FAQ - Howling at Sirens?

One question I see come up quite frequently on various boards and "answer" type sites is, "Why does my dog howl when he hears sirens?" This question is invariably followed by several people answering, "Because the sirens hurt his ears!" or "The frequency of the sirens is painful to him."

In reality, however, dogs don't howl because the sound of a siren is painful to them. If pain were the cause, then all dogs would howl at sirens, with the exception of dogs that are deaf or have significant hearing loss. But there are just as many dogs that howl at sirens as there are dogs that do not. My Abby, for example, doesn't.

The second thing to consider is that howling is not usually indicative of pain in dogs. I don't know of any dogs who howl if they are hurt or are experiencing ear pain, such as an ear infection. Dogs usually show pain by yelping, whining, and pawing or biting at the painful body part. The dogs I've seen that howl at sirens don't do any of these things - their ears are usually pricked forward in attention before they begin to howl.

Also remember that dogs have the ability to "block out" some loud noises by folding back their ears to protect their hearing. If a sound bothers a dog, the dog folds back his ears instead of howling. I have a couple of photos of my Abby doing this while firetrucks passed her with their sirens on at last year's Christmas parade. I have yet to see a working dog howl around gun fire at the range ... if anything, you'd think that would hurt their ears.

So why do dogs howl at sirens, then?

The reason goes back to the dog's instinct, or more particularly, the instinct of his wolf ancestors. This is also why not all dogs show this behavior - some no longer have this instinct due to years of selective breeding that have all but removed some of the dogs' most natural traits. This instinct is howling for communication.

Wolf packs howl for a wide variety of reasons. Howling helps a pack communicate and coordinate when they are spread out over large distances while hunting or traveling. It helps them find a lost cub or pack member. It helps communicate being lonely. It can even be a group activity and many wolf packs actually howl in harmony with different wolves howling at different frequencies. And, lastly, it can be a warning toward other wolf packs that may encroach in a pack's territory.

It's natural for many dogs to howl when they hear sounds that sound similar to the howling of another dog (or wolf) - certain flute sounds, singing, hearing a dog on TV or the radio, and yes, hearing sirens. The howl "back" is an instinctual behavior ingrained so far back that your dog likely does not know why he's howling - only that it's "the thing to do".

Edit 10/25 to add:

In the comments to this post, fellow blogger Johann the Dog posted a link to a video on his blog, which shows Johann reacting to a tornado warning siren test. Text on the video aside, I think Johann's body language is very interesting to watch in this. He's up on a chair, looking out the window for the source of the noise, ears pricked up, and howling along with the siren. Definitely not a dog that is "in pain".