Dog play pant: An annotated dataset of dog vocalizations during dog-human social play

Dog (Canis lupus familiaris) vocal communication occurs across a wide range of social contexts, including dog–human social play, a common and dynamic interaction in which diverse vocal signals are expressed, particularly in young dogs. However, most available open datasets of dog vocalizations focus primarily on barks, leaving other sound types underrepresented. Here we present a bioacoustic dataset of dog–human social play sessions recorded under standardized laboratory conditions, comprising 30 play sessions involving 17 young dogs (6–24 months old) of different breeds playing with familiar humans. Raw audio recordings are accompanied by two layers of annotations covering the dog sounds produced during sessions. Video recordings of the sessions are provided for contextual reference, along with metadata describing each dog and the experimental sessions. Additionally, permutation-based classification analysis showed that annotated sound categories exhibit above-chance and generalizable acoustic differences across individuals. The dataset may support research on dog vocal communication and expand the range of sounds documented during positive dog–human social interactions.The dataset contains: Samples of play sessions. Example 10-second video clips (one per participant) illustrating dog–human social play interactions. These clips provide a quick overview of the recording context and the type of data included in the dataset. Raw recordings. The raw data include recordings from 17 individual dogs collected during dog–human social play sessions at BARKS Lab, Budapest, Hungary. The raw data include original multi-view video recordings as well as synchronized videos with two angles of view and sound. Video recordings capture the dog-human social play interactions from multiple camera views, while audio was recorded using a Zoom H4 recorder with two or three external microphones depending on the recording setup. Recordings were saved in WAV format using PCM encoding, with a sampling rate of 48 kHz. Play session recordings. Audio recordings corresponding to 30 dog–human social play sessions. Annotations. Two layers of annotations covering the acoustic events produced during the 30 social play sessions Metadata. It includes information about dog identity, session number, recording date, and dog characteristics such as name, breed, sex, age, and weight. Additional fields document the recording equipment and technical audio parameters associated with each recording. Readme. Overview of the dataset structure, file organization, and instructions for navigating the dataset. All procedures were approved by the institutional animal ethics committee in Hungary (approval number: ELTE-AWC-003/2026), in accordance with Good Scientific Practice guidelines and national legislation. The study complies with the ARRIVE guidelines and was carried out in accordance with the ASAB/ABS guidelines. Participation was voluntary, and informed consent was obtained from all caregivers prior to testing, including explicit consent for the public sharing and reuse of identifiable audio and video recordings and associated annotations. This dataset is part of the Dog Laughter Project. This research was enhanced by a collaboration at the Diverse Intelligences Summer Institute (DISI), funded by a grant from the John Templeton Foundation. A data descriptor describing this dataset has been submitted to Scientific Data for consideration. A preprint version is available on bioRxiv: https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.04.20.719471 This publication was made possible through the support of Grant 63138 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation. This research was funded in whole or in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): 10.55776/ESP602 and by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme (101125731).