If you have a dog, it’s likely that he knows a lot more about you than you know about him. He has been closely monitoring your daily habits.

If you doubt that, tell me how he knows that when you grab your car keys and your wallet you are about to go for a ride.

Dogs also learn quickly how to discover if you are sad or cranky or ready to play with them. They learn the time and place for family meals and the time and place when its bed time.

He’s learned much about you but have you spent any time learning about him? More than likely his behaviors are still mostly a mystery to you. Yet it’s fairly easy to learn if you put your mind to it.

Dogs’ barking serves many different purposes. A bark can be used to repel others and another to attract. Some barking styles mean “get outta here!” while others might mean “Hey, I’m over here. Where the heck are you?”. All but the most inexperienced dog watchers will notice that dogs have a number of different types of barking ranging from a muted woof of appreciation, to the high-pitched yelp of alarm, to the loud string of angry barks that mean he’s prepared to fight.

I think it was Sir John Lubbock, 19th century British behaviorist, who noted that a dogs bark is an effort to copy the human voice. Wild dogs, he pointed out, do not bark. Neither do their cousins the wolves, nor does any member of the canine family that has not heard humans speak or the barking of domestic dogs.

There is all the difference in the world between a bark and a growl. When a dog barks he flings his head high, leaving the throat exposed. It is definitely not a war cry. But when he growls he lowers his head in order to protect the vulnerable throat area, preparing for an impending attack.

When you walk up the path to a house and the family dog comes barking to meet you, you are in no immediate danger. But if he advances toward you, growling and with his head lowered and his tail as stiff as a ramrod, then look out for trouble.

If you stand absolutely still with your hands on your chest not one barking dog in ten will actually bite. However, if you make threatening gestures, or if you turn and run, your chances of one or more bites are extremely high. A strange dogs growl should never be disregarded by anyone who values his skin.

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