do dogs sing/howl along with certain sounds because

[mopinko]

they hurt their ears? my dogs and parrots have only recently been sharing the same living space. my lory likes to yell, a rather annoying sharp sound. my boxer, who has never done the singing dog thing as far as i know, has taken to softly singing along when she starts yelling.
i live around the corner from a firehouse, and i used to have a dog who sang along with the sirens all the time.
do you think it is because the sound hurts their ears? or is it that the sound strikes some wolfy chord with them?

[murielm99]

1. I think the sound hurts their ears.

When we were small, my cousins had a dog who would howl along when any of the kids cried. My uncle swore that it was because the sound of crying hurt his ears. That dog also howled when he heard high-pitched musical sounds, like a flute or trumpet.

[mopinko]

2. ok, this morning i think i have it figured out.

first- this boxer is a complete goon. she is the silliest boxer i have even seen. loves, loves to play. the bird was contented cleaning my ears for me. she was not yelling, but the dog came over and started 'talking' to her, growling and grumbling, and wiggling. the bird left my shoulder, went to face the dog, and the dog kicked it up a notch.
now she just flew off and landed on the floor, and the dog went into her full 'i wanna play' bow.
now the bird is sitting on a laundry basket, only making an occasional little peep, and dog is talking.
this is clearly the dogs idea of a good time.

[badgerpup]

3. KInda hard to tell...

Six of one, half dozen of t'other? :shrug:

You know those "Funniest Animal Video" shows they've got on the Animal Planet station-
the ones where the human-in-question is either allegedly playing an instrument :nopity: or (...er...well, vocalizing) in what they earnestly believe is a musical manner? :yoiks:

The dog or bird (and very occasionally the cat) doesn't seem to be in any distress or displaying
'Get me the hell outta here/Please, make it STOP" behavior.:hide:

They appear (from their body language) to derive a good deal of enjoyment from yodeling along with their human. :headbang:

This would count as a social activity here, would it not?

[TorchTheWitch]

4. it doesn't hurt their ears

If that was true then all dogs would react the same way to the same sounds. They howl either because they're scared, they're being threatening to the invading sound or just because they feel like it.

My next door neighbor's dog howls his brains loose every time the fire siren goes off whether he's in the house or outside. The dog next door to them only howls if she's outside. The dog on the other side of my house only howls (actually, it's more like yipping) intermittently only if he's outside and only if one of the neighbor's dogs is outside howling and only if the howling is going on long enough. The dog across the street only howls when he hears some other dog howling and will keep at it as long as that other dog does and stop when they do. My dog is oblivious to both the siren and the howling of the other dogs though he likes to watch them howl and sometimes ads an occasional low voiced woof at them, and out of all of these dogs mine is much more closely related to the wolf.

The only time my dog howls is when I leave him alone and he happens to be bored and doesn't feel like sleeping.

When a dog's ears bother them, they rub them or shake their head.