Symphony in L

I caught a front row seat to the most amazing concert last night! Pat and I brought the dogs home from their visit with Darcy, Foley, and Camden - Pat went to the grocery store, and I went out to shovel off the water and snow from the driveway. At first the dogs seemed to want to join me, but after their fun weekend with Darc and Foley they were tired and found their beds in the living room. After a while I heard a little howl and headed over to the window to see what was up. By the time I got there both dogs were in full swing. I expected to see them standing by the door, leading me to translate their howl as "hey let us oooooooooout". Instead, I saw Luna sitting comfortably on her bed by the Christmas tree, and Lincoln sitting in the middle of the floor - both with muzzles raised, lips pursed, and the most amazing sounds coming out. They didn't even seem to notice I was watching. After about a minute they were quiet. Luna was the first to spot me by the window with my mouth wide open in awe. I don't know that I've ever heard anything more beautiful.

I did a little searching to find out what their little concert might have meant and it could have been a number of things: they might have been bored or lonely (unlikely since they just got home and had LOTS of sniffing to catch up on and they knew I was just outside the door. Also, the howls didn't sound distressed or upset. They both seemed to be enjoying their song). They may have been trying to establish contact with their owners (this is a throwback to their wolf/coyote ancestry where howling was a method of communiticating with family members over distances). They could have heard a siren or other dogs howling in the distance and were trying to share their location. However, the answer I like the best is that they were bonding :o) Dogs sometimes howl because they're happy and just want to sing together. It was a beautiful sound.

We encountered a similar tone of howling when we were in Alaska visiting a sled dog camp. The dogs engaged in what the musher called a collective howl - they were just bonding and singing and having a good time. He said they do it at least once a day and it was just as beautiful with 60 dogs doing it as it was when Lincoln and Luna performed their little duo.