Hunting dogs bark differently when they encounter different animal species

Abstract

Previous studies have shown that vocalizations of dogs can provide information to human companions. While acoustic signals of dogs have been intensively studied during the last decade, barking during hunting activities remains unstudied. The experiences of hunters indicate that owners can recognize what animal species has been found based on the bark of their dog. Such a phenomenon has never been tested before. We tested such an ability by comparing barks that were produced when dogs encountered four different animal species: wild boar, red fox, rabbit and fowl. Classification results of a discrimination analysis showed, that based on barks of dachshunds and terriers, it is possible to categorize towards which animal species barks were produced. The most distinctive barks were produced during encounters with the most dangerous of these animals, the wild boar. On the contrary, barks evoked by red fox encounters were classified similarly as those towards other smaller and non-dangerous animals like rabbits and fowl. Although the red fox represents a potentially dangerous species, the barking provoked was not classified with a much higher result than barking at animals that pose no threat. This might indicate that the key parameter could be the body size of the animal the dog meets. We further tested whether the degree of threat from the species of animal the dog encounters is reflected in the structure of the acoustic parameters based on the valence-arousal model. We found that barks produced in contact with a wild boar showed significantly lower frequency parameters and longest duration compared to other barks. According to these results, it seems that the variability of barking depending on the species of animal a dog encounters is an expression of the dogʼs inner state rather than functionally reference information.