May 26th, 2008
The Dog Does Bark
Barking: A Watchdog’s Most Important Weapon
A watchdog’s function is to sound the alarm. A dog’s bark carries quite well and makes the perfect warning signal. Indeed, barking’s original function was to rally the pack to respond to a problem or a possible intruder, and it comes naturally to most dogs regardless of size - if you want a watchdog, you want any alert dog that will bark, not one that is lethargic and placid.
Scottish author and poet Sir Walter Scott once received some advice on the matter of watchdogs from a very credible source. Scott began his career as a lawyer working in his father’s law office. His debut at the bar involved the successful defense of a burglar. The burglar, who was in fact guilty of both the crime for which he was charged and several others as well, shared with Scott the following bit of wisdom: "Always keep a small dog that barks, rather than a large dog, which you think may serve as a more formidable guard, but may spend most of its time sleeping. Size doesn’t matter, just the sound." Scott took his advice and always kept terriers, which are vigilant little dogs, always ready to give voice at any sound or at anyone’s approach.
The first conscious use of dogs for their behavioral characteristics was most likely as watchdogs and guard dogs. For prehistoric people, the world was quite a hostile place. Various animals stalked humans as prey, and campsites were easy targets. A stealthy predator, especially one that attacked at night when the camp slept, could be quite dangerous.
Equally dangerous were attacks from other bands of humans, either because of intertribal warfare or to capture food, goods, women, or children. But the dogs hanging around the campsites on the lookout for food scraps quite naturally caused a commotion whenever a predator or band of strange humans approached. Aside from alerting the residents of the camp in time for them to respond, the dogs’ warning could even cause approaching threats to seek less wary prey elsewhere. As it became obvious that they made the camps safer, dogs came to serve not only as scavengers but as guardians as well.
It is highly likely that the first specific behavioral characteristic that humans selected in dogs was the tendency to bark. The first domestication of dogs probably involved the adoption of wolf or jackal cubs, and those that proved themselves to be good watchdogs by barking at any disturbance were more likely to be kept and bred by their owners. Those that did not serve this function as well could still be served as dinner.
