WAAAY too mellow.
Posted on 06/07/2005 11:41:52 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Classical music calms the savage beast.
New York, NY -- Walk into most animal shelters in the country, and a chorus of barking dogs will greet you. The yips, yaps, and howls can sometimes reach such a frenzy it's hard to hear the person next to you.
But that's not the case at Bide-A-Wee animal shelter in New York. Classical music softly flows through the shelter during the day to quiet and calm the homeless dogs waiting to be adopted.
Researchers have long established the positive effect that music has on humans. Now shelter workers, dog trainers, groomers, and boarding kennel operators are using music to calm their canine clientele.
"Shelters are inherently a stressful environment," explains Liz Clancy, vice president at Bide-A-Wee. "It's noisy. It's scary for the animals coming in, so we want to do everything we can to minimize the stress."
The shelter's three facilities began playing everything from Beethoven to Mozart last year, and it's paid off, she says, by reducing the noise level by about 25 percent. "Potential adopters are getting to see the dogs in a better light."
A study in 2002 by the School of Psychology at Queen's University in Belfast, Ireland, found that classical music encouraged shelter dogs to rest more and bark less. The study also found that heavy metal music increased barking, while pop music and human conversation had no effect on behavior.
Therese Backowski doesn't need a study to tell her about the positive impact music has on animals. She's seen it firsthand over the 20 years she's owned and operated a grooming shop in Mansfield, Ohio.
"I had a great deal of trouble with noise in the grooming salon - clippers, vacuum systems, dryers, barking dogs, howling cats," says Ms. Backowski. "It drove me crazy and upset all the animals."
WAAAY too mellow.
The 9th (plus a six-pack) does it for me.
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