Dutch Shepherd Forum

I'd like to see if anyone has info on Vocalization.

I do bark in a variety of situations but I am particularly curious to know why I am so vocal with greeting humans that enter my home. Visitors have described my noises as sounding like Chewbacca. I assume it is tied to over arousal/over stimulation.

Tyson "talks" to me in much the same way... In fact, we have said on several occasions that we should have named him Chewie or Chewbacca.

Holy cow! Dinga Roo is the chattiest dang pup. I've got a video up here somewhere of her talking to her "kid". I need to get a vid of her "talking to mom" when she wants attention.

Sounds like Dinga Roo can say her own name!

Kevin!!! HA! I just now noticed your new signature...I see Roo finally approved one. "John's Goddaughter and Tyson's twin" LOVE-LOVE-LOVE it!!!

I always tell my friends that Dutch is the snitchy little brother you'd like to hide in the closet after telling your parents you ate all the cookies.

When something happens he doesn't like the minute my husband comes home Dutch in his whineest chewbacca noise tell Greg he didn't like someting I did. Greg comes back at me "what did you do that I got the swan song of a lifetime?" It's cross between the neibors thinking we've murdered him / geese honking and we heard the word " heck".

Heather

Hi Heather! This is Debbie's foster mom, Karen. From what you said about Dutch maybe I should check in on what my teenagers are doing before I come home.

I've come to learn that what Debbie experienced during the day has an effect on her behavior later in the day. If only I had seen this pattern sooner! Especially when she first came to us and the whole house got turned upside down.

I start laughing every time I think of your phrase "honking geese" Took months and months of work but we finally improved her greetings. In addition to her "honking" and talking like Chewbacca she'd jump all over you, mouth your hands, and grab onto any clothing she could get. Sort of like being attacked by a herd of geese from all directions!

Harvey is the quietest dog I've ever had and has only barked about 2-3 times since i've gotten him. Vladimir, our GSD, is extremely talkative though...

I have polar opposites in Thalie and Sadie. Thalie is super quiet, if she barks you KNOW something is up, or she is super excited to go for a ride. Sadie, on the other hand, is talky talky talky. Moans, groans, barks , you name it, it comes out of her mouth.

I too am talky, talky, talky. I have lots of different "on alert" barks, as well as other barks, I chirp when my water bowl is empty, I sound like Chewbacca with greetings, and make other little sounds too. But getting ready for a car ride I'm always super quiet.

Dutch Shepherds are alert and observant. Also, they are smart and seem to know what they want. For the "quiet" Dutch Shepherds out there I'm curious how they communicate what
they see/hear/want.

TD would use his eyes, getting eye contact with me and then looking at a relevant item - door, couch, water bowl, etc. if eye contact did not come in a reasonable time , there would be some quiet sound to draw my attention. alternatively or as a back-up, there was always his mouth on my arm. a real bark - a single, solitary bark - was reserved for a real emergency or later in life used as an exclamation mark as part of a larger communication.

in april, 2006, living in manhattan, he took me to the entrance ramp to the garage where the car was parked. [ we never approached it that way - instead going to the garage in an elevator directly from the apt, so going the way he did i thought was quite clever having never been on that ramp before.] he did not like going for car rides, though he would go so he could be with me, so i was not sure what was happening.
i tried to leave. until then, he had used his eyes to point the way he wanted me to go. with my reluctance to participate any further, he now resorted to a firm mouth grip to drive home his request by leading me down the ramp to the closed door to the garage. so, ok, this dog that really does not car rides wants me to drive him somewhere. this had never happened before. i had no clue, so i started asking him questions. ''do you want to go see Brian?'' [ my assistant who would sometimes walk him and the only other person TD ever in his life treated like family.] got a mild recognition response like, ''well, nice, i would not mind that, but....'' next: ''do you want to go to Tioronda?'' - an estate along the hudson river with ponds, rapids, boulders, lots of wildlife - where we would go on day-trips occasionally; a lot of his ''dogumentary'' on youtube was shot there. still no special reaction. so my last idea - a place where we had spent time for the first time ever from late june til october of 2005 - ''do you want to go to the beach?'' Tracedog bounded through the air and kissed my nose. JACKPOT, i had won the dog interpretation award of the week. it was remarkable since the beach had been the 2005 summer only and we had not been even in that direction since october. somehow he realized that the weather in mid-april had suddenly/just become appropriate seasonal climate for being at the beach! he had skipped the warm spells that we invariably get in nyc winters in jan or feb. and really did wait for spring. i was shocked and impressed and told him we would go tomorrow. he was pleased.

Hi Deb

I have always told my kids I know what they're are up to by how the animals (dog or cat) re-act when I get home. It just ticks me off that my husband understand it too. Match made in heaven lol. Call me a freak cause I usualy read my animals better then I read some people. " The more I get to know people they more I love my dog"

You pick up a lot when you learn to read them. If you talk to them they learn to read you too. Hence Chewbacca.

lol
Heather

Hilde is not very talkative at all. I would describe her communication much like John described TD, although she is certainly not nearly as good at it. Eye contact is seemingly constant, and she will instantly read even the slightest clues of movement. When she wants something from us, she will stand alert and look into our eyes, probably trying some kind of telepathy. If we're both present, she'll alternate between us. When that doesn't get results, she'll move on to a gentle pawing of my arm, almost like a tap on the shoulder to say, "Hey, look at me, I need you!" If we resist that, her frustration will build until she lets out a single attention-getting bark. If it reaches that point, we know it's something important to her (e.g., "I've REALLY got to pee!") and she doesn't seem to overuse it even though she knows it will get a reaction.

At about 16 months old now, she has just recently displayed guarding behavior, including aggressive warning barks. It's rare when I'm around--in fact, I've only seen it once, briefly. It seems consistent if Elizabeth is home alone and they're both in the back yard when a stranger approaches.

that does sound so very much like TraceDog. it is surprising that they keep the single bark so much in reserve for emphasis of importance and forego using it for lesser things even when other strategies fail them. i always tried to be responsive to TD but also often had very hectic days, so often his requests would get no action [ usually a verbal ''hold on'' in french ], and usually he would just settle, even though a single modest bark would have elicited a split-second affirmative response from me. not the kind of Pavlovian behavior that everyone is taught is the norm for animals. it is such impressive and intelligently selective restraint -- even in a human!

Hilde sounds very impressive.

and, Heather, i agree. the benefits of talking to them is amazing. they become as understanding of detail, nuance, and complex language as the majority of people. i just try to talk in a way that teaches so that is helps them learn to describe [ that there are descriptions for ] their thoughts and experiences in addition to activities and objects. like if they look at a sunset, i name it for them. then when i see that there is a great sunset, i can tell them ''good sunset'' and they go look to see it. TD was like that with the full english language; the pups no where near that but i practice and hope they are paying attention. the newest pup - Tracer - seems the most likely of the 3 to achieve that high degree of recognized correlation between language and the world around him.

I loved all the posts, especially

the benefits of talking to them is amazing. they become as understanding of detail, nuance, and complex language as the majority of people.

My foster mom has taught former foster dogs lots of words around the house to make them feel more comfortable and to know what to expect/what's coming next.

Poor Bella, a Rottweiler mix was afraid of everything. Starting with good smelling small objects and the cue "curious", Bella soon learned when she heard the word "curious" to approach, sniff, and check it out. Over time and lots of experiences, the real test came with the word "curious" and the appearance of a broom. Success!

I love the Dutch Shepherd Forum where I can fully be myself. I now know over 30 commands and cues but never mention that in my adoption ads. I've learned a majority of people just don't get the beauty of good Dutch Shepherd communication.



p.s. I'm soon hoping to hear the word Sunset!

I wanted to mention that I've started two new topics: "Words to Enjoy Life More" and "Guarding people/spaces"