Dog growls express various contextual and affective content for human listeners

Area of Science:

• Animal Behavior
• Bioacoustics
• Comparative Psychology

Background:

• Vocalizations encode emotional states across species.
• Humans interpret dog barks but struggle with growls due to reliance on acoustic size cues.
• Previous research indicated difficulty differentiating playful from threatening growls.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if humans can discern emotional context from dog growl bouts.
• To resolve contradictions in previous findings regarding growl perception.
• To determine if dogs communicate honestly or manipulatively through growls.

Main Methods:

• Playback of natural dog growl bouts from three social contexts (food guarding, threatening, playing).
• Human listeners rated emotional load and guessed the context of growl playbacks.
• Analysis of acoustic parameters like pulse rate and apparent body size in growls.

Main Results:

• Listeners accurately attributed emotions to growls based on social context.
• Shorter, slower pulsing growls with smaller apparent body size were perceived as less aggressive and more playful.
• Participants correctly identified growl contexts above chance, with women and experienced dog handlers performing better.

Conclusions:

• Dogs may communicate their size and emotional state honestly in serious contexts.
• In uncertain or defensive situations, dogs might use growls manipulatively.
• Growl bouts, not single growls, provide crucial information for human interpretation of dog emotions.