I went away for a week and left my 9mnt old dog with my uncle.  Since we have been back Arthur has been doing what I can only describe as wolf howling.  Why do dogs do this?  Is he calling his pack to him?

i havent got a clue why they do it but my weim does it when she is asleep and the doorbell wakes her up! its hilarious!!

I think it is to do with calling the pack together.  Mine do it if I take one or two away, though they don't do it if I'm there, so have never heard them myself, but hubby says it's hilarious!

Sarah.

my gsd has recently started doing it as i prepare her food, or she also does it if im doing something and she is bored. im sure she is talking to me, its very funny.

My lot do it if I let the phone ring more than twice.

When I lived at home in Sweden, I went to various dog training classes  in Stocholm, and in Sweden ALL training classes are outside, always, regardless of time of year, weather, time of day etc. Where these classes were held, was not far from the zoo. In the evenings we could hear the wolves in the zoo howl! It certainly made all the dogs sit up and listen! It unsettled them a lot, none would work properly once they'd heard the wolves. At another class I went to we were told dogs howl to bring the pack together, and we were told to howl to our dogs to see what would happen. The trainer demonstrated by howling, and my Golden got so excited he leapt forward, pulled me over flat on my face, and jumped on her licking her all over. I was laughing so hard it took me ages to get up again, LOL. (I was only about 18 at the time!)

The other possibility is that there may be a bitch in season near you.  Boys will howl for a couple of days when they catch the scent.  I think it is fantastic to hear.

It seems they do it for loads of reasons, he did it for about 4 days.  I was away and only heard it over the phone but it was very funny to hear.  My mum said he put his nose in the air and threw his head back like the typical picture of the wolf infront of the moon, its even more funny as he is a fluffy yorkie ha ha ha.  I think the bitch in season makes sense, he does love the ladies, even to the point of trying to mate the golden retriever and lab hes walked with.

My male dally does it when the phone rings, he hears certain music and sirens on police cars/ambulances. I call it singing.
My females never done it.

Hi there
My male dalmatian does this quite often when listening music, esp. Dido - Life for Rent.  It is hilarious to watch and like you say, it does remind you of wolf howling in to a full moon!!!

My wolf cross does this all the time when he hears sirens, certain music, and when our shepherd collie (passed away) escaped (not reason why she passed away).

My cocker spaniel hardly ever used to bark. But by heck he could howl. And it started (honestly!!) when he was sitting by my feet as I told someone the old werewolf joke - "I used to be a werewolf but I'm alright Noooooooooooow". At which point he threw his head back and howled back at me. I knew it was going to be a mistake to find this hilarious but I did and from then on (until he died last winter) every time he went upstairs ahead of me he'd get to the landing and howl at me while wagging his tail like an eejit. A habit that got to be very slightly tedious, it has to be said!!

The Cocker I grew up with used to howl when my sister or I played the harmonica.........  Our Corgi used to join in too!

We used to have a Jack Russel as kids, she would howl away to Corrie, never when it came on, just when it was going off! She got to the point where if you sang the tune she would howl with you! :D

Mine only very rarely do it when a Fire Engine goes by with Siren going, but no other sirens.

mine too!  The only time is when fire engines go past with the siren on and people in the street roll about laughing at my singing staffy.  One of my friends in convinced she had a traumatic incident with a fire enging in a past life but until a few weeks ago we lived beside a fire station so my staff howled a lot.

I think I can shed some light on this!
having a police officer partner and the misfortune to be a vet... thus getting numerous calls from him and colleauges to assist (give the 'missus a call she'll know what to do')
so many a woken from my bed bleary eyed journey spent in the back of a police area vehicle.

It seems alot of research went into the noise most likely to alert the rest of us on the road to move out of the way. different frequencies etc used (remember the awful 'white niose' trial on ambulances!)

but some of the frequencies trigger dogs (similar to the dog whistle phenomenon.. they hear it we dont) which the theory used on the 'white noise' siren trialed on ambulances.

police cars have the function to chose which siren you want when your puttin on your 'Blues and twos" the traditional blue light and two tone siren.
on police cars you can choose such options as two tone, french, american stuff like that.
But fire engines have one standard siren.
May explain why some sirens set our doggie friends off and some dont. :)

Thomas does it to the phone and certain theme tunes.  The problem I have is if it goes on too long he starts the girls off and then we have the whole chorus doing it.  The funniest time was when he threw his head back so far he fell of the sofa and then got the hump because we all laughed at him :)

Hi I have two Border Collies and one of them hows to music when I have the HI-FI on or he will hows to some Add's on TV some times it can be funny and also annoying .

one of my dog howls EVERY night, for no particular reason is dis a problem

It will be if your neighbours start complaining :)