Doggie boredom is a problem that a lot of dog owners underestimate. At least until they come back home and find their couch destroyed. Canine boredom is especially typical for the more intelligent dogs like retriever breeds, water breeds, and hounds, which, incidentally, are some of the most popular types of pet dogs. How do you deal with, it, however? Hitting and punishing your dog is definitely not an option. Instead, most specialists recommend prevention – setting things up in such a way that your dog doesn’t get bored at all while you’re not home. There are multiple ways to do this, from hiring dog walkers/sitters to tiring your dog out before going to work. However, let’s take a look at a more unorthodox method – calming music for dogs.
So, what exactly does calming music for dogs look or sound like?
Most people that decide to play their dogs some music just pick a random playlist from iTunes and let it go. This is wrong, however, because dogs hear music differently than us. Dogs hear a lot of high pitched sounds that we can’t detect. So a lot of songs that sound ok for us can be a nightmare for your dog.
Additionally, for us, music is more than just sounds. We detect the words’ meaning, we understand the abstract meaning of the melody, and so on. For a dog, music is just sounds. So it’s important that the sounds are truly to your dog’s liking and that they are calming and enticing. Play heavy metal for your dog and you won’t come home to find Fiddo “calm”, exactly.
The latter point doesn’t mean that you should just focus on ballads – they too can have dramatic shifts in their tempo and melody, and stress out a dog.
Which are the genres of most calming music for dogs?
Multiple studies like the one done by the Journal of Physiology and Behavior show that there are 3 genres that are more calming for dogs than any other:
- Reggae
- Soft rock
- Classical music
Soft rock may be a bit surprising to some, but that’s what the statistics show. It should be pointed out that the rock must really be “soft” and not be more of a mixed genre. As for classical music, the type of classical music is quite important. “Classical” isn’t really a genre in and of itself, it’s simply a description of all music that’s considered “a classic”. So, while some soft and easygoing classical music is great, you might want to stay away from Rachmaninoff.
