A barking wuss?

[Binki]

My rescue boy is, considering the circumstances, a remarkably well adjusted chin: affectionate, smart and to all appearances, a happy little soul. What baffles me is that he only seems to have one sound in his voice, box, the alarm call, which occurs rather frequently when he is asleep. Not once I heard him uttering the usual chirping sound chins make when pottering around. I learned a mean imitation of the sound & used to have long 'conversations' with my other chin but now all my chirping attempts seem to fall on deaf ears. And I know he is not deaf and by no means a stranger to chin society.

The animal rescue he comes from told me that in a previous adoption he had lived for some months alongside another chin but that the introduction itself did not work. At some point he got attacked and has a broderie anglaise ear as a souvenir. Was his one-gear vocals responsible for this or he was attacked/alarm barks because he is a bit of a wuss?

He spends days and nights in a very quiet environment and his alarm calls seem to occur only while asleep. Or when I am late to let him out for playtime and he thinks a reminder woudl not come amiss. Is this a common occurrence among chins?

 

[tunes]

The wind blows - my chins bark.
The sky is blue - my chins bark.
It's time to eat - my chins bark.
Nothing is happening. at all. - my chins barn.

I know they do it if they are alarmed, but I'm also convinced they do it when bored.

 

[Jawramik]

It's so funny, my chin is the exact opposite. She hardly vocalises at all. When she does, it's just the occasional soft chirp. I've only ever heard her bark once, when I was trying to pull out a little tuft of her fur that was shedding out but hadn't yet come all the way out. She apparently didn't appreciate that and barked at me, but that was the only time I've ever heard that sound from her.

 

[ChinsForLife]

My chinchilla Chico is also very quiet but will "whimper" OCCASIONALLY when he's out for playtime, when I give him a new toy or if he's just happy. He also will sometimes "chirp" to let me know, when my friends are in the room, if he's not in the mood for company and it's usually accompanied by a little nip. (Just a "leave me alone" nip pretty much. He's never actually bit me before.) The only times I've ever heard him bark are when he's bored and wants attention at 3 in the morning (His cage is in my room) but that has only happened twice in 2 years and then once when I accidentally scared him coming into the room when he wasn't expecting it. Just a thought but if he's actually asleep then I guess it's possible that he could be having flashbacks/nightmares if the experience with the other chin was traumatic for him. (And it sounds like it was) Or he could also just be dreaming!

 

[ChinsForLife]

The wind blows - my chins bark.
The sky is blue - my chins bark.
It's time to eat - my chins bark.
Nothing is happening. at all. - my chins barn.

I know they do it if they are alarmed, but I'm also convinced they do it when bored.

I know that for a fact! I can't speak for others but mine always does it for attention. lol

 

[Binki]

The wind blows - my chins bark.
The sky is blue - my chins bark.
It's time to eat - my chins bark.
Nothing is happening. at all. - my chins barn.

I know they do it if they are alarmed, but I'm also convinced they do it when bored.

I had a good laugh and while at it something crossed my mind: remember those legends in children's books e.g. how the jaguar got its spots? Here is the legend of Why some chins bark-a-ton.

One fine summer day Tune's chins were looking out of the window and one of them turned to the others: 'Hey, guys, have you noticed all 'hem dogs out there lately? Every single human seems to have one attached to a string; our shelf space in the pet shops has already shrunk to the size of a hankie and if we do not up our ante we'd soon be toast. Chintoast.'

'But I have a cunning plan: let's profit from the 'fluidity' zeitgeist and become species-fluid: no more of that chinchilla chinchilla, or chinchilla lanigera or chinchilla brevicaudata: we can be a new species, chinchilla canina, chindogs, and do not look at me like that because I know we can win big time.'

'This is what I mean: dogs have coats; are you kidding me?, we have coats, real Coats, the softest-on-the planet type of Coat; dogs poop: big deal, we win hands down at that too. Dogs walk, pfff, we are Olympic gold at popcorning and parkour. So what are we missing? Dogs BARK big time, at cycles, cars, each other, their tails; good news is, we can do that better if we put out heads to it because we do not need a reason, we can bark at just about anything, even asleep. So let's start. This old apple stick is my baton and at the count of three we go arfff. Got it? One, two, three, arfff, arfff, arfff... arfff, arfff, arf ...ARFFF, ARFFF ARFFF'

Some telepathic chins caught the idea and that is how the legend of the chindog was born.

 

[Binki]

The only times I've ever heard him bark are when he's bored and wants attention at 3 in the morning (His cage is in my room) but that has only happened twice in 2 years and then once when I accidentally scared him coming into the room when he wasn't expecting it. Just a thought but if he's actually asleep then I guess it's possible that he could be having flashbacks/nightmares if the experience with the other chin was traumatic for him. (And it sounds like it was) Or he could also just be dreaming!

So my boy is not the only one 3:00 am barker! As you said, he may be calling for attention or having unpleasant dreams. Chins' motto: When in doubt, bark; it brings the humans running.

 

[ChinsForLife]

So my boy is not the only one 3:00 am barker! As you said, he may be calling for attention or having unpleasant dreams. Chins' motto: When in doubt, bark; it brings the humans running.

No, yours certainly isn't the only one! And I KNOW Chico isn't asleep because his cage is right next to my bed so I can see what he's doing and he will literally just stand, stare at me and bark with his nose up against the cage bars! And he isn't mad either, he just wants attention.