A friend of mine says his terrier bitch howls when he plays his Böehm flute in the house. He’s considering sitting in his car in the garage to get his Session practice done ..
I had a male dog who took his howling at local church bells as a very serious, solemn business.
My friend is a stickler for playing in tune so tuning can’t be the reason. Does tone have something to do with it?
Are dogs responding to some primal prompt, or are they in pain?
Any ideas?
Best wishes,
K.
Yes! My dog howls like crazy. I can’t tell whether she likes the experience or hates it. But she can’t seem to resist it. I have been driven to the car to practice before because of it, but usually I can get far enough away from her that she is not overtaken with the need to howl.
No, but my wife does!
I think my cat used to think there was something wrong with me, when I was practicing my harmonica, (so I had to stop practicing when he was around), so, I’d say, it is likely something in the tone that they hear.
They don’t like the sound. When the weather outside is good my cat leaves the house when I unpack the recorder. When the weather is bad she waits to hear what I’m playing: If it’s a piece I play reasonably well, she stays, if I work on a difficult new one she leaves.
And my teacher says he used to have a dog who had learnt to accept his recorder playing - but when he had somebody over to play with, the dog started nipping.
My whippet hates it, glares, sits curled up with his back to me and eventually wanders over to back door and waits to be let out. I try no to take it personally.
My poodle seems to really like certain tunes - right now he’s partial to Jackie Daly’s (a slide I learned off of Aoife Granville’s album). He comes and sits by my feet and ‘sings’ along. Other tunes he’s not so much interested in, but sometimes he chimes in. I’m convinced he likes it and is attempting to join in the ‘pack howl’. He wags his tail and becomes very attentive. What he doesn’t like is the metronome, a clicky type. He finds another room (and ceases howling).
Our lurcher is fine with all my whistles & flutes.
She doesn’t mind my accordion reeded baritone English comcertina, although she sometimes grumbles a bit.
The concertina-reeded treble, though, drives her mad, to the extent that I only play it when she’s at the other end of the house; and then she’ll quite often come to where I’m playing, sit at my feet, throw her head back and
AWWWWooooooooooooooooooooo …
My previous terrier (the terrierist) howled to my accordion, but not the whistle or flute. My current pup doesn’t mind music at all, luckily for her…
This blog essay does not supply empirical data but does suggest some interesting thoughts about dogs howling as “polite” responses to our whistles, flutes, bells, sirens etc because they think they’re communications from other dogs afar off!
Best wishes, K.
Hey Rogervj…
Everyone howls to accordion practice! (I should talk- I’m a piper…)
I don’t know about the flute specifically, but… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsMToDKYT3I
I did have a mutt years ago that howled when the town fire siren would sound.
My dog doesn’t howl at the flute, but does howl along to the concertina for a few bars. Then she stops. I basically had to train her out of howling all the time, but I do let her get a couple of nice long notes in. Mine is really singing along and thought of my playing as an invitation to join in. It did take some training to let her know exactly how long she was invited.
My dog does not seem to mind the flute, it sits on my lap as I play and it even comes up my lap as I do. But, if I play the pipes, especially the great highland bagpipes, then the dog turns in to the hound of hell and it attacks me, biting my legs and going apeshit…
No, but my son who is autistic once stuck his finger in the end of the flute like he was trying to stop a dike from leaking. Even now when he sees the flute in my hand he follows me and shuts the door to whichever room I go into.
I’ll take that as a harsh criticism of my playing.
Mine is well used to the TW and hates it, but for the Flute he just turns his rear towards me and ignores. Yes I do know what that means in DoggySpeak But I am not that bad in the human sphere as I can pass off playing some nice tunes and people have complimented me, so this is purely DoggyCritque.
Now when I saw on a fiddle all bets are off. One, he faces me, sits and observes turning his head one way then the other. If I am anywhere near to making a musical sound he stands up and moves closer. If, on the odd occasion where, I succeed to make music, he puts his paws on my leg begging for attention. Otherwise he simply goes as far as he can away from the noise.
This Doggy is not short of smarts! If outdoors he calls in DoggySpeak to get back in, little yaps, or to get out he dances in front of me then turns towards the exit door, all the while checking to see if I follow. Same for getting doggy treats, and going to doggy-bed at night, dancing and occasionally whimpers to plead. If near a door he wants opening he jumps up on it looking around at me to check and see if I am, A paying attention, and B coming to open it for his majesty.
Really makes me feel like a DoggyButler, as in, I serve him not the other way around.
My dad was an accordion player, and our dog used to howl and poke his long nose as far as possible under the lounge whenever he played, and push his paws under and up against the ears as if to silence the sound. Not encouraging.
On a brighter note (he punned), I was standing on the shore of Lake Burley-Griffen in Canberra one day, playing the flute, when I saw a wake coming towards me. It was a very small fish, and it swam right up to my feet until the water was too shallow and it fell over. I reached down to touch it, and that seemed to break the spell, and it tore off back out into the lake.
Clearly fish aren’t as discerning as dogs…
“Remember Odie”, says Garfield, “Dogs have owners. Cats have staff…”
Just to make sure… if you want ideas on how to address the howling without your friend resorting to going to the car, I might be able to share some ideas. (I haven’t trained a lot of dogs, but I’ve trained one dog a lot so I at least understand some principles.)
My dog hasn’t seemed to mind the flute. Though it was something I was intentional in thinking about and exposing the dog to when we got our dog.
I haven’t got a dog or cat at the moment but I’d be happy to draw my friend’s attention to anything you’d like to share here.
Best wishes,
Keith.