I have a one year old mostly Cockapoo who a few months ago started “singing” with me whenever I played my whistles. He comes running from wherever in the house he is and
sits beside me and howls. It doesn’t matter
if it’s my sweetone d clear down to my Cook
low d. It’s fun, but when I want to hear myself play, I have to go outside or lock myself in a closet.
Has anybody else had this experience, or is there a vet than can explain this behavior to me? Thanks!
My Lab does the same thing. My husband and I debate whether he comes upstairs and sings with me because I’m piercing his eardrums or because he thinks he’s doing a little pack bonding. Whatever, he’s good and loud, so I, too, lock myself in my office if I actually want to practice.
Last spring, some pet supply company sponsored a “Doggie Duet” contest in which dogs sang accompaniment to their owners’ singing or instrument playing. I’m planning to take Arrow this year. The Susato ought to do the trick .
Deb
[ This Message was edited by: dth on 2001-10-26 12:09 ]
My dogs, a Boarder Collie and a Collie German Shepherd mix have yet to sing along. They do react to my practice. They don’t look happy. I swear I saw the BC cringe more than a couple times.
I love my dogs so I try to remove myself when I practice. I don’t want a rabid carrot from PETA knocking at my door.
We have a Border Collie and a miniature Dachshund. The Dachshund has always sung when I play, and there is a particular song – “The Parting Of Friends” – which he seems to particularly “like.” If I’m practicing in the living room and play that song, I can hear him jump off the bed in the upstairs bedroom and rattle down the stairs at the double-quick to sit in front of me and holler. He does it for other songs as well, but he’ll drop what he’s doing to come and sing that one.
It’s a little odd, because he’ll sing for a while and then lie down in my lap quietly as I continue to practice. If I miss a note, though, it really sets him off.
The Border Collie generally leaves the room when I play, but will sing along with the Dachshund when it suits him.
It’s interesting, my German Shepherd (Alsatian for those of you across the pond) will only howl when I play certain whisltes or flutes, but normally he’s quiet when I play. My Olwell cane flutes used to send him Howling instantly for some reason though. It was kinda fun and I probably should have kept one of my Olwells just to get him going now and then 
Dogs still retain much wolf like instinct and behavior, howling included. They hear your instruments and react because whistles and flutes sound similar enough to the howling of another dog or wolf that it can trigger this response. It’s in their nature to return the call of other “Wolves” in the area.
I couple of years ago I was in Girdwood Alaska. Some folks I met right down the street from where I was staying had a wolf/dog mix - she was about 85% wolf, and almost as big as a Great Dane with blazing yellow eyes. Now Dogs don’t scare me, this thing did.
There are tons of dogs in Girdwood, in fact, many of the locals joke and affectionately call the town “Dogwood”. During the day you can hear these dogs bark and howl here and there but nothing unusual.
Sometimes however, usually late in the day, this Wolf/dog would start to howl. Very quickly other dogs on the block would join in. Not long after that the dogs several streets away were howling as well. Eventually this one wolf/dog would have dogs all over town howling!! It’s a small town, but still several miles square. Really amazing thing.
It’s funny though that the other dogs responded much more strongly this particular animal than other dogs - I mean a howl is just a howl, and a whistle is just a whistle right? Maybe not…
Loren
Funny, some days when I’m playing on the street, I’ll get a chain reaction, and every dog in the back of every pick-up in town starts to howl, and other times, I can’t get one started, even using a Genration high G!
I have managed to get every dog in the neighborhood barking like mad before as well.
After a while Spot quit running off, in terror, when ever I hit the second octave. You should have seen him when I played two Sweetones at once. They were’nt in tune together, so it went WOOooOOooOO. All the dogs, and cats ran. Now he just lays there, no matter what.
Even the neighbors dogs quit barking. The first time I ent out side at night and blew a whistle, they went nuts.
I have two dogs - a Border Collie and an Australian Shepherd. They have just recently started to sing with my whistle playing. One day I was playing my whistle in the living room and my Border Collie was lying next to me and I hit a high note and he just let out a little howl and then he started to bark. And then my Australian Shepherd joined in. It sounded pretty good, a bit loud, but pretty good. My dad plays the harmonica and both of my dogs sing with it too. I never thought they would sing with my whistle. It’s really funny…
Peace,
Hippie girl
[ This Message was edited by: Sara on 2001-10-27 11:18 ]
Of our two, Kira, the husky, totally ignores it. Of course, she’s 11 and used to odd sounds coming out of my studio (like the tuba for example). But, Ezri, our little mutt, really likes the sound. She usually stops by, lays down, and listens for a while. The only painful thing about it is when she decides to see where the sound comes from - and bumps her nose into the bottom of the whistle!
Kira and Ezri…Deep Space 9 fan?
Thought somebody would catch that! Actually, we named Kira long before DS9 - after the character in the movie The Dark Crystal. But, then along came DS9 and Major Kira… So, when we got the new puppy a couple of years ago, well, what’s a Trek fan to do? (Jadzia was also a consideration, but Ezri was a little easier to work with. And Quark was right out!
Cal