Music heard by animals

[onix]

Human appreciation of music seems so human, and I cannot imagine dogs or cats liking what we listen to. Since mp3's came out, music compressed for human ear models must sound somewhat odd to animals. Has anyone noticed a difference in how animals respond to music?

Edit added March 22, 2005:

Thanks for all your responses and the perspective from pet owners. All this discussion begs the question, why do we like music (and no I don't believe in a Freudian answer) and at what age do we start to percieve and like music?

 

[DrPizza]

I've thought for a while about how animals perceive the entertainment media that we incorporate into our daily lives. For instance, my dogs seem completely unaware of the television. It's almost as if they cannot see it, or perhaps that they are smart enough to recognize it as non-reality - just a 2-dimensional image not worthy of the time it takes their little brains to process. However, occasionally I can have fun with mp3's and wav file sounds of cats meowing. But then I realize that I, allegedly a member of the smartest species on earth, is being amused by tricking an inferiorly intelligent animal. Yet, that animal can survive on its own in the forest much longer than the average intelligent human.

 

[eigen]

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I've thought for a while about how animals perceive the entertainment media that we incorporate into our daily lives. For instance, my dogs seem completely unaware of the television. It's almost as if they cannot see it, or perhaps that they are smart enough to recognize it as non-reality - just a 2-dimensional image not worthy of the time it takes their little brains to process. However, occasionally I can have fun with mp3's and wav file sounds of cats meowing. But then I realize that I, allegedly a member of the smartest species on earth, is being amused by tricking an inferiorly intelligent animal. Yet, that animal can survive on its own in the forest much longer than the average intelligent human.

Dogs dont like tv because it has no odor.You produce a device that mimics the odors as they relate to what is being portrayed visually and I gurantee your dog will be a tv junkie.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: eigen

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I've thought for a while about how animals perceive the entertainment media that we incorporate into our daily lives. For instance, my dogs seem completely unaware of the television. It's almost as if they cannot see it, or perhaps that they are smart enough to recognize it as non-reality - just a 2-dimensional image not worthy of the time it takes their little brains to process. However, occasionally I can have fun with mp3's and wav file sounds of cats meowing. But then I realize that I, allegedly a member of the smartest species on earth, is being amused by tricking an inferiorly intelligent animal. Yet, that animal can survive on its own in the forest much longer than the average intelligent human.

Dogs dont like tv because it has no odor.You produce a device that mimics the odors as they relate to what is being portrayed visually and I gurantee your dog will be a tv junkie.

What's horrible is that I don't know if you're only joking.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: eigen

Dogs dont like tv because it has no odor.You produce a device that mimics the odors as they relate to what is being portrayed visually and I gurantee your dog will be a tv junkie.

What's horrible is that I don't know if you're only joking.

Makes sense though - dogs and cats respond very strongly to smell. Show a picture of a dead fish, and the dog won't care. Make it smell like a dead fish, and the dog will be rubbing against the TV.


The only thing my cats have cared about on any display of any kind is when they catch sight of the cursor moving around - or some screensavers that feature a single, small, moving object, like using the Scrolling Marquee screensaver with a period at 120-point font. But they get bored with that quickly too. They just don't seem to get what the big deal is - why do we stare at that glowing box for so long?


As for the music question - my cats don't seem to care about the music. They'll turn their ears at certain sound changes, but they don't seem to like or dislike any specific types of music. And I've recently re-ripped my CD collection to FLAC (totally lossless compression), and again, the cats don't seem to care one way or the other.

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: eigen

Originally posted by: DrPizza
I've thought for a while about how animals perceive the entertainment media that we incorporate into our daily lives. For instance, my dogs seem completely unaware of the television. It's almost as if they cannot see it, or perhaps that they are smart enough to recognize it as non-reality - just a 2-dimensional image not worthy of the time it takes their little brains to process. However, occasionally I can have fun with mp3's and wav file sounds of cats meowing. But then I realize that I, allegedly a member of the smartest species on earth, is being amused by tricking an inferiorly intelligent animal. Yet, that animal can survive on its own in the forest much longer than the average intelligent human.

Dogs dont like tv because it has no odor.You produce a device that mimics the odors as they relate to what is being portrayed visually and I gurantee your dog will be a tv junkie.

What's horrible is that I don't know if you're only joking.

Play a tape of dogs barking and they freak out though.

 

[Bassyhead]

My dog howls when he hears a recording of himself howling. He will also howl at blues music. We can play pretty much any genre of music we want loudly and he won't make a peep, but one second of blues music makes him start howling. Unfortunate, too, because my dad plays blues on guitar.

 

[Jeff7]

Play a tape of dogs barking and they freak out though.

Or, if you're good enough at imitating a dog barking, they'll also respond. I could probably get a city full of dogs to start barking.

Also good for freaking out the cats too - they'll switch to attack mode pretty quickly.

 

[BuckWild024]

i have caught my dog watching tv on more than one occasion for hours. he seems to enjoy watching other animals, and will even go around to the back of the tv to see where they came from. but i suppose having a 57" HDTV helps also...

 

[MadMan2k]

My dog doesn't like AC/DC too much, heh.

He has gone over to check out the TV when there were dogs barking on the show, but he decided the dogs were fake after all...

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Jeff7The only thing my cats have cared about on any display of any kind is when they catch sight of the cursor moving around - or some screensavers that feature a single, small, moving object, like using the Scrolling Marquee screensaver with a period at 120-point font. But they get bored with that quickly too. They just don't seem to get what the big deal is - why do we stare at that glowing box for so long?

... and I bet our birds are pretty clueless about why we stare at their carpetry for half an hour every morning.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: Peter

Originally posted by: Jeff7The only thing my cats have cared about on any display of any kind is when they catch sight of the cursor moving around - or some screensavers that feature a single, small, moving object, like using the Scrolling Marquee screensaver with a period at 120-point font. But they get bored with that quickly too. They just don't seem to get what the big deal is - why do we stare at that glowing box for so long?

... and I bet our birds are pretty clueless about why we stare at their carpetry for half an hour every morning.

:thumbsup: That took a couple of seconds.

 

[Steve]

If I play my bagpipes in the house, the cats run upstairs and hide. So does the dog, but eventually he comes downstairs and disregards the noise because he's hungry.

 

[MadAd]

My cat hates the Coors (Irish family band). I dont know why. It matters not if its the original CD or the mp3 rips but as soon as he hears the first 4 bars of any track come on hes flying out the door.

Which is odd because I can play drum n bass, psytrance, techno even hard rock and he doesnt bat an eyelid - well, until it gets to serious wall shaking level- he moves to another room then, but not with his tail between his legs.

Very odd.

 

[montag451]

One thing about animals watching TV is that you must remember that us humans have relatively slow reactions.

When you watch a tv image, it is smooth.
BUT, what you are actually watching is an image that is changing [PAL] 24 times a second.

To a dog, that would be the equivalent of watching a fast slide show, or, at a guess, to put it into human terms, a picture that changes every 0.2 seconds instead of every 0.04 seconds.

 

[BigPoppa]

My dog Shadow loves watching TV, or seems to. He seems to always know when animals are on the screen, even when its animals that don't have distinct sounds, like alligators, hippos, etc. Drives him crazy.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: Peter

Originally posted by: Jeff7The only thing my cats have cared about on any display of any kind is when they catch sight of the cursor moving around - or some screensavers that feature a single, small, moving object, like using the Scrolling Marquee screensaver with a period at 120-point font. But they get bored with that quickly too. They just don't seem to get what the big deal is - why do we stare at that glowing box for so long?

... and I bet our birds are pretty clueless about why we stare at their carpetry for half an hour every morning.

:thumbsup: That took a couple of seconds.

Taking more than a couple of seconds here......still not getting it. *looking up* Oh, there it is, way over my head. Don't think it's going to be coming down to where I can understand it either.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

My cats occasionally watch TV, when they see flying birds or another cat...

 

[hoppa]

My dog certainly rocks out to King Crimson. Otherwise, she has no idea wth is going on

 

[MWTungsten]

My dog enjoys some music. He generally ignores a lot, but when certain tracks play he makes what we call his "stupid happy face", a giant grin, and bobs his head .. sometimes he gets so excited he'll start running around the room, furiously wagging his tail, grabbing his toys and throwing them up in the air. This phenomenon is reproducible (and funny). His favorite song so far seems to be the 80s hit "Turning Japanese".

He can also recognize and react to familiar types of animals on TV. It interests him, but he seems to realize that they are not 'real'.

 

[Peter]

Originally posted by: Jeff7... and I bet our birds are pretty clueless about why we stare at their carpetry for half an hour every morning.

:thumbsup: That took a couple of seconds.[/quote]

Taking more than a couple of seconds here......still not getting it. *looking up* Oh, there it is, way over my head. Don't think it's going to be coming down to where I can understand it either.[/quote]

Reverse thinking: What do bird cages have for a carpet?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

If I play my bagpipes in the house, the cats run upstairs and hide. So does the dog, but eventually he comes downstairs and disregards the noise because he's hungry.

If I heard bagpipes, I'd run away too.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Peter

Originally posted by: Jeff7... and I bet our birds are pretty clueless about why we stare at their carpetry for half an hour every morning.

:thumbsup: That took a couple of seconds.

Taking more than a couple of seconds here......still not getting it. *looking up* Oh, there it is, way over my head. Don't think it's going to be coming down to where I can understand it either.[/quote]

Reverse thinking: What do bird cages have for a carpet?[/quote]
I don't know.

 

[Gibsons]

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Peter

Originally posted by: Jeff7... and I bet our birds are pretty clueless about why we stare at their carpetry for half an hour every morning.

:thumbsup: That took a couple of seconds.

Taking more than a couple of seconds here......still not getting it. *looking up* Oh, there it is, way over my head. Don't think it's going to be coming down to where I can understand it either.

Reverse thinking: What do bird cages have for a carpet?[/quote]
I don't know. [/quote]

Newspaper. Humans typically stare at it at length before turning it into birdcage fodder.

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: Gibsons

Originally posted by: Howard

Originally posted by: Peter

Originally posted by: Jeff7... and I bet our birds are pretty clueless about why we stare at their carpetry for half an hour every morning.

:thumbsup: That took a couple of seconds.

Taking more than a couple of seconds here......still not getting it. *looking up* Oh, there it is, way over my head. Don't think it's going to be coming down to where I can understand it either.

Reverse thinking: What do bird cages have for a carpet?

I don't know. [/quote]

Newspaper. Humans typically stare at it at length before turning it into birdcage fodder.

[/quote]
That makes sense. I've never owned a bird before.