Riverside County shelters have dogs rolling over for Beethoven!
15:22 - January 28th, 2008 /// Posted By admin /// Tags :
According to a news article in the Press Enterprise today, music is soothing to a great many dogs in the Riverside County dog shelters.
For dogs, a growing body of research indicates they bark less and suffer fewer anxiety attacks when listening to Bach, Schubert and Chopin.In the Inland area, piped-in chamber music, concertos and sonatas waft through county animal shelters 24 hours a day in Riverside and Thousand Palms.
Senior animal behaviorist Teryn Hartnett sees happier, better-adjusted, easier-to-adopt dogs as she strolls among the kennels for the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.
“A shelter dog’s world is pretty stressful,” she says. “Their owners are gone, the only environment they’ve probably ever known — their home — is gone. “They don’t understand why they were left here or why an animal control officer picked them up off the street and put them in the back of a truck.”
Familiar with the research on dogs’ reactions to music, Hartnett won approval for canine classical. The piped-in music began last summer, and the cost at each facility is about $100 a month.
Anecdotal evidence from shelter employees and visitors shows that the animals are calmer and spend more time at the front of the cage — boosting their adoption chances, she said.
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I think it’s a wonderful idea that the dogs are soothed by classical music, but why does it cost so much?
Did they install a super stereo system that has monthly payments? Are they buying 10 CDs a month?
I think the animals are worth it, and it will be helpful to the handlers and the folks who come to adopt.