90% of Pet Owners Don't Know Why Dogs Howl at Sirens
As a pet owner, you may find that dogs have a lot of puzzling behaviors. You notice that when dogs are quiet at home, they will bark immediately if they hear a dog barking outside. Moreover, when dogs hear the sirens, they will make rapid sounds and howl crazily. Not only that, but they also bark when they hear the whistle. Why are they so sensitive to sound?
Why Dogs Howl at Sirens?
Similar to the Wolf's instinctive reaction
According to existing biological studies, although there is no evidence that dogs were domesticated by wolves, dogs are indeed close relatives of wolves. They howl to communicate information to their companions. What's more, wolves have a keen hearing system so they howl when they're far away from each other. They can easily distinguish the sounds of different mates. When one wolf is injured and separated from the others, the companions howl to locate them. The dog now domesticated has a wolf-like instinct and excellent listening ability. They tell each other apart by howls.
Provide location to their companions
Dogs don't actually know what a police car sounds like. They often interpret the siren as some kind of animal howl and try to provide positioning by howling themselves. It's possible the dog hears the alarm and thinks something's wrong. But few people know that dogs rarely howl loudly because the noise will damage their sensitive ears. The more the dog heard the alarm, the more it responded to it. The howling dogs noticed that the alarm was moving away from them after they howled, and they may have associated their howling with the loss of the noise.
It is now clear that dogs howl when they hear the sirens because they want to provide orientation, not the alarm that makes them feel pain. On the other hand, dog owners may feel differently.
What should you do?
Although there is no harm in dogs howling, sometimes it can be because they are upset or have a poor condition. If you find your dog howling but you don't hear the alarm, maybe you should consider taking it to a pet hospital.