18

There is a very famous proverb that "BARKING DOGS SELDOM BITE". According to the saying: The dogs which bark too much in loud tone, bite very rarely. It implies that the people who threaten you more saying that they will harm you, often does so.

Yesterday, my friend was debating on this topic with me very furiously saying that there is no proof behind this saying. He also pointed out that he have seen dogs who both bark & bite actively and simultaneously. I just burst out laughing after hearing this cause it sounded so funny.

So, I was just curious to know about how much truth is behind this proverb?

:-)

Flimzy
  • 15,520
  • 14
  • 63
  • 132
The God Damn Geek 'ANIMESH'
  • 589
  • 5
  • 12

1 Answers1

10

Barks are one of the way in which dogs communicate. For example, some barks mean loneliness and can be methodically distinguished from other kinds.

Our experiment showed that dogs can perceive the difference between barks originating from different situations, thus barking is perhaps a communicative tool not only for dogs to humans, but for dogs to dogs as well.

Dogs can discriminate barks from different situations Maros, Katalin et al., Applied Animal Behaviour Science , Volume 114 , Issue 1 , 159 - 167, http://www.appliedanimalbehaviour.com/article/S0168-1591(08)00042-7/abstract

Furthermore, the classic "aggressive warning" of a dog is a snarl or a growl, not a bite, and even this is not always associated with biting -- in other words, not all dogs that snarl, bite.

Owners of dogs that growl and snarl are often worried about having an aggressive dog. Growling isn't always serious. Dogs sometimes growl in play with each other, and may growl in play with humans. There are also conversational growls, like grumbling comments, such as 'do you really have to groom me?' which don't lead to anything. The dog isn't really spooked or angry, just grumbling. It's when dogs are spooked, very aroused, that growling starts to become a problem.

Dogs: Behavioural Problems http://www.infopet.co.uk/pages/0130.html

In conclusion: there are many reasons why dogs bark, and aggression is only one of them. Biting is more associated with other signals, like growling, and even in those cases, it depends. Therefore, to an untrained human, it is probably true that dogs that bark seldom bite, furthermore experienced trainers and dog owners may be able to tell the difference between behaviors and predict which bark could lead to a bite.

Sklivvz
  • 78,578
  • 29
  • 321
  • 428
  • 4
    You've given a lot of information on barking, but I can't see anything about the correlation between barking and biting; obviously not all dogs that snarl bite, but are they less likely to than non-snarling dogs? – Max Aug 03 '14 at 10:29
  • @Max what do you mean? I've shown that there is little correlation because barking is not a signal for aggressive behavior. It would be like saying that talking is a signal for punching. Surely most people who punch also talk, but... – Sklivvz Aug 03 '14 at 10:31
  • 6
    I guess you could interpret the saying as "dogs bite seldom, and barking dogs are no different", and you've given some evidence for that, it's true. But I interpret it as meaning "barking dogs bite seldom *compared to other dogs*". – Max Aug 03 '14 at 10:36
  • 1
    @Max What I have shown is that barking is a language, and is not correlated to biting. I've shown that dogs bark for different reason than aggression (e.g. loneliness), and I've shown that they bite without barking (e.g. for pain). This means that the assumption "dogs that bark often bite" is incorrect, thus "dogs that bark seldom bite" is correct. We could be discussing on what "seldom" and "often" mean, but I assume that the proverb simply means that barking does not indicate risk of biting. – Sklivvz Aug 03 '14 at 10:40
  • 1
    How does this answer explains the amount of truthfulness behind the fact that the dogs who bark more bite very rarely? – The God Damn Geek 'ANIMESH' Aug 03 '14 at 10:41
  • Dogs that bark because they are lonely, do not bite. Dogs that bark because they are happy, do not bite. Dogs that bite because they want attention, do not bite. And so on. In general dogs that are going to bite show a range of different behaviors, not necessarily barking. – Sklivvz Aug 03 '14 at 10:43
  • @TheGodDamnGeek'ANIMESH' what is the "amount of truthfulness"? – Sklivvz Aug 03 '14 at 10:44
  • I also think that your statements (and sources) do say that dogs bark and growl for a variety of reasons. However, this does *not* necessarily mean that it is not correlated to biting (just as an example - if a dog bites 50% more than average, 45% may be for all kinds of reasons, but 5% may be biting-related). Your source says, by the way: ""Generally, barking is a way that a dog communicates with you, rather than a threat against you, however it may represent a threat against a strange human" (though this is, of course, just a web site, not a scientific publication). – P_S Aug 04 '14 at 06:58
  • @p_S it makes no sense to average the bark-to-bite ratio across different kinds of bark. Also, I see no way of performing such an experiment: for example, looking at biting statistics will prove that some part of the bitings involve barking, but that still tells us nothing. What kind of evidence would convince you? – Sklivvz Aug 04 '14 at 09:43
  • The question (and the saying) do not discriminate between types of barking. You can read them either as "Dogs that generally bark more generally bite less", or as "Dogs that bark in a certain situation bite less often then those that do bark in such situations". Anything which bears on this statements would be valuable, from a survey which asks people how much their dogs bark and how much they bite to randomized controlled studies involving people getting a bite :) – P_S Aug 04 '14 at 18:21
  • @P_S if you can find better information, you can provide your own answer (or tip me off and I'll add it to mine). The problem is that the proverb is a badly posed statement. It's like saying that people that talk are not aggressive. Everyone talks, yet some are more aggressive than others. – Sklivvz Aug 04 '14 at 18:32
  • Barking and growling are a dog's way of yelling. There are many reasons to yell. Usually barking is a warning. Look for body language clues that biting is being considered: ears pinned back, hairs on back standing up, tensed muscles. (FWIW from years of experience but unresearched) – DocSalvager Aug 05 '14 at 12:33
  • @Sklivvz I thought the proverb is pretty clear. It is talking about aggressive barking, and it claims that dogs that bark aggressively are doing it as a warning and probably won't bite, while that dogs that actually intend to bite usually don't bark first – Kip Aug 09 '14 at 21:24
  • @Kip the only way in which I can interpret the proverb is "we are bad at judging intentions and we see aggressiveness where there isn't". Mistaking a type of bark for the other seems to be relevant to me. – Sklivvz Aug 09 '14 at 21:47