The Dog(s) That Didn't Bark in the Nightime
December 31, 2016 4:02 PM Subscribe
Last night, a teenage prankster rang our doorbell at 1:30 a.m. We have security cam evidence, but that's not my question. My question is, why didn't the dogs bark?
Our dogs go nuts when the doorbell rings during the day. They even fall for some doorbells on television/movies we're watching.
They were in the bedroom with us. We both awoke/heard the doorbell, so surely the dogs did, too.
Why didn't they bark?
Our dogs go nuts when the doorbell rings during the day. They even fall for some doorbells on television/movies we're watching.
They were in the bedroom with us. We both awoke/heard the doorbell, so surely the dogs did, too.
Why didn't they bark?
They were too asleep to notice it. One of my dogs is a really deep sleeper at night and nothing wakes her up. During the day, she can wake from a nap at hearing the smallest thing and start barking, but once she's tucked in for the night she's useless as a noise detector. lol.
posted by ilovewinter at 4:29 PM on December 31, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by ilovewinter at 4:29 PM on December 31, 2016 [6 favorites]
When the dogs bark during the day, are you right with them? Or are you in another room? My dog barks at noises outside the house when he is separated from me (in another room), but if I am with him, he does not bark. My theory is that he barks to get my attention when I'm not right there -- but if I am there, he assumes I am on it.
My dog's primary bond is to me. If my husband is with them, he still barks. The one variable we can identify is my proximity.
posted by OrangeDisk at 4:34 PM on December 31, 2016 [4 favorites]
My dog's primary bond is to me. If my husband is with them, he still barks. The one variable we can identify is my proximity.
posted by OrangeDisk at 4:34 PM on December 31, 2016 [4 favorites]
Have you had to train them out of waking you by barking during the night? If so, they might think it's simply never allowed.
posted by rpfields at 4:37 PM on December 31, 2016
posted by rpfields at 4:37 PM on December 31, 2016
Nthing they were asleep and probably chalked it up to a dream, in deep sleep. Dogs dream--most of us dog owners have seen sleeping dogs with their paws fluttering, vocalizing, even barking. 'Creepy thing that happens in the middle of the night' is probably in alignment with the stuff they dream on a regular basis.
During the day, they can guard you like sheep, but in a sense, they're mainly pretending. Real guard dogs aren't like that. I have a dog whose breed is used for police work, and one of the best things we've done is have dog walkers entering and leaving our house at random points in the day. It means that the pizza delivery dude isn't subjected to some terrifying frothy dog when he rings the door bell. It also means that unless our security issues amount to 'neighbor 400 feet away pulls into his driveway'....so we don't have a guard dog. (Which in case I'm not clear, is not something we want anyway.)
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:39 PM on December 31, 2016
During the day, they can guard you like sheep, but in a sense, they're mainly pretending. Real guard dogs aren't like that. I have a dog whose breed is used for police work, and one of the best things we've done is have dog walkers entering and leaving our house at random points in the day. It means that the pizza delivery dude isn't subjected to some terrifying frothy dog when he rings the door bell. It also means that unless our security issues amount to 'neighbor 400 feet away pulls into his driveway'....so we don't have a guard dog. (Which in case I'm not clear, is not something we want anyway.)
posted by A Terrible Llama at 4:39 PM on December 31, 2016
Does the dog know the teenager? My dog can always tell when it's my kid tromping on the porch vs other kids.
posted by corb at 4:40 PM on December 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by corb at 4:40 PM on December 31, 2016 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Thank you, these are great and giving me food for thought.
To answer questions posed:
When the dogs bark during the day, are you right with them? Or are you in another room?
Doesn't matter. When the doorbell rings during the day, wherever we/they happen to be, they rush to the window beside the front door to see who's there (barking the whole time).
Have you had to train them out of waking you by barking during the night?
Nope.
Does the dog know the teenager?
We don't allow our dogs to wander, so if we haven't seen him before--and we haven't--neither have they. (But I agree with you that our dogs totally don't bark when either of us is stomping around outside, to include ringing the doorbell if one of us has accidentally locked the door, which is rare but has happened.)
posted by Short Attention Sp at 5:01 PM on December 31, 2016
To answer questions posed:
When the dogs bark during the day, are you right with them? Or are you in another room?
Doesn't matter. When the doorbell rings during the day, wherever we/they happen to be, they rush to the window beside the front door to see who's there (barking the whole time).
Have you had to train them out of waking you by barking during the night?
Nope.
Does the dog know the teenager?
We don't allow our dogs to wander, so if we haven't seen him before--and we haven't--neither have they. (But I agree with you that our dogs totally don't bark when either of us is stomping around outside, to include ringing the doorbell if one of us has accidentally locked the door, which is rare but has happened.)
posted by Short Attention Sp at 5:01 PM on December 31, 2016
I'm with baccaj- the dogs have little or no notion of this, they just don't care.
Also: even if they are really good at barking for threats, this was no threat, and they were correct not to bark. I bet they would have barked if you got up and slowly headed to the door and the bell continued to ring.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:25 PM on December 31, 2016 [6 favorites]
Also: even if they are really good at barking for threats, this was no threat, and they were correct not to bark. I bet they would have barked if you got up and slowly headed to the door and the bell continued to ring.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:25 PM on December 31, 2016 [6 favorites]
They probably slept through it, dogs are pretty hopeless at noticing things late at night in my experience.
posted by fshgrl at 7:04 PM on December 31, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by fshgrl at 7:04 PM on December 31, 2016 [5 favorites]
In the daytime, my dog is hyper-alert; she'll bark if a squirrel farts in a tree on the other side of the street. At night? forget it. It's like her job is done when the sun goes down.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 8:55 PM on December 31, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 8:55 PM on December 31, 2016 [7 favorites]
My dog barked at everyone. Everyone. Us, delivery people, small children. Whatever.
Except the time we got robbed. Then, he was silent as the grave. Sigh.
posted by greermahoney at 9:15 PM on December 31, 2016 [9 favorites]
Except the time we got robbed. Then, he was silent as the grave. Sigh.
posted by greermahoney at 9:15 PM on December 31, 2016 [9 favorites]
Well robbers are scary. My dog isn't going to draw attention to herself if there is uncertainty about subsequent consequences. I saw her watching deer many times but she never barked at them until she saw another dog do it successfully. Now she's all about barking at deer. Through the fence.
posted by fshgrl at 12:01 AM on January 1, 2017 [18 favorites]
posted by fshgrl at 12:01 AM on January 1, 2017 [18 favorites]
Seconding those who say that the dogs considered themselves "off duty" at that time.
When I was a kid, our dachshund went nuts at the sound of the doorbell—when we were home. We learned from the paperboy (confirmed by others) that she didn't bark at all when she was alone in the house.
posted by she's not there at 1:19 AM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
When I was a kid, our dachshund went nuts at the sound of the doorbell—when we were home. We learned from the paperboy (confirmed by others) that she didn't bark at all when she was alone in the house.
posted by she's not there at 1:19 AM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
My dog barks at everything during the day, recently I've seen him barking at plastic animals from the car. When he was a puppy, he'd bark at night. But after he learnt to sleep through the night, he doesn't bark at night except if I get up. Since "night" is very long here, from 4 PM to 9 AM, that's a lot of not barking, and that's also why I know he will wake if I get up to see what's going on and ignore sounds if I ignore them.
posted by mumimor at 3:31 AM on January 1, 2017
posted by mumimor at 3:31 AM on January 1, 2017
Response by poster: Thank you, all. While I don't really know which is the right answer, if there is one, I'm going with "off duty."
posted by Short Attention Sp at 2:31 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Short Attention Sp at 2:31 PM on January 1, 2017 [1 favorite]
My dog barks during the day when people come to the door, and goes CRAZY if there is significant noise late at night - but if she is deeply asleep, she won't wake for a short one-time disturbance.
You could easily recreate the circumstances to see if they bark at a bigger/longer sound when they are more or less deeply asleep. (Well, my dog snores when she's really asleep, so it's easy to tell.)
posted by catatethebird at 12:47 PM on January 3, 2017
You could easily recreate the circumstances to see if they bark at a bigger/longer sound when they are more or less deeply asleep. (Well, my dog snores when she's really asleep, so it's easy to tell.)
posted by catatethebird at 12:47 PM on January 3, 2017
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by beccaj at 4:13 PM on December 31, 2016 [14 favorites]