Music for the dogs

Music is good for dogs too. The right kind can help when a dog is anxious, injured or completely freaked out in a thunderstorm. I can attest to this from personal experience. In March 2007 we rescued a 4 month old pooch from the shelter. He had been picked up wandering the streets at 2 months of age and charmed the shelter workers into bypassing the euthanasia policy of 30 days to get adopted or else.

They named him "Smiley" because he grins when he's excited. At first I was a little freaked out with the grin, but now it melts my sometimes tainted heart. Anyway, we renamed him "Beau" and made him part of our family. One of the first things he needed was a bath. His hair was course, stinky and super dirty. Shelter workers barely have time to clean the kennels, feed and water the dogs and cats let alone give them a bath.

I took our jittery "Beau" into the bathroom and put him in the tub. He was freaking out. His little brown eyes were the size of saucers and his body was stiff as a concrete wall. I had to do something to calm him down so I started to sing. Now, I don't have the voice of an angel but it worked. I sang anything I could think of from Happy birthday to Momma's gonna buy you. After a year of bathing and singing, our "Beau Boy" is tolerant of bath time and smells so much better.

I've told a few people about singing to the dog and after they stopped laughing they tried it with terrific success. My sister-in-law started singing to her pooch who has long hair and hates the blow dryer sessions after a bath. "Max" is much calmer now and can handle to blow dryer noise.

If you have a jittery dog, try it. I think you'll be surprised. You can also read another story. Fetch it here! and/or click the title for great dog music.

Music for the dogs