Timeline for Do barking dogs seldom bite?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
16 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 10, 2014 at 10:41 | vote | accept | The God Damn Geek 'ANIMESH' | ||
| Aug 9, 2014 at 21:47 | comment | added | Sklivvz | @Kip the only way in which I can interpret the proverb is "we are bad at judging intentions and we see aggressiveness where there isn't". Mistaking a type of bark for the other seems to be relevant to me. | |
| Aug 9, 2014 at 21:24 | comment | added | Kip | @Sklivvz I thought the proverb is pretty clear. It is talking about aggressive barking, and it claims that dogs that bark aggressively are doing it as a warning and probably won't bite, while that dogs that actually intend to bite usually don't bark first | |
| Aug 5, 2014 at 12:33 | comment | added | DocSalvager | Barking and growling are a dog's way of yelling. There are many reasons to yell. Usually barking is a warning. Look for body language clues that biting is being considered: ears pinned back, hairs on back standing up, tensed muscles. (FWIW from years of experience but unresearched) | |
| Aug 4, 2014 at 18:32 | comment | added | Sklivvz | @P_S if you can find better information, you can provide your own answer (or tip me off and I'll add it to mine). The problem is that the proverb is a badly posed statement. It's like saying that people that talk are not aggressive. Everyone talks, yet some are more aggressive than others. | |
| Aug 4, 2014 at 18:21 | comment | added | P_S | The question (and the saying) do not discriminate between types of barking. You can read them either as "Dogs that generally bark more generally bite less", or as "Dogs that bark in a certain situation bite less often then those that do bark in such situations". Anything which bears on this statements would be valuable, from a survey which asks people how much their dogs bark and how much they bite to randomized controlled studies involving people getting a bite :) | |
| Aug 4, 2014 at 9:43 | comment | added | Sklivvz | @p_S it makes no sense to average the bark-to-bite ratio across different kinds of bark. Also, I see no way of performing such an experiment: for example, looking at biting statistics will prove that some part of the bitings involve barking, but that still tells us nothing. What kind of evidence would convince you? | |
| Aug 4, 2014 at 6:58 | comment | added | P_S | I also think that your statements (and sources) do say that dogs bark and growl for a variety of reasons. However, this does not necessarily mean that it is not correlated to biting (just as an example - if a dog bites 50% more than average, 45% may be for all kinds of reasons, but 5% may be biting-related). Your source says, by the way: ""Generally, barking is a way that a dog communicates with you, rather than a threat against you, however it may represent a threat against a strange human" (though this is, of course, just a web site, not a scientific publication). | |
| Aug 3, 2014 at 10:44 | comment | added | Sklivvz | @TheGodDamnGeek'ANIMESH' what is the "amount of truthfulness"? | |
| Aug 3, 2014 at 10:43 | comment | added | Sklivvz | Dogs that bark because they are lonely, do not bite. Dogs that bark because they are happy, do not bite. Dogs that bite because they want attention, do not bite. And so on. In general dogs that are going to bite show a range of different behaviors, not necessarily barking. | |
| Aug 3, 2014 at 10:41 | comment | added | The God Damn Geek 'ANIMESH' | How does this answer explains the amount of truthfulness behind the fact that the dogs who bark more bite very rarely? | |
| Aug 3, 2014 at 10:40 | comment | added | Sklivvz | @Max What I have shown is that barking is a language, and is not correlated to biting. I've shown that dogs bark for different reason than aggression (e.g. loneliness), and I've shown that they bite without barking (e.g. for pain). This means that the assumption "dogs that bark often bite" is incorrect, thus "dogs that bark seldom bite" is correct. We could be discussing on what "seldom" and "often" mean, but I assume that the proverb simply means that barking does not indicate risk of biting. | |
| Aug 3, 2014 at 10:36 | comment | added | Max | I guess you could interpret the saying as "dogs bite seldom, and barking dogs are no different", and you've given some evidence for that, it's true. But I interpret it as meaning "barking dogs bite seldom compared to other dogs". | |
| Aug 3, 2014 at 10:31 | comment | added | Sklivvz | @Max what do you mean? I've shown that there is little correlation because barking is not a signal for aggressive behavior. It would be like saying that talking is a signal for punching. Surely most people who punch also talk, but... | |
| Aug 3, 2014 at 10:29 | comment | added | Max | You've given a lot of information on barking, but I can't see anything about the correlation between barking and biting; obviously not all dogs that snarl bite, but are they less likely to than non-snarling dogs? | |
| Aug 3, 2014 at 9:31 | history | answered | Sklivvz | CC BY-SA 3.0 |