Here you can hear music composed to calm dogs and see how it was created
Source: plenty.r. photo - Creative Content License
There is now some music which has been specifically composed to calm tense dogs. This music has been created by
Garrett Charles Nash who is best known by his stage name
gnash. He is an American singer, songwriter and rapper who is probably best known for his song "i hate u, i love u". I was alerted to his recent attempt at writing music to calm dogs by an email which read in part
"He [gnash] has this poodley dog
named Daisy. She is one tense stressed out dog. I mean she is anxious
and angry enough so that he actually got some kind of medication
to use with her but as far as I can tell it didn't do a lot to calm her
down. Anyways I told him about an article that you wrote in January
which showed how reggae music could calm dogs and
he read it and got kind of excited about using music to calm Daisy. He
even called the researchers in Scotland that you mentioned to find out
more and then he wrote this piece of music for Daisy, and it seems to
work not just on her but on other dogs as well."
From what I could find out, Daisy was a rescue dog who developed her anxiety problems
while in her previous home. Apparently, gnash started with the idea
that music like reggae could calm his dog, but through trial and error
(using Daisy as his test subject) he found that certain musical
elements, such as simple arrangements and repetitions, provided the most
soothing effect. He has posted a video which outlines his creative
process and the journey which brought him to finally produce his
"Song for Daisy".
You can see that video here, and near the end is a fascinating
illustration of the effect that the music had when he played it for a
group of shelter dogs.
The resulting piece of music is rather long, spanning more than 15
minutes. No actual research has been done on the effects of this newly
created musical composition for dogs, except for observations on Daisy
and the casual observations at a dog shelter. I did play this recording
for my dogs (who were only in a moderately excited state when I started)
and they did seem to be quite calm during the time that it was on — in
fact both seemed to doze off while the piece was being played. I
actually felt a bit dozy as well, but maybe that was simply because my
informal set of observations was taken just after lunch.
For those of you who would like to hear the entire audio piece, or
perhaps conduct your own set of observations on your dogs you can obtain
it at the link below.
Since being in a dog rescue shelter is often a stressful time for dogs,
having music which actually calms and relaxes them could certainly help
to make the experience better. After all,
Music Therapy
is a recognized form of treating human beings with anxiety problems,
and there is no reason to think that it would not work on dogs as well.
Gnash summarizes his experience playing his composition this way.
"It was a powerful experience to watch an
entire room full of dogs, and my own rescue dog Daisy, react to this
song. It was incredible to be able to create music that transcends human
emotion and has the ability to connect with these animals on a deeper
level. I hope this video and song helps other rescue pet owners comfort
their furry friends the same way it did mine."
