We applied a novel head-out plethysmographic (HOP) method to study awake canine responses to external resistive loading and natural laryngeal paralysis. Measurements of inspiratory and expiratory specific airway resistance (sRaw(insp), sRaw(exp)) were obtained before and after uni- and bidirectional loading (R(add) = 5 cmH(2)O/L/s) in large-breed dogs (n = 9). Mean sRaw(insp) after inspiratory, and sRaw(exp) after expiratory loading were 31.4 and 33.3 cmH(2)Os, respectively. Bidirectional loads induced a significantly greater rise in both sRaw(insp) and sRaw(exp) (55.1 and 61.3 cmH(2)Os) compared to unidirectional loading (P < 0.001). Yet, type of loading did not affect flow-volume indices. The mean R(aw) of dogs was 4.81 cmH(2)O/L/s. Expiratory loading resulted in a significant 8.8% increase in functional-residual-capacity (FRC), compared to FRC(baseline) (76.7 ml/kg). Dogs (n = 5) with laryngeal paralysis demonstrated a significant increase in sR(aw) and R(aw) compared to controls without changes in FRC. In conclusion, HOP precisely characterized sR(aw) in response to external resistive loading. Hence, we could accurately quantify airway obstruction in awake dogs with laryngeal paralysis.