sing to them too. I even made up a biscuit song for treats.
Kelly Moran says
I was reminded of the importance of being clear and consistent with word choice just yesterday. I called “come” to my dog who just looked at me. I then said “Nico, come here” and he responded immediately. What was a similar request to the human ear is an entirely different message to the dog. I have also found that a “click click” with my tongue keeps him moving in the desired direction on our walks better than any words.
Debra says
I have a calm low voice generally and find I go lower to calm my dog when heading to the vet. My “problem” is with the young vet techs who are so well meaning but haven’t a clue that their high pitched baby talk scares the bejeebers out of my generally calm dog. Maybe your research can be somehow added to the curriculum in vet school. I’m certain we are not the only ones who have this issue. I have been known to ask them to speak slow and low for my dog. Especially since the last year has been a “wait in your car while we examine him” kind of year.
Bruce says
From the “grass is always greener” department: My voice is in the bass range. Good for barking commands, but less effective when praising the dogs. Saying “good!” in my normal tone of voice sometimes causes confusion.
From now on I will attempt to channel a baby squirrel when the dogs do something wonderful.
Trisha says
Debra: I am with you re the high-pitched voices of some young women. Freaks out my BCs, and actually I don’t like it either. Love your “low and slow” request. And I just literally got back from a “wait in your car” appt at the vet. I know the clinics love them in general, because they make their lives so much easier, but for one, I dislike them intensely.
Debo says
I recently started singing to our dogs. A specific song, with specific meaning, at a specific time. It started with (bad me) letting them have a taste of my Swedish Red Fish. Soon after, our older, more cunning dog went to the dining room area where the Fish are kept & made his request grumble. Clearly, I want Fish. I decided to indulge, now it’s a nightly ritual, where I sing the Barnes & Barnes “Fish Heads” song refrain. As soon as they hear the fffff (my prelude to singing the song) they drop to their butts & start drooling copiously. As I sing, I twist the sing Fish in half and give to them on the Yum!. Since they weigh in at 55 & 65 lbs, I think their systems can tolerate a single half-Fish each. Just played the Barnes & Barnes song on internet & only one even looked over here. Fun times with fun dogs.
maree says
Laura, I think you should write a novel. Such beautiful prose.
Trisha, my thanks for the low pitch hint. Like Christine above, I am finding this very useful in Agility, particularly in the over excitement of my KelpiexBC at trials. (Means yes, I do mean it and no, you can’t make this up yourself, Melly.) Thank you for the extra Q last Monday!
Kat says
So many fascinating comments. And I think Lorraine and Laura have put their finger on why I narrate bath time when most of the time I use very few words. I believe it is my responsibility to give my dogs the information they need to be able to safely and confidently navigate the environment I choose for them to live in. When I’m getting up to go to the bathroom and D’Artagnan looks up to see if something interesting is going to happen a quick flash of a flat palm is enough to tell him this is a boring trip that he doesn’t want to come along for. Or if I’m getting up to go outside a quick tilt of the head in the direction of the door tells him I’m going out if he wants to come. But when I’m washing him that’s something that doesn’t happen often enough that we have an understanding and shorthand that lets me tell him where I’m washing, when the spray is coming, etc., I narrate all that so he knows what to expect. I’m not sure how much it helps. Still, now I understand why I chatter at bath time and not most of the time.
All the bird song comments reminded me that years back I had a phone app that played birdsong so you could learn to identify the different birds. I was playing with it listening to different song birds and The Great Catsby (cat) slunk in clearly in hunting mode. I played a wide variety of different song birds while I watched him looking for them then switched to raptor calls and he was belly down on the floor trying to look everywhere at once. Switched to rookery sounds and he fled the room. He was picked up as a stray at 10 months (best guess) and we adopted him soon thereafter. I don’t know what his previous life was like but it was fascinating that any song bird song, even birds that aren’t native here, had him in hunting mode and any raptor, native or not, was regarded as a threat.
Darin Smith says
Tricia, I’ve been training my dogs for years based on a talk you gave in Maumee (suburb of Toledo) OH at least 25 years ago. It was about the language animals use to communicate. I remember things like “sssssss” is a danger sound, like snakes. !!ut ut!! is a correction in almost any language and I’ve noticed if I use it even on dogs I don’t know, they react and stop what they are doing (lol, and so do children). Long low “Gooooood Boooooyye” is praise and also a calming/settling tone. I use !Here! for come to me and sit, and “Let’s go” in a sing song voice which means generally move in the direction I’m moving. !Enough! means stop it, usually when they are getting too rowdy and rough with each other. You taught me the importance of consistency and I’ve literally been using this same “language” with all my dogs for all these years. As a result, friends frequently ask me to boot camp their dogs, and sometimes their children because my dogs are very well behaved and pleasant to be around without being military tight and on constant alert. Thank you!
LisaW says
The birds have a before-dawn song that is very different than their songs after the sun comes up and people start to rustle about. I used to wake up (not voluntarily) way before dawn, and I’d listen to the chorus of songs and how they changed as the sun rose and the birds went back to their “usual” songs. Fascinating.
We had a resident downy woodpecker that discovered the exact right pitch was on the south corner of the metal chimney cap. There was a screw on that corner that had amazing resonance and timbre. It was quite loud, but I was grateful it wasn’t our soffits.
Also, grateful to hear that chattering is okay. I talk to Olive a lot, and she has learned words and phrases that surprise me, and I wonder how much is contextual depending on my tone of voice, posture, time of day, where we are, etc. She may be putting the all the visual pieces together in addition to the words, perhaps.
I talk to myself quite often, which she seems to more or less ignore. I’m glad she’s gotten used to my singing–it took a while for her to not stop and stare at me when I sang and only move on after I stopped singing. She was such a critic 🙂
It’s snowing here today. Big, lazy flakes that remind me of the old saying: “Snow is a poor man’s fertilizer.” I hope so.
Maria says
Tricia, I read your blog with a bit of sadness: my elderly dog is going deaf, and has trouble hearing anything I say to her–or what I tell her is probably distorted (i.e, I call her, and she visibly startles–hearing *something*–but looks in an entirely different direction from where I am, obviously searching for where the call came from). It’s an issue I’ve faced with several dogs now–it’s not always a sad issue, though! One dog who had been seriously thunderphobic her whole life found considerable relief once she was deaf enough that the thunder didn’t wake her out of a sound sleep anymore.
I also giggled when you compared the sounds you made to a baby squirrel’s. We were infested with squirrels last Spring–the mamma squirrel literally chewed her way through the siding of our house to make her nest in our attic–and those baby squirrels were definitely loud and proud! I was on a zoom call and my callers asked me what all the noise in the background was about….
Helen says
I was completely fascinated by Maggie Maggie responding to that whistle!
So were all 3 of my poodles actually. I must try a whistle some time.
I talk to my dogs all the time my defense:
1/I live alone and I look less crazy talking to them than to myself.
2/They’re poodles, I have suspected for a long time now that they can actually speak & understand English because if I announce my intention to do anything they know exactly what that is.
I’ll just change, means they rush to the bedroom door; Do you want, results in head cocking and intense looks; Who wants to do some training, results in a stampede to the training room; Lenny you wait while I take the other two first, he hangs out away from the door while I take the others and generally actually looks like he is well trained!; No it’s Jack’s turn means Jack will give me his paw or get up on the grooming couch; Stay there I can go by myself, three dogs do not need to watch me use the facilities; Get out of the kitchen; Go away etc
Of course they choose not to listen to ne when I tell them to stop barking….
It’s always good to have something to work on.
Kevin says
Thank you Trisha, for all the knowledge you’ve gained, and been able to communicate to we other humans. My comment may be far too rudimentary for this discussion: I walk and house other people’s companion dogs. Including off-leash, in the woods (the ones I have developed this level of familiarity). Without any specific command training, I have found that the most consistent recall is to bang my heavy wooden walking-stick against a tree trunk. The sound seems to carry through the forest well (like a military drum?), but also, seems to convey the message: “I’ve lost track of you, maybe you’ve lost track of me, in any case, return to this source now” — and the dogs often return from a different direction than where I’ve been looking. I’m fascinated by the consistent success of this method across various individuals.
Kelly says
I played the “maggie and whistles” video – and my dog Tucker (border collie mutt) came from the room, sat and looked at me saying: “you called”. Too funny
Jackie d says
I changed one of the cues for our newest dog when we got him. It’s too easy to sound cross when you say ‘leave!’ And if I sounded cross he was less likely to give the object up. So I re-trained it as ‘leavey leavey!’ In a sing song voice. Which sounds barmy but much happier and therefore he is happier too.
I think pitch is really underrated when it comes to communicating with dogs. I see other family members give our dogs cues and if they get the pitch wrong (particularly rising vs falling) the dog often doesn’t understand.
Pat Bruemmer says
Having lost my precious red doxie several months ago; I only had my blind doxie Kyle for awhile…until my daughter surprised me with a new mini doxie (Hershey). Now, my Frankie (who passed)..he knew my tones and even my hand signals; but this new baby..he is just a baby and thinks everything is a game. SO, this article was timed perfectly. I’ll be watching my tone of voice and my motions while working to get this whirling dervish to behave in a calmer manner. My blind boy, he responds just fine to my voice; and I so enjoy seeing him acknowledge my voice with his wagging tail as he slowly walks towards me following the voice directions pretty well. Loved this entire article. Post more please.
Chris Basil says
I love to take in the beauty of nature. I need my sleep and yet the birds are always an early morning delight! The soft, chirping voices drift through the window on a cool breeze bringing me comfort that all is well with this world at least for one more day. It’s such a tranquil moment when you hear them sing their hearts out and it fills your heart too if only just for those few moments while they’re singing before another long hard day begins again.
Another wonderful post as usual – thank you so much for reminding us how important patience can be during these difficult times where we encounter new challenges every single week or even daily event- what would happen without people like yourself who understand? Just imagine… More often than
I’ll never get tired of hearing birds sing. I remember the first time my mom told me that she could tell what types of bird were singing based on their songs, and it always surprised her when we heard a red-eyed vireo because they’re so rare in our area!
I did not know any different at the time but now as an adult with more knowledge about all these amazing creatures, I can understand why people are often amazed by being able to make out three or four individual sounds coming from one little bush. The sparrows give off such high pitched chirps while chickadees sound like music boxes thanks to how fast they tend to talk amongst themselves.