Yes, surprisingly a paper published by the University of Glasgow suggests that dogs like reggae more than any other type of music. Who’d have thought?
By playing a wide variety of songs and different musical genres, scientists found some surprising things. The dogs within a shelter were exposed to various types of music. Then, their behaviour and physiology was measured and observed for any potential changes. It was found that dogs like reggae and soft rock the most. This is because the most positive behavioral changes were seen when these two genres of music were played.
However, despite these two genres being the most prominent in terms of positive behavior changes, this is not the whole story. It was actually found that different dogs like different music genres more than others! This suggests that our furry friends are very similar to us humans. Much like us, they have different musical preferences to each other and prefer certain genres over others. How amazing!
It only seems natural that each and every dog would have their own unique music taste. Why would that be a human-specific trait? Now i can’t get the idea of various dogs perusing the CD section of a HMV out of my head. I think my own dog would probably be a big fan of Lady Gaga, but that’s just a guess based on his owner!
Do other animals like music?
Now that we’ve established that dogs like reggae, dogs like soft rock and not only that but dogs like all kinds of music, what’s next? I think we need to look at the rest of the animal kingdom and whether some other species have any musical preferences.
Cats are the next logical step after looking at dogs i think. Cats are big fans of classical music. I know that my cat personally becomes very relaxed when listening to classical music. If there’s ever a thunderstorm or god forbid a firework show, he goes into a frenzy. Anxious and distressed, it seems there’s no calming him. However, if i just put some relaxing Mozart or Beethoven on, it calms him right down. Studies have also found that cats are pretty big fans of pop music!
Somehow it feels so right that dogs like reggae and cats like classical. Something about that just fits with the typical dog person and cat person traits.
Cats were actually seen to become very distressed at the sound of rock music. The upbeat, loud chaos of rock is too much for our gentle spirited feline friends and should be avoided at all costs.
The next animal on our list is parrots. Parrots are big fans of lots of music and will often dance along to tunes they like. From bobbing their head to lifting their legs and flapping their wings, they can’t get enough! Parrots have broad tastes in music, varying from bird to bird. So if you’ve got a parrot, play it some different tunes. You might be able to find out which genre it loves the most!
In general the lesson from today is that animals are more like us than we give them credit for, we just have to listen!
Extra information
Animal-Club provides animal parties or animal handling workshops. You will be able to see, learn and interact with many wonderful animals with the help of our presenters. Our mobile zoo has many friendly animals such as rabbits, tarantulas, geckos, vinegaroons and more, perfect for an animal party. We can also come over to your school for an animal school visit or arrange for an animal workshop with us where the children can learn about looking after animals and animal behaviour, and have fun too.