I have just been doing a topic for college on arctic wolves and found some sound files of howling growling and wimpering, i was totally shocked when the one that is said to be used to call other members of the back was playing that 5 out of my 7 dogs turn up all of a sudden. So then i played the growl and then Ollie whos topdog out of the dogs starts doing a low growl. Even my 12 week old pup was turning his head on his side. Does anyone know if dogs and wolves do understand each other.
Oh the sad things that keep a happy dog owner ammused hehe

I have got 2 BCs and if I ever play wolves howling they instantly react to it. They each had a nose pressed up to both speakers. I don't see why they shouldn't understand each other. Wolves and dogs use the same body language, dogs howl to call the pack back when separated (well mine do! :p )

I saw a programme once where a bloke had a male GSD and a wolf he had reared from a cub. He lived in the wilds of Canada. The two had grown up together and spoke the same 'language', but as they matured the differences between them became more pronounced. He would take them out for hours and after a few the GSD would start to tire, but the wolf never did. His natural endurance kept him going. Can you ever imagine a long coated, big male GSD looking looking small and insignificant? This one did next to the Timber Wolf! Eventually the guy reintroduced the wolf to the wild, which shows the difference between true domestication and taming.

Claire

I love to watch and read about Wolves, whenever I watch a documentary about Wolves, my GSD always pays attention and grumbles ;) She also reacts when they have wolf cubs howling for mum. Her hair stands on end and she freezes whilst staring at the source of noise :)

My other dog, not a GSD, just howls at Eastenders theme tune, even he knows how bad it is recently :D

My three must be deaf, thick or both :rolleyes: They don't bat an eyelid :(

LOL our GSD never takes any notice of dogs or wolves or foxes etc on TV but the oldest cavalier stands with his nose to the screen barking & growling

I had a BC who used to try to work the sheep on One Man & His Dog & any other program with sheep/cattle on it He even went roun d the back & looked most puzzle not to see the sheep, but then he was a trialling/sheep working dog

Mine always show lots of interest when there wolves on TV
Archer

Hi Archer ;)

I watched only the end (unfortunately) of a wonderful programme on animal planet on Wednesday night called Wolves at your Door.  It was due to be repeated again at 8-00 am on Thursday morning but unfortunately I wasn't going to be around and could not pre-set our new video :(

What little I did see of it (last 20 minutes or so) was fascinating and my Tervuerens ALL reacted to the wolf songs - each differently, and in a fairly obvious pecking order which was equally intriguing.  Of all the Tervs I've owned, each has reacted to wolves they've overheard from TV programmes.

Hopefully, cable TV being so predictable, the programme will be repeated again shortly - if any of you see it advertised, it's well worth watching probably especially for those with the more physically wolf like breeds such as Malamutes, Huskies, GSDs and Belgians but anyone who loves wolves will I'm sure be in for a treat ;)

Regards, Teri 

Teri that's the one thing that drives me mad about cable,they repeat everything 10 times in a week!!!!

I will put the howling to the test when i take my dogs for their walk next,i might have to hide behind a tree,i dont want to attract everyone elses dogs aswell :D
I am just picturing all the c.d members standing in the middle of the fields,hands cupped to mouth aaaaaarrrrruuuuuuuing ;)

Hi Rose, Yeah, you're right about the repeats - on the plus side with that particular programme should mean I'll eventually get to watch it all ;)

Just got a *mental* (in more ways than one LOL) picture of parks and fields countrywide being filled with mimics of wolf song :D  Might scare a few folks tho!

Teri

sorry double post

My house is inundated with mals during the day, I have my own and the relatives come to play if their humans are going to be out for awhile. I always put animal planet on for them. They all sit heads cocking side to side, but if there are any wolves or vocal dominant breeds on the top dogs go running up to the TV looking behind it trying to find the other dog/wolf. I care for one mal in particular who has issues with a local weimariner...he goes into full growl mode if one of those appears on screen :D The most snr top dog will instantly collect all toys and dominate the others into lying down and rolling over (he does this with a growl directed at each dog), he'll then go outside a pee everywhere followed by the rest of the boys. Then he's back in to make sure the TV dog/wolf has respected his authority and beat it :D  I don't know if they understand the vocal language but they definitely get the body language.

Neither of my Mals bother with whats on the TV..they may look up occasionally but not normally

Changing subject a bit I know but we went to scotland a few years ago had three adults and two pups with us . We saw some wild Dolphin's and while the adult's took no notice, both Pup's starting to make a sound that sounded like a mix between crying and growling, it was a very wierd sound and one of the smaller dolphin's  swam in and im sure they were communicating, so did some other people that were there. Viv

Hi Spook,

My first Terv male always made a bee-line for the back of the TV when there were animal noises coming from it - resembled the scene in Big Foot & the Hendersons when he was feeling round the back of the wall with the stag's head on it!  Cosworth was always convinced there was a wolf, cat, lion or whatever trapped in the big box in the corner and determined he was going to sort it out ;)

Dogs, don't ya just love em, Teri

Oh I know I spend hours just watching and laughing at my lot :D

Teri I started to watch that programme, but the wolves featured weren't truly wild, they were an engineered pack hand raised to make them used to have humans around without supposedly affecting their behaviour