Moon's Graden

Ever since we've had Jakey (about 5-1/2 years), he has always made what we
call little squeaky noises when he's content.  Usually it's when he's next
to you on the couch and your scratching his huge, pointy ears (yes, he's a
pointy -- full size GSD ears on a half size GSD body <LOL>) or when he's
doing the half-doze thing in front of the wood-stove.  They are very soft
little squeaky sighs and we know that it means, "I'm warm, content, and
happy."  

I've always been curious about dogs learn things.  The last few weeks,
we've noticed that Cassie has picked this up and now does the same thing!!
(Too funny.)  I haven't quite been able to figure out whether she learned
it from Jakey or whether she learned from *us* that this is a good
behaviour because we always tell Jakey how cute he is and are paying
attention to him while he is doing the squeaky thing.  Interesting
behaviour.
--
Michelle, Cassie the Lab (aka LittleOne) and JakeyBuddy the GSDx
to e-mail, remove the "_"

Our dog makes a little sound when she's really happy.  She's done it
ever since she was a puppy--it sort of sounds like she's trying to purr
but she's missing all the equipment to do it properly.  I think it's
really cute!

Monica

Terri

Robert C.
PS: the theory behind the big, erect GSD ears is that they provide for
more cooling flow for those big GSD brains.  Flappy eared dogs, of
course, don't need much at all.  Heh, heh.  

snip That, mixed with the little

Terri
And Mojo and Luke,
*Warty Convents!!!!*
Taffy, (cant even get a *wart* in my mouth, mom....
The darn thing is  bigger than my whole head, ( and brains!)
(Taffy is Floppy- eared)Say no more...

Michelle,
I think you nailed it  that they have "learned  from *us* that this is a good
behavior" because of two experiences I have had with animals learning
vocalizations :

1) When my two *** goldens and I adopted Steve as their new human daddy,
these dogs were both almost totally non-vocal. (It had been strongly
discouraged as part of retriever training). But Steve is blind, and they found
out quickly that the cute faces, pawing at objects, or standing by the back
door looking expectant didn't work with him. It wasn't long before I realized
that they had developed a whole array of vocalizations that they used to
communicate everything from "don't step on me; I'm right here!" to "I'm on my
back here and in the mood for a belly rub", etc.  Justice stopped
"de-squeaking" toys (he used to remove the squeakers in record time!) and they
used the squeaks to lead Steve around in games of keep-away and hide-n-seek.
Justice finally put me in hysterics with an oration that lasted about 20
minutes (really!!) that must have been the pent-up vocalizations of years and
years. And T'Chere would routinely raise her snout to the ceiling, and
delicately howl, even learning to turn on a sound sensitive light when I forgot
to leave her a light on. (I learned a lesson, and SheBop's repertory includes a
myriad of vocalizations. It cracks me up!)

2) I "babysat" a baby elephant at the Audubon Zoo when she was in her display
area where people could get close enough to touch her (which meant she could
touch *them*, too, and she was the *most* mischevious thief I have ever seen!!
-  Which was why she needed a babysitter.) She was about 1/2 mile from the
elephant house, and I learned that when she turned that direction and assumed a
distinctive posture, if I would put my hand on her forehead, I could feel the
sub-sonic rumblings that meant she was talking with the other elephants over
there. I could not hear them, though, as they were below the frequency poeple
can hear. Yet, when she was interacting with humans, her vocalizations (which
were almost constant) were always pitched within our range of hearing, often
mimicing sounds we make. And her favorites always got her attention, like
rasberries and sneezes. Dolphins tend to do the same thing. Everyone's heard a
dolphin "laugh".

Animals learn what we respond to, and then do that to elicit a response from us
again. We could learn a lot about eliciting desired responses from the way
animals train us!

TTFN - Susan F.

Yeah, Jakey *acts* more like a GSD than looks like one.  He does have many
GSD characteristics -- the huge ears, long-haired (shedding!) GSD coat,
hips slope (which are, unfortunately, displastic).  He really looks like a
half-size GSD with gray and black colouring -- kinda wolfish actually.  He
is small mostly because he was so malnourished as a puppy -- he was taken
from his owners for starvation, abuse, neglect.  He was sooo scrawny when
we got him, had lost much of his coat :o( , our vet told us then (he was
about 6 mos old and 37 lbs) that he would never attain full size.  At
almost 6 yrs old, he's about 60 lbs now with a full, long shepherd coat.
He's also VERY vocal.  The best is when he's staring at you, intently
trying to get something across to you making the chewing-the-words noises
-- I *swear* that if he had the vocal cords/tongue/mouth set up to do so he
would be talking to me!!
--
Michelle, Cassie the Lab (aka LittleOne) and JakeyBuddy the GSDx
to e-mail, remove the "_"

P.S.  His sighs are to die for -- the *best*, bar none!!!!  (*I* think they
come out through his ears which is why they are magnified so loud.)

Maren "Bob" Williams

Cat in Alaska

I have a Basset puppy. When he first wakes up in the morning and does the long
stretch, he moos like a cow--mooooo. That's the only time of day that he makes
the noise.