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September 19, 2017 at 11:43 pm #5470
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stephanie paladino
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My dog had a kind of breath-pant language. She had some specific pant-sounds she would make at specific times, like when she was excited that that we might be going out. The differences were in the sound she made (one was a very round hoh-hoh-hoh) and in the speed and rhythm of repetition. Often, when I would do the particular breath-pant back at her, she’d respond with more. I found myself sometimes initiating the pant to indicate we were going out, and she would often respond back. Another thing: early on, when I first had her as a young adult dog, I was woken up by yowling from her belly so loud that I thought there was another animal in the living room with her. The vet suggested I feed her twice a day, and giving her a breakfast took care of that. But if there was ever a time when she went beyond some time threshold without eating, particularly in the morning, her belly would start to yowl and squeal loudly; her response was always to go out and forage for a coupe of wild plants – one, a Verbena, the other a Solidago (goldenrod), both of which are used by people as digestive herbs, or a specific grass (not any grass). Getting food into her always calmed the belly yowls within a few minutes, but it interested me that she never seemed to make the connection – on her own, her first impulse was always to go find plants, rather than just eat food.