I have strange ways of communicating with my dogs. And they have strange ways of communicating with me!
For example, I know that Moose wants my attention if he whistles at me. He doesn’t whistle like humans do — no lips are involved. It’s hard to describe, but he has a certain way of blowing air out through his nose that makes a whistling sound. Here’s how it usually works:
I’ll be sitting upstairs in the office. Moose will sit at the bottom of the stairs and nose whistle at me. The sound carries quite well up the stairs and into the office… maybe because it is very high pitched. I’ll say something like “Come on, Moosie!” and he’ll come lumbering up the stairs. He may pause halfway up to whistle again, and I’ll give him some more cheerleading.
Moose also uses the nose whistle in times of family strife. If Lally gets into bed first, she’ll often growl at Moose to keep him away. Despite him being the more dominant, he will look to me to settle the dispute. If I don’t do anything? I get the nose whistle.
When the Moose needs a visit to the yard, the first thing he’ll do is sit near the desk and nose whistle at me. If I don’t get the hint the first time, he’ll jam his head under the desk and stand there wagging furiously. My Moose is a special boy, that’s for sure!
Moose is also a talker. He makes his “Moose-noise” — a sort of WAAAAAH — when he wants to be scratched. Which is pretty much all the time. In fact, it’s because of that noise that he ended up being Moose. He came from the shelter named Coyote, but never answered to it. He seems to like Moose much better… and it sure does suit him!