An animal behaviorist says she's figured out what dogs are doing when they make that excited panting noise while playing or anticipating a much desired walk. They're laughing.

Patricia Simonet, development and program coordinator¹ for Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service, also found that the sound of dog laughter comforts other dogs. When she played a recording² of "play panting" through the speaker system at a shelter in Spokane Valley, all the barking dogs quieted within a minute.

"I wanted to see if I could reduce (the dogs') stress by playing the sound in the shelter," Simonet said. "I was surprised when they were calm and quiet."

Simonet, who will soon complete a doctorate³ in animal behavior from Northcentral University in Prescott, Ariz., presented her study on reducing shelter dogs' stress at the International Conference on Environmental Enrichment last summer at Columbia University in New York.

She started researching dog sounds in 2001 at Sierra Nevada College in Lake Tahoe, where she was a professor of animal behavior. After coming to Spokane, she began studying how to make shelter dogs feel more at ease.

Simonet and her students started by recording dogs at play. They eventually isolated⁴ the growling⁵, whining⁶, barking and the sound she now calls laughter.

About a year ago, she asked Nancy Hill, director of the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service (SCRAPS⁷) if she could use the shelter dogs to determine the impact of dog sounds.

When SCRAPS was closed on Sundays, she would play the tapes for the typically stressed animals.

"This is not home for the dogs," Hill said. "She saw that and wanted to help." Hill said she was pleasantly surprised with the results. "I've been here for 20 years, and this is the most significant thing I've seen," she said.

Hill is getting estimates to install a sound system that would carry the laughter throughout the SCRAPS kennels⁸. Calming the dogs this way may even make them more presentable for adoption⁹.

你听见过狗笑吗？美国动物行为学家帕特里夏·西莫内特日前表示，狗是会笑的，狗在玩耍或走动时发出的剧烈的喘息声其实就是狗的笑声，而这种笑声还可以让其它情绪焦躁的狗平静下来。

据美联社12月12日援引美国内华达山学院的动物行为学教授帕特里夏·西莫内特的话说，狗开心时也会笑的，而且它们的笑声还可以感染其它狗。西莫内特教授在纽约州斯波坎县动物保护局的狗棚里进行了实验，当她将狗的喘息声的录音通过广播播放时，狗棚里那些情绪紧张、一直汪汪叫的狗立刻在1分钟之内安静下来。西莫内特说：“我想看看，当我播放狗的喘息声后，是否可以帮助狗放松紧张的情绪。结果令我惊喜，它们果真都安静了下来。”

从2001年起，西莫内特开始致力于狗的声音的研究。她和学生们首先从分析狗玩耍时的声音的录音开始，最终分辨出了狗的怒吼、哭泣、咆哮和笑的声音。接着，西莫内特教授又开始研究让狗放松的方式，来到纽约州斯波坎县动物保护局的狗棚进行试验。这里的狗被放在一起以供人们挑选领养，而狗通常都显得紧张烦躁。

看管狗棚的负责人希尔说：“这里不是狗的家，所以它们总是叫个不停。而西莫内特教授播放录音后，它们都奇迹般地安静下来，这是我在这儿工作了20年见过的最棒的事情。”希尔表示，斯波坎县动物保护局正在安装播放狗的笑声的设备，这样就可以让狗舍里的狗变得安静，更容易被主人挑中。”