Barking is the dog’s version of communicating.
For all we know, the barking of dogs can mean several things.
Either they sense imminent danger around, or they are territorial.
It could also tell that they simply want a treat or for you to play with them.
Those, as mentioned above, are quite understandable reasons as to why dogs go on a barking spree.
However, have you ever noticed your dog barking every time you laugh?
They certainly do not have an awareness of what caused you to giggle.
But why do they bark along with your laughing? Let us find out!
Why Do Dogs Bark When We Laugh?
Although given the language barrier, dogs can also confuse your laughing with other reasons.
Below are some that might have caused your dog to bark:
1. Excitement
We already know that dogs can identify happy feelings.
Aside from that, dogs, unlike those grumpy cats, are generally excited when we are too.
And laughing can be indicative of happy emotion. Laughing can simply mean they are sharing our positive feelings.
They are pleased with us.
2. Anxious
Even if dogs are highly sociable and perceptive, they would still have difficulty deciphering our laughs when we do it while alone — every time you scroll through your feed and see a funny meme.
Or watch a funny video from YouTube.
Dogs will not understand what causes you to laugh on your own and might misinterpret it as an expression of pain.
In these cases, dogs will bark in anxiety, worried about your well-being.
Worse, if you cough midway, then your dog would feel more anxious.
3. Aggressiveness
The third and most unlikely is that it might think you are aggressive.
Some laughs may appear threatening, and the dogs will respond to this.
For reference, check out Jaffar’s evil laugh from Aladdin.
Undoubtedly, dogs will find these sounds alarming and might react negatively to them.
If the dog is your pet, they would be entirely familiar with how you sound, so they will not respond aggressively.
Learn More:
Does My Dog React Only to My Laugh?
It had been an age-old belief that dogs understand human emotions.
Their emotional radars are so strong that they can pick-up when we are happy or sad through our facial expression, sounds, and body language.
Then they react accordingly through their tail-wagging and joyful barking.
So, dogs respond to more than just your laugh.
However, they do respond positively to your positive emotions.
A research study on untrained domestic dogs from different locations and how they react to pictures of human facial expressions with their corresponding emotional vocalizations showed that the dogs looked longer at those images expressing feelings of happiness or sadness/anger.
Based on the results, researchers deduced that dogs have an internal mechanism of identifying emotions, precisely those positive and negative.
This same mechanism allowed them to bond with humans leading to their domestication.
Thoughts
Dogs are fantastic creatures.
They connect with us through our facial expressions and emotions.
Just be wary of how dogs bark.
If their barking is simply joyful barking along with some tail-wagging and skipping, then you are good to go.
But try to calm them down if their barks become stiff coupled with some growling or snarling.
