I read an interesting study on how different types of music affects dogs.
You can read it yourself at www. throughadogsear.com.
In this study dogs were exposed to popular forms of music: heavy metal, hard rock, jazz, rap and classical. In all of the music styles - except one - the dogs' heart rates increased along with their energy, agitation level and in some cases aggression. The one musical genre that caused the dogs to relax and in some cases even go to sleep was classical music.
The concept and use of "entrainment" - external rhythms causing major body pulses to speed up for slow down- has been around for a long time with regards to humans.
Yet it is relatively new in relation to dogs because most people never thought that dogs even mentally processed music, let alone were affected by it, but low and behold, dogs have the same brainwave patterns as humans.
What this means is that sounds within the environment that would agitate you as a human could also agitate your dog. This brings us to the concept of creating a calm environment for an owner to encourage a calm and relaxed dog.
Enter "Through a Dogs Ear," a series of musical CDs that are designed specifically for the purpose of slowing the heart rate and brainwave patterns in dogs to reduce stress, anxiety and agitation. Actually, they can also be useful for humans, since our brainwave patterns are the same as dogs (hint hint road ragers!).
According to psychoacoustical research the specific music on the CDs helped calm anxious dogs with separation anxiety, fear of thunder or loud noises, riding in vehicles and excessive attention seeking with more than 85 per cent of the dogs in the research responding positively to the calming acoustical interludes. That is great news for anyone who has a dog that suffers from any of those issues as the anxious energy created by the anxious dog affects the owner in terribly negative ways, which in turn is absorbed by the dog, creating an endless cycle of anxious energy.
Now this music is not meant to replace a solid foundation of leadership and training. But it can be an extremely helpful tool to help a dog cope with these issues when combined with proper training techniques.
From an additional training perspective it would be a great idea to have the CDs playing in the background of any obedience class or in any setting where dogs can feel anxious, such as dog daycares, groomers, vet clinics, etc.
But the CDs don't have to be used for anxious dogs only. They are a great tool to create a zen-like atmosphere at any time for any dog (or human) and the more often you can have a dog (or human) in a calm and relaxed state the healthier your dog (or human) will be mentally, physically and emotionally.
From a personal perspective I was listening to the CD Music to Calm the Canine Companion - Volume 1 while writing this column and fell asleep halfway through while sitting on the couch with my laptop still on my lap!
My dogs, you ask? They both were out like a light, long before I was.
Finally, the incidences of both canine and human aggression are on the rise. Much of this is attributed to our noisy environment that assaults our senses.
Therefore, creating an environment where we can calm our nerves and de-stress is important, a place where we can reconnect with ourselves at the end of the day.
We are meant to be confident leaders for our dogs, and our dogs offer companionship for us, which helps us relax from our hectic lives. But if they're not calm and relaxed themselves they can't help us, and if we are not calm and relaxed we can't help them.
Ditch the heavy metal headbanging music and put on some Mozart for your mutt.
