Research

Science Community Comments about Music and Animals and its Effects

"Dogs react to music much as humans do, said Dan ette Grady, education director of Living Free Animal Sanctuary in Mountain Center, Calif. A steady tempo and calming melody can soothe." Human studies have shown that relaxing music can slow the breathing, relax the muscles and reduce the heart rate," Williams said. "From my own personal experience, I've seen a similar effect on dogs." As a sound therapist, Williams advocates the use of music to help therapy and service work dogs relax."

The Effect of Music on Cognitive Performance: Insight From Neurobiological and Animal Studies Nikki S. Rickard, Samia R. Toukhsati, Simone E. Field
 School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, Monash University, Australia. 

The past 50 years have seen numerous claims that music exposure enhances human cognitive performance. Critical evaluation of studies across a variety of contexts, however, reveals important methodological weaknesses. The current article argues that an interdisciplinary approach is required to advance this research. A case is made for the use of appropriate animal models to avoid many confounds associated with human music research. Although such research has validity limitations for humans, reductionist methodology enables a more controlled exploration of music's elementary effects. This article also explores candidate mechanisms for this putative effect. A review of neurobiological evidence from human and comparative animal studies confirms that musical stimuli modify autonomic and neurochemical arousal indices, and may also modify synaptic plasticity. It is proposed that understanding how music affects animals provides a valuable conjunct to human research and may be vital in uncovering how music might be used to enhance cognitive performance.

Excerpts from Janet Marlow’s Book The Magic of Music for Pets

Using music to benefit animals in their environment is not a new concept. It has been documented that dairy cows produce more milk when listening to relaxing music. Researchers believe that farmers could get an extra pint from their charges by playing classical music. Psychologists Dr. Adrian North and Liam MacKenzie at the University of Leicester, UK played music of different tempos to herds of Friesian cattle. Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony resulted in greater milk production. When loud and rowdy music was played, there was no increase in milk yield. "Calming music can improve milk yield, probably because it reduces stress," said North and MacKenzie.

What we know to date has been largely understood and discovered by animal behavior departments and acoustic science laboratories in universities around the world, particularly over the past five decades. Many years of intensive experiments and methodologies have been developed to achieve conclusive data. In addition, with the invention of analog and digital equipment and software, researchers can now determine and measure sound waves into the thousandths of sound bytes. A great amount of this information, in my estimation, is to be credited to the scientific accomplishments of Henry E. Heffner and Richye S. Heffner of the Laboratory of Comparative Hearing, Department of Psychology at University of Toledo Ohio whose research has been a major resource for this book. Heffner writes:

"There have been three main sources of selective pressure on the ability of animals to perceive sound (Masteron and Diamond, 1973). The first has been the need to detect a sound, an ability that enables an animal to determine the presence of sound-producing objects in its environment, which in most cases are other animals. The second has been the need to localize the source of a sound so that an animal can either approach or avoid the sound source. Finally, an animal must be able to identify the biological meaning or relevance of the sound so that it may respond appropriately to the sound source. Over the last decade, our knowledge of the auditory abilities of animals in general has been the object of study because it was necessary to determine the hearing abilities of large mammals in order to answer certain questions concerning the evolution of human hearing." H. E. Heffner, Farm Animals and the Environment. (pp.159-184). Wallingford UK: CAB International.

FAQ

1. How do you know what animals like to hear?

Animals respond to frequency spectrums. With digital technologies and scientific studies in Universities on animal hearing capacities, research has been able to determine the specific range of frequencies of animals. An animal will stay near a source of music that has frequencies within their hearing range and move away from music that is jarring or extends outside their hearing capacities. Pet owners should make sure to turn OFF the subwoofers or turn down the excess bass, especially the louder they listen to music with their pets near by. Consider that an animal will "hear" ambient music approximately 3 times louder than we do or more.

2. What instruments do you use?

 

Pet Acoustics uses music programs combined with live recording for the orchestrations. The sustained long sounds  are most relaxing to dogs and cats. The music consist of tracks that include the sounds from a synthesizer with the in-studio playing of my classical ten-string guitar.  The good news is that the music can be composed on any instrument. Once the orchestrations are complete, it is the end process that fine tunes the listening comfort in regards to the CD production and the desired results. I have several software programs that graphically determine the frequency range that I have composed the music in. The final production phase is when I contour the "mastered CD" according to the frequency range. This guarantees the end result while centering the hearing range criteria. Each CD offers my musical expression and care which becomes a product for pet owners to use for the purpose of eliciting calm for the specific breed of animal in their environment.

3. Do you have certain pieces that you recommend for relaxing a pet and others that might be more stimulating, to encourage play?

 

The key to having your pet enjoy music is to limit the frequency spectrum and the volume. Use simple, melodious tracks like soft Classical, ecclesiastic music, Gregorian chants or New Age music, which is meant to soothe and calm. There is relatively little music production done expressly for the pet environment.