Ok, credit for me thinking of a topic to discuss goes to Lizziedog for suggesting me and applesmom be comedians in another thread
So do dog's have a sense of humor? There was recently an article about it in the latest AKC magazine that caught my fancy.
So you guys can go ahead and discuss it and I'll type out the article tomorrow (or part of it, it's kinda long).
I think that dogs do have a sense of humor and I think that they do find things to be funny or amusing. According to the article, that huffing noise that dogs make when they play can be interpreted as a laugh.
Oh lordy they sure do have a sense of humor and they could come up with it at the doggonedest times too!
I'll have to sleep on it and come up with a couple of examples tommorow. Buck was the undisputed clown in the family, but the others could hold their own too.
You know those owners who's dogs don't have a reliable recall? Well I bet those dogs are laughing their heads off at their owner running after them screaming at the top of their lungs and flailing their arms everywhere.
Another is with Rosie....She did the craziest thing once. She was all hyper, flew through the dog door, almost ran into the TV and then I laughed at her. Then she noticed me sitting in the recliner because I was laughing and she ran over and pounced on me (all 60 pounds at the time) and the glass of milk I had went flying EVERYWHERE. So I was about to die of laughter and she was on my lap making that huffing sound with her ears back her tail wagging.
Then when Rosie was smaller, Angie, who never plays with toys, loved to tease her. She'd pick up Rosie's rope toy and prance around her, enticing her to try and get it, and then she'd play bow too. Then when rosie finally decided to try and take it, Angie would take off running.
My kids don't think this is funny at all, but I find it rather amusing... Whenever they're outside, Venus will grab their hat or gloves right off of them and take off with it. Once, my daughter bent over to pick up her glove that Venus had stolen. Venus ran right into her behind and knocked her face first into the snow. I couldn't help but laugh. My daughter did not find it funny. Venus loves being out in the snow, but the kids beg me to keep her inside because of her hat stealing!
Ok, here's part one of the article I was talking about from the AKC Gazette. I'll continue to post more of it as the day/night goes on.
Anyone who's ever been on the receiving end of a saliva-drenched, masticated sock served in the first round of a two-out-of-three set of tug-of-war knows that dogs have a sense of humor: the wet-ball-on-the-newspaper-you-just-happen-to-be-reading gag; the side-splitting I'm-hiding-you-find-me prank; the knee-slapping keep-away caper. And who hasn't experienced the hilarious nose-in-your-crotch stunt?
With the growing body of research into why humans are humorous-laughter is credited with everything from lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of heart attack to pumping up the immune system - you might wonder if anyone is studying the dog's funny bone. The answer is yes.
A Real Stifle-Slapper
Exploring the architecture of animal laughter, University of Nevada, Reno, researcher Patricia Simonet found that the "huffing" sound dogs make during play looks a lot like human laughter when the sound is recorded with a parabolic microphone and run through computer spectogram analysis. Even the most skeptical kennel managers admit that barking and stressed dogs react by playing when Simonet's dog laugh-track recordings are broadcast in kennels.
Describing the essence of canine laughter, a blinde woman recounted a joke her guide dog played during long hotel stays at conferences. "My guide dog Dorian would confidently guide me to the wrong hotel room door, always the one that was just before ours. I knew this was a joke and not pure naughtiness because she would wag her tail furiously and make a happy dog laughing/panting sound, then take me to the correct door. She loved playing this game and would wag even mroe furiously when we finally arrived at the correct room as if to say, 'Wasn't that just the funniest thing?'" Simonet says dog laughter is like "hee hee hee" without the "h," the way a Heimlich maneuver would sound if you were laughing while you were choking on a piece of steak.
Until recently, humor was considered a defining trait of what makes us human, but mounting evidence shows that many animals, even lab rats, make vocalizations that sound alot like the curious sound we make when we are genuinely amused.
Acknowledging that dogs laugh, however, does'nt mean they think the same way humans do. Rather it's evidence that a long evolutionary path leads back to humor, something our common ancestors shared quite a while back. Apparantly nature considers laughter important in an evolutionary sense to preserve the funny genes.
Yes dogs have a sense of humor, although I never thought of the huffing noise as doggie laughter. I'll have to watch for that one!
My American Eskimo is a huge clown. Of course, her sense of humor differs greatly from mine! One of her favorite funny things to do is to get a prized toy and come prancing in the room with it. Her tail is up high, wagging, and her eyes are shining as brightly as they can. I always act so jealous of her having the toy. She gets this huge grin on her face (as visible as posslble with a toy in her moutn), and she prances out of the room. She thinks it's just hilarious!
She also steals gloves, lawn tools, etc. and runs away with them. This is a great game
I have known for quite some time that dogs really smile. It's a bit different than our smile, but it's there. I can see it better on my Eskie than my shelties. My shelties sense of humor is less exaggerated and mainly shows up during normal play.
What an interesting article! I've heard Casey laughing before, just didn't know what it meant. Now I'll have to listen in more carefully.
Does Casey have a sense of humor? Well I think I'll let her answer that one herself.
Casey's such a goof of a dog. When we have one of her toys that she wants, she'll get something of mine. She will also purposely hit Carley when I ask her to wave with Carley near her. One of my favorite memories is of her and my little sister (she was around 5 years old) in the backyard in the snow. They were at opposite ends of the yard, and just stared at eachother. My sister knew what was going to happen and turned her back to Casey. And then Casey came running over and pounced on her, knocking her head first in the snow and she proceded to steal her gloves. I'm positive she had to have been laughing during this.
Carley likes to pounce. Especially when you can't see her. She loves to creep up behind you and scare you. I'm sure she gets a kick out of seeing me jump. I'll just have to listen to her to see if she's laughing next time.
I totally think dogs have a sense of humor. I think you can really see it when dogs are keeping themselves entertained. When Jeffrey is bored he loves to take a ball throw it up in the air and then pounce on it. He then takes the ball and runs around the yard with. Sometimes in the house he will do the same thing but slam himself into the couch.
I always think that there are a lot of similarities between the behavior of dogs and little kids. I always see it in my dogs- the way the play, leave their toys everywhere, dotn always want to share toys, have to have both balls even though they cant carry them, and getting grumpy and restless as they get tired
As I said in my other post Buck was the real clown of the bunch in our early years in the breed.
He was always full of himself and could be counted on to throw in a little something extra with every performance. After he'd recovered from the Valley Fever and went to live with Rick and Jodie he really blossomed into an incurable comedian.
Our club held a lot of fun events and Buck and Rick were usually the stars of the show with their constant clowning around. The funniest incident was one cool, but not cold day in which we had done water retrieves. They'd taken first place and Rick was bursting with pride in his dog.
He had been working with Buck on tough multiple directed water retrieves and couldn't wait to show us all how well Buck was doing. He sent Buck back into the water after two small dummies.
Buck hit the water flying, swam out and easily collected both dummies as directed. Even though they were small he had a heck of a mouthful! He then turned toward obediently toward shore as Rick signaled him in.
The instant his feet touched bottom, though he was still in water up to his neck, he stopped and starting digging. Here was this dog with a mouthfull of dummies, churning the water into mud with his furious digging. The entire group broke into laughter.
Spurred on by the laughter; the more Rick called, the harder Buck dug! It was as if he was after buried treasure, but he never let go of those dummies. The water was too chilly for recreational swimming and Rick really didn't want to have to go in after him.
Buck kept it up for so long that Rick began to fear he'd collapse in the water from sheer exhaustion. He decided he'd have to go into the now muddy water after him.
Rick took off his shoes and his shirt and rolled his pant legs up, prepared to take the cold water plunge to save his dog. Just as he approached the shoreline Buck came splashing out of the water, delivered the dummies to Ricks hand, and before Rick could get the leash on him he dove back in and began digging again.
Thoroughly frustrated and not knowing whether to laugh or cry, Rick threw himself down on the ground. In not so polite language he told Buck that if he wanted to drown himself he wasn't going to stop him.
With those words, Buck came flying out of the water, bounded into Rick's lap, gazing up at him adoringly with mischief brimming from his eyes.
Rick hugged his soaking wet dog and burst into laughter.
