The shelter can be traumatizing to any dog, especially when they’re there for a long period of time. While it can be difficult to reduce the stress for the cooped up animals, a recent study by Colorado State University suggests that playing classical music calms dogs down.

Shelter Dogs Relax

Classical music has long been thought of as having benefits for humans, so it’s not surprising that it may affect dogs as well. In the study, dogs who listened to the music that were sheltered or kenneled slept more, had slower heartbeats and didn’t bark as much.

In the study, 117 dogs of all different breeds were analyzed and thousands of behavioral assessments were done. The pups in the study listened to 45 minutes of three different music genres and their reactions were recorded. Heavy metal seemed to cause more anxiety, but classical music was linked to slower heartbeats, more sleeping, less barking and less whining. Interestingly, classical music was even better for the dogs than the “psychoacoustic” CDs designed to calm them.(dog walking services nyc)

Sounds like something that you could implement at home! Have you tried playing music to your dog? What has been the result?

Source: Ohmidog, image via my.opera.com