Re: Why do dogs howl when they hear a siren?

Hi Gayle,
I think everyone at one time or another has been plagued by the reason a 
dog howls.
Many people believe that dogs howl in response to fire-truck and police 
sirens because it hurts their ears. This is not so, the response is a 
throw-back to the wild  instinctual behavior of howling in response to 
another dog's howl. 
Pack animals like wolves and dogs will howl in harmony as a form of staying 
in touch over distances and communicating between packs. You begin to 
"howl" and your packmate simply joins in.
It's the reason all those dogs howl on the video shows when their owners 
play the clarinet, howl, sing,or play songs on the radio. It's an 
instinctive wolf behavior. 
Wolves will howl together as a social and territorial ritual. They also 
howl to locate each other when the pack is split up, to help coordinate 
hunting activities or to reassemble the pack.
Check out the following sites:

 
http://www.desertusa.com/june96/du_cycot.html 
 
http://www.ngpc.state.ne.us/wildlife/coyote.html  http://www.wildlifetech.com/sounds.html  
http://w3.one.net/~tjones/coyote.htm htm  
http://www.bright.net/~swopejak/coyote.  
http://pc65.frontier.osrhe.edu/HS/SCIENCE/zocoyote.htm 


June Wingert    Mad Scientist