Published: May 18, 2006 12:00 am            

Dogs have language all their own

Dear Dr. Fox: In an earlier column, you wrote that dogs make a lot of different sounds to communicate. Other than barks and yelps, what are they?

-- V.L.R., Miami, Fla.

Dear V.L.R.: Many years ago, I did voiceprint analyses of dog (and wolf, fox and coyote) vocalizations. Dogs vary individually and from breed to breed in their vocal repertoire.

Nursing pups make distinctive mews and, like adult dogs, make contentment grunts, sighs, moans, groans, whines, yelps and screams. Adult dogs bark, howl, yip, yowl, yap, lip/tongue smack, yawn-yowl, yawn-whistle (a high-pitched cry), pant, pant-huff (laugh), huff (warning) and coo/trill-yowl. Other sounds include tooth-snapping and head-shake ear-clapping.

Dogs make "sentences" with these sounds, which vary in frequency, intensity and duration. For example: "Pant-yip-yelp-pant-huff, bark-yelp" when soliciting play, "yip-yelp-bark-whine" to solicit attention and "huff-growl-huff-bark-growl-bark" to give warning. These sounds clearly express motivation, emotion and intention.

Dear Dr. Fox: We have two indoor cats named Ronnie and Nancy. They are about 1-1/2 years old.

We feed them only Hills dry food, but my Ronnie is several pounds overweight. Our vet recommended giving them half diet and half regular food. He said to stay away from soft food that may contribute to tooth decay and thus require many cleaning visits.

What do you suggest? They seem to like dry food with fresh water daily.

-- K.G., King, N.C.

Dear K.G.: It is not advisable to feed cats and dogs packaged semi-soft foods because of the high sugar content. Canned pet food with highly processed ingredients can lead to dental problems because microparticles get caught between the teeth.

Letting them chew on a raw chicken wing every two to three days is a natural way of cleaning their teeth rather than relying on dry food to do the job. (Dry food is ineffective if some of the processed ingredients and byproducts are microparticulate, thus likely to adhere to the teeth.)

Many cats do not drink a sufficient amount of water to maintain normal fluid balance when fed on an exclusively dry-food diet, which can lead to long-term health problems. Cats lack a normal thirst mechanism, a reflection of their desert origin.

They can also become addicted to dry food (often too high in carbohydrates), the net result being obesity, diabetes and urological problems. So feed your cats some canned food and consider raw foods and a home-prepared diet of whole foods rather than by-products.

Send your questions to Dr. Fox in care of The Norman Transcript. The volume of mail received prohibits personal replies, but questions and comments of general interest will be discussed in future columns.

        

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