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THE LAST LAUGH IS NOT THE DOG  

by Barbara J. Andrews and with rebuttal below by Patricia Simonet 

Have you seen the “human interest” story that made the rounds on television? It was newsworthy only because we humans are always interested in what our dogs do. But dog owners only nodded at this story because we don’t need scientists to tell us what we’ve known since our first dog was a puppy!
A Nevada researcher made headlines with the announcement that dogs laugh. This was probably a fun course for the student and the professor but at what cost to practical education? They’ve spent goodness knows how long and how much money and sophisticated equipment to validate something we could have told them in just a few minutes. Patricia Simonet, an instructor at Sierra Nevada College in Lake Tahoe reports "To an untrained human ear, it sounds much like a pant, 'hhuh, hhuh,'" She says the exhalation registers a broader range of frequencies when the dog is laughing than it does when he’s just panting and they can visualize the difference through digitalized recordings.

Ms Simonet reported this profound discovery in Corvallis, Ore., at a meeting of the Animal Behavior Society. Not everyone accepted her findings at face value though. You know how scientists are. Gordon Burghardt (University of Tennessee Vet School Knoxville) has his own ideas about the whole subject of play but says this theory is interesting. He thinks her dog-laughing research needs more testing but admits that others have reported that monkeys and other animals seem to laugh.

Simonet tested 15 mostly young dogs in an observation room and they also recorded sounds from a park where dogs were at play. She reported that upon hearing the sound of a dog laughing, puppies would pick up a toy or begin to play. When they played growls, the pups were not moved toward play. Well duh! Brian Knutson of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. says this opens many more areas of exploration. He has recorded distinctive sounds made by laboratory mice when they interact with each other or get this, when they know they are going to get morphine or have sex. Who in the heck buys the dope and who watches over it????

Marc Bekoff, a student at University of Colorado is quoted as saying "When I get down on all fours and go up to dogs and go 'hhuhahhuhahhuh,' they get very solicitous." Well that could be a mistake with a Rottweiler. Someone should educate the student. Explain that most aggression against humans takes place when the person is at eye level with the dog. When an adult is standing, it represents, by sheer size, authority that the canine species recognizes. Knowingly Bekoff says "Whether it turns out to be like a laugh or not doesn't matter in the end, because what's important are all the questions it opens up about how communications work."

We couldn’t agree more and we hope they will explore some of the other communications signals that dogs send to humans. For example, how does a mother dog warn her pups that they are in danger of more than a scolding? She freezes and stares at them, prolonged and intense eye contact, until they look away. A dog will do the same thing when a child has gone too far with teasing or when a stranger makes unwarranted advances. The problem is, many humans don’t read these signals properly.

It would be great if science could persuade the news media to give equal time to educating people about how to interact with their pets even if the message wasn’t all “warm and fuzzy.” A clever promoter could make it a public service announcement to benefit children and their pets. Just teaching a youngster what it means when a dog curls his lip to expose teeth would be a good start. If children are old enough to be left alone with a pet of any kind, they are old enough to understand that animals feel pain and fear and to recognize the warning signals that mean “stop.”

Maybe instead of telling dog owners that dogs laugh and easily recognize classic postural invitations to play, science could take it one step further and slip in a little useful information designed to prevent biting incidents and promote understanding of more complex dog language. Dog owners know dogs have a sense of humor and let’s face it, non-owners don’t much care whether a dog can laugh or not!
Maybe the last laugh is on the taxpayer?

Correction from Patricia Simonet [psimonet@petalk.org]

Greetings, This letter is meant to correct and augment an article by Barbara J Andrews on dog laughter.  Dr. Marc Bekoff of University of Colorado has been a professor studying play in canids for over 30 years. Dr. Burghardt studied laughter in rats.

The Laughing Dog study was privately funded, no tax dollars were spent. The equipment used totaled $500.

The dog-laugh (even an human imitation) can be used quite effectively to disarm a threatening dog  For a recording of the sound go to: http://www.petalk.org/DogLaughSpect.html
Thank you for your time and consideration,

Trisha

Editor: We thank Trisha for responding to clarify the matter of tax dollars.  It is too bad that professors don't teach something that will help people earn a living, then there would be more tax dollars.  We can all laugh at this one except I sincerely hope that Ms. Simonet never tries to "disarm" any dog in attack mode by laughing at him....

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