12/21/2025
Why Don't they Bark?
Ed note: The web version of this article includes a video and links - https://nationalpurebreddogday.com/why-dont-they-bark/
It was the Europeans who first noticed the Basenji’s curious lack of normal barking when explorers encountered the breed in Central Africa in the late 19th century, around 1895. The Basenji’s reputation as a truly “barkless dog” did not fully take hold, however, until the mid-20th century, when British breed authority, Veronica Tudor-Williams, put the idea to paper in her influential book Basenjis, The Barkless Dog, published in 1946. Her work was reinforced by kennel-club recognition and popular media in the 1950s, and the Basenji became firmly established the barkless breed.
The term barkless, however, has fuzzy edges. Basenjis can vocalize—yodels or “baroos,” howls, growls, and screams—but they do not produce a typical, repetitive bark, which is why the label has persisted. To our knowledge, no other recognized breed emphasizes this trait so consistently in its history, breed literature, or standard descriptions (the AKC breed standard writes, "The Basenji should not bark but is not mute"). We encourage you to visit the web version of this article to see the video clip that illustrates this.
Until the late 1970s, the “fact” that the breed was barkless was largely observational, and the reasons for it were speculative by earlier breed writers such as Veronica Tudor‑Williams and Forrest Bryant Johnson.
That changed when the first scientific work identifying a plausible anatomical basis for why Basenjis don’t bark came from formal veterinary anatomy research. In 1979, R. R. Ashdown and Teresa Lea at the Royal Veterinary College in London published a comparative study of Basenji larynxes in the Journal of Small Animal Practice. They noted that the laryngeal ventricle and saccules were shallow or reduced compared with other breeds. These structures normally allow a dog’s vocal folds to vibrate freely, producing the repetitive bark typical of most dogs. In Basenjis, the reduced ventricle and saccules limit this vibration, explaining why they don’t bark in the usual way. Their conclusions were based on direct post-mortem anatomical examination of Basenji larynxes compared with those of barking breeds.
According to the abstract and historical notes reproduced in the Basenji Club of America, the larynx specimens examined by Ashdown and Lea were obtained from Basenjis that had already died of natural or other causes, specifically, larynxes from “two aged Basenji bi***es” whose bodies were used for dissection after death, and their laryngeal structures compared with those of other dogs post-mortem. The Ashdown & Lea paper marked the first clearly documented explanation of how Basenjis are barkless based on anatomical study.
Why a barkless dog was an advantage to Central African hunters who had been breeding and selecting these dogs for centuries was less clear, but one can theorize that a silent or near‑silent dog allowed hunters to move close to game without the dog’s voice alerting or scattering the animals. Other tribal sources and breed experts also theorize that in predator-rich environments, a dog that barked might draw leopards and/or hyenas toward the village. Hunters often tied bells to Basenjis to keep track of the dog’s location which suggested that silence was expected and desired.
The Basenji remains a singular breed, its barkless nature the product of centuries of selective breeding and unique laryngeal anatomy, combining stealth, intelligence, and distinctive vocal charm in a dog unlike any other.
Image of Basenji by Liudmila Bohush/Shutterstock
