Music to the Ears
Welcome to another blog! :)
You may be thinking, “Eileen, why are you writing about music in a supposedly pet related website and why is this introduction paragraph so long this time?” which is a great question. Let me explain.
As a musician who plays the piano, clarinet, and fife (a military flute) and has been exposed to music for the past 12 years, I would often play in front of my dog (Juju) and fishes to see if they had any reaction. Juju would only react to my playing and howl along when I was practicing either the clarinet or fife. However, she would often take a nap when I play the piano -don’t know if that is a good or bad thing but i’m cool with it! As for my fishies… there was no reaction other than them begging for some of those tasty fish flakes and just being happy to see me. I like calling them water dogs for those reasons.
After noticing these response patterns that I noticed specifically with Juju over the past few years, I was curious why she seems to respond to only specific kinds of sounds and came to the decision that since i’m writing these blogs all the time, why not write about what I find out and share it with the readers? I’m pretty sure there will be at least one person who is just as curious as I am, so tune in on what i’m about the share with you! And don’t worry cat lovers, you will also be getting a blog similar to this one but instead for cats ^^
Dispelling Misconceptions
Before delving deeper into this topic, I would like to go over some misconceptions when it comes to dogs howling that I was also subject to before writing this blog (The more you know!). Whenever we hear a dog howling, most of us automatically think that it is the dog’s attempt in joining in or creating their own music as dogs usually howl when music is played or sung. However, knowing that our fluffy pooches’ ancestors are wolves, we know that howling is actually a form of communication which can either indicate loneliness or as a way to serve social functions. For example, wolves howl to assemble their pack and to reinforce the identity of the group. As for the structure of what the most familiar wolf howl sounds like, first it begins with a continuous sound that may begin to move up slightly higher in pitch to then return back to the main tone, and finally can sometimes move lower at the end of the howl.
So what does this show us?
Multiple scientific analyses do suggest that canines do indeed have a sense of pitch. In these studies, recordings of wolves were taken during their howling sessions and what it revealed is that wolves will change their tone when others join in the chorus. It seems that none of the wolves wanted to sing the same note that the rest of the wolves were. This is the same instinct that dogs possess and this is exactly why when a dog howls along with music playing or singing, that they howl along in a different register (in other words, this is why a dog’s howling is very easy to pick out even though they are howling along with the music).
Why does this matter to our discussion?
What I went over is relevant to our discussion as dispelling those misconceptions will allow us to answer as to why Juju, and i’m sure many other dogs, tend to howl along with -most commonly- wind instruments (clarinet, flute, saxophone…) that require air to make sound. The reason why dogs tend to do this is because it is more similar to that of communicative howling that a wolf or dog would make than say, a piano would be able to produce. In other words, it sounds more like a howl which causes the dog’s howling instinct to kick in.
More to the Story
If you are a fellow pianist or play another instrument that dogs tend to not react to and are thinking, “Hmm… I probably should pick up an instrument that will make dogs react to my playing because that just seems cool”, don’t worry because dogs are listening to your music. I thought this as well at one point because Juju just never seemed to be interested in my playing and would even take a nap through the whole playing session. It just happens to be that dogs, just like us, do have their own musical preferences and react uniquely to different genres of music.
A Study
To find out if dogs do have musical preferences, psychologist Deborah Wells at Queens University in Belfast conducted an experiment in an animal shelter and exposed the dogs to different types of music. Their behavior was observed for three genres of music: pop, classical, and rock. She also made sure that it was really the musical aspect that the dogs were responding to so she exposed the dogs to recordings of human conversation and also periods of silence.
Findings
What Wells found supported the idea that dogs do have musical preferences. In her recordings, she found that dogs became agitated and began barking when listening to heavy metal music. As for pop music, the dogs did not seem to produce any behaviors that were noticeably different from having a period of silence. And finally for classical music. What Wells found is that dogs did react to it as they seemed to have become more calm. When listening to the recording, the dogs’ level of barking was significantly reduced and the dogs would often lay down to rest. What this means is that just like us, music also influences our pup’s moods as well. Music can heal. So for you classical musicians, don’t feel bummed out because your pooch isn’t reacting much. They probably are liking it!
Why classical music?
Some of you might be wondering, what about classical music makes the dogs feel more calm than the other two types of musical genres that the dogs were exposed to: pop and rock? Apparently it has to do a lot with the tempo of the piece (tempo being the speed in which a passage of music should be played). According to Dr. Cornelius, dogs tend to relax when exposed to music with a tempo of 50-60 beats per minute (a very slow tempo) and this tempo can be found in classical, reggae, and some types of soft rock.
The Power of Music
A key takeaway of Wells’s study is that the results have been so promising that many shelters are installing music systems that will rotate through their dog’s most favorable types of music that will bring calming effects and create an overall more pleasant atmosphere.
Did you ever go to an animal shelter and hear classical music playing there? If you did, feel free to contact me! I am really curious to hear what your experience was like. ^^
I hope you found this blog as interesting as it was for me when writing this! What I took away from this is that #1: I should play more classical music for Juju and #2: really appreciate the power that music holds. I had three music teachers and every single one, I remember very clearly did give me little speeches to make the point that music is healing and this blog without doubt really demonstrates that!
With that said, I will see you in the next one! Take care and continue to stay safe. :)
Citations:
[1] “Do Dogs Have a Musical Sense?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/canine-corner/201204/do-dogs-have-musical-sense.
[2] Editorial, PetMD. “The Science behind Calming Dogs With Sound.” PetMD, PetMD, 21 Feb. 2019, https://www.petmd.com/dog/science-behind-calming-dogs-sound.
[3] “What Kind of Music Do Dogs like Best?” Dog Tag Art, https://www.dogtagart.com/blog/what-kind-music-do-dogs-best.