Music Therapy and Your Dog

I realized years ago that music really helped sooth Simba while I was gone.  Simba has always been a high anxiety pup with separation anxiety.  She tends to bark at any little noise coming from outside thinking that it may be that horrible, big, brown UPS monster.  For the life of me, I can’t figure out what she has against the UPS truck or Mail carrier.  Maybe since they come up to the door and either knock or ring the doorbell, she feels they’re trespassing on her turf. She just doesn’t bark when she hears a noise coming from outside, she continues to pace for a good long time.  Dogs will usually pace when they’re nervous or anxious.  Simba is high strung when it comes to noises. 

Music has been shown to affect dogs as much as it affects humans.  I remember driving my son to his hockey games and he would ask me to play his CD on the way to the game. I can’t even tell you what genre it was, all I can say is that I immediately turned to road rage, wanting to pull my hair out, speeding, yelling at other cars, turning on two wheels, well you get the idea. As soon as he got out of the car, I turned off the radio and sat in total silence for several minutes examining how my mood changed from the music. Shelters have tried playing different genres of music and realized that each genre had a different effect on the dogs.  Classical music was one that helped relax the dogs the most. I have read many posts regarding this subject but found Music Therapy for Dogs – Does It Work? had great information on the subject.  One area discussed was If Your Dog Howls at His Soothing Music. I found this to be very interesting since Gypsy likes to howl only to certain songs.  One song, in particular, is ‘Hello’ by Adele.  I often wondered what she’s thinking when this song comes on the radio that makes her sing along.

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About Simba's Mom

I was born and raised in California, lived in Pennsylvania for several years, and have recently moved to Delaware. I have gone from being a teacher for 20 years to a blogger and now back to teaching but still blogging. I have a great dog named Simba. Simba is a German Shorthaired Pointer. Life with Simba is an adventure every day. I have had dogs my entire life but I have learned most about dogs living with Simba. German Shorthaired Pointers really do become your best friend. They become extremely attached and that is why they say they have the Velcro phenomenon. Simba now has a sister 8 years younger and her name is Gypsy.
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