Besides simply being awesome, classical music has plenty of benefits. An animal shelter in Maryland recently found that playing classical music during the day was great for the dogs. Now, the Frederick County Animal Control and Pet Adoption Center plays classical music every day.
Didi Colp, a humane educator at the shelter, says that a study was conducted that found that dogs both enjoy classical music and find it to be calming.
"The research that was done said that particularly classical music is comforting to dogs. We now have a program where we play classical music over our intercom for the dogs during the day.”
She’s likely talking about the Colorado State University study that was recorded in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior a few months ago. The stress of a kennel can be a pretty heavy burden, but the study confirms that classical music can help in several ways, including allowing the dogs to calm enough to sleep more often as well as spend less time panicking vocally.
Reading a study and seeing something happen in practice are two different things and according to Your4State News, the practice is going very well at the Animal Control center. The music plays for 14 hours a day after which it is shut off so that the animals can rest. The classical music drowns out other unnecessary and annoying noise in the kennel. Additionally, listening to the music gives the dogs something to do while they are cooped up. Overall, it’s a win-win situation for the animal shelter. Hopefully, happy dogs will lead to more adoptions, as well.
Photo credit @ Shutterstock/ Pojoslaw
