I just came across this while searching for someone else? Anyone think this may be true? Perhaps just another form of dog talk/signaling?
Dog laughing
We know dogs bark and pant, but do they laugh? And if so, when? 7Healthcast Reporter Dr. Deanna Lites has more on a new phase of dog laughing experiments.
If you think dogs don't laugh, maybe you're just not in on the joke. While dogs may not appreciate jokes, they probably do laugh. We hear it as panting. But the exhalations, seen here on the top line of this spectrograph, show a broader range of frequency than the plain old panting you see underneath.
Here's a dog yucking it up. This is how animal behaviorists interpret dog laughter. "The sound that means friendly greetings and I come in peace," explains animal behavior researcher Patricia Simonet.
Simonet's findings were first published in the journal Science News a few years back. What's new is that now they're testing dog laughter on dogs. They've been playing dog laughter over loudspeakers at this shelter. When they play it, yapping dogs get quiet, really quiet.
Animal shelter director Nancy Hill says, "I was very surprised at results. It was like; 'am I in the right place?' it was so quiet almost night and day difference." The researchers themselves even managed to calm down dogs by imitating the special panting.
For some dog owners, this only confirms what they knew. "My dog totally laughs. It's like huh huh huh."
Now every time they pant, we're going to have to worry they're laughing at us. This research is being done in Washington State, at the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service.