Why does my dog freak out when I play the piano?

Question

My dog, a labrador-ish thing, goes absolutely nuts when I start playing the piano. He howls as if it he was being tortured horribly. However, when I play a recording of a piano, he does not react.

Can anyone offer an explanation for this? I'm mystified.

Answer 1

When you play live, he can hear and feel much more of the overtone series than can be encoded on a recording. Dogs hear more of the overtone series than humans because they hear at higher frequencies. So when you play live, the dog is hearing much more of the music than he hears from the recording. Also, dogs have an instinct to howl with the pack. It is possible your dog thinks of you playing music as you howling and is joining in. Lastly, the recording doesn't sound the same and the vibrations of sound waves in the air aren't as strong. Animals respond to those changes in air pressure because in the wild changes in air pressure or the feeling of vibrations can alert the group to movement nearby or changes in weather. The feel of the vibrations and the loud noise could scare a dog in the same way that a firetruck speeding by with its sirens blaring tend to cause dogs to bark.

Answer 2

Some animals' hearing is pretty sensitive, so maybe either your dog likes the music and wants to take part in it, or he could be hurt by the soundwaves. When you play the piano he may react that way because in a piano the sound becomes "trapped", so therefore it leaves a kind of echo that may be too shrill for us to hear, however he may hear it.

However, when you play a recording, the sound isn't coming directly from a present piano in the room, since it's a recording, it may be played from a stereo, or computer, through which sound goes out almost instantly.

Other thing could be that for dogs, the piano, which is present in the same room or house as your dog is, may sound as if 3 people where yelling at you directly in your ear. Meanwhile the recording is a bit soothing and more easy on your dog's ears because the sound stayed in the room where the music was recorded, and is being played, but the sound isn't as "neat".

Are you using one of the pedals, maybe the one that makes the piano's sound a bit like bells, or maybe the one that makes the piano's sound a bit muffled? If so, this could be another explanation. The difference in sound.

I had a dog that would love being by the piano, hearing me play, and actually some like hearing piano. Others may have their hearing a bit more sensitive. Maybe your dog is pretty sensible.

Good luck!

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Many people love the idea of owning a dog but one thing that they have to keep in mind often times, is that the dog needs to be trained. While the pet may look heart-breakingly cute when it's in a shelter or at the pound, picking out the dog is only the first part of the relationship between dog owner and the animal. Many people don't understand that they have to put time and effort into socializing the dog.

An unsocialized dog will intimidate others, tear up the home, and will create an environment that can become so bad that the it will have to be returned. Many times when dogs have to be returned to shelters or to other resources, it will end up euthanized, which is very heartbreaking. All of this can be spared if a person learns the various techniques in order to socialize the dog.

One thing that they have to understand is that the he wants to be told what to do. It's in the canine nature to follow a leader. The dog will be more than willing to obey the leadership of its master. Here's a look at some common techniques that are used in dog training:

"Dog Whispering"

This is a technique that has been around for a while, but gained national notoriety over the last 10 years. Some people might hear this term and wonder how in the world whispering to a dog can train it! Whispering isn't meant to be taken literally in this case. As trainers have shown, whispering is a term that refers to connecting with a being or an entity on a very deep and almost spiritual level. When it comes to dog training techniques, dog whispering involves careful observation of the dog's behavior and actions.

It literally entails getting inside the mind and the behavior system of the canine. When a person uses dog whispering techniques, they interact with the dog on the canine level. Again, one the most common mistakes that people make is treating the dog like a small human being.

"Reward Training"

Reward training is very simple and it's one of the older tricks that works. This is a simple method of training the dog by positive reinforcement. Once he does what it is told to do, it receives a treat. How this works is that the dog owner must entice the dog towards the treat. Once the canine develops awareness for the treat, it develops a strong desire for it. When the desire for it is extremely strong, the dog owner pulls back. Then the dog receives a command and when the dog obeys the command, it receives the treat. The object is to make the dog associate a treat with the command.

"Clicker Training"

Other dog training techniques include one that is similar to reward training, which is called clicker training. How this works is that the clicker is incorporated to get the dog's attention. The clicker is clicked as a form of communication with the dog. It learns that there is a command or reward associated in conjunction with the clicker. Many people claim that this is fun, and they actually make a game with the dog by using the clicker for their dog training tasks.

"Ultrasonic Whistle"

Last, a relatively new form of dog training technique is called the ultrasonic whistle. This works because the ultrasonic sound is only heard by the dog. When the owner is trying to communicate a command, or stop the dog from barking, they will blow on their whistle when they want to communicate a command to the dog. The benefit of this is that the humans can't hear this noise, but the dog can hear it, and they will learn to associate the sound with a command.

Dog training techniques aren't hard to incorporate, but they are something that absolutely must be incorporated from the time a dog owner brings their new dog home. No matter how old or how young the dog is, they will need training. Once they are trained properly, they will be a wonderful addition to one's family.

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Answer 5

I once had an elderly lady for a friend. She had a wonderful little dog. A mix of some sort. She had the dog trained well and it behaved very well. Learn here https://tr.im/zLXs2

She kept an uncovered candy dish on her coffee table with candy in it. The dog was forbidden to eat the candy. When she was in the room observing the dog he did not even appear to notice the candy. One day while she was in her dinning room she happened to look in a mirror and could see her dog in the living room. He did not know he was being watched. For several minutes he was sitting in front of the candy bowl staring at the candy. Finally he reached in and took one. He placed it on the table and stared at it, he woofed at it. He stared some more, licked his chops and PUT IT BACK in the bowl and walked away. Did he want the candy, oh yeah. Did he eat it? Nope. They can be trained that well but most, I'll admit, are not trained that well. When I was a young boy, maybe 5 years old. We had a german shepherd. He was very well trained also. My mom could leave food unattended on the table, no problem. She would open the oven door and set a pan roast beef or roast chicken on the door to cool. No problem. He would not touch it, watched or not. But butter? Whole other story. You leave a stick of butter anywhere he could reach and it was gone. He was a large shepherd so there were not many places he could not reach. Really, I think the number of dogs trained to the point they will leave food alone when not being supervised is very small indeed.
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Now if we are talking obedience training, not food grubbing, that is a different story. Way back when I was first learning obedience training one of the final exercises was to put our dogs in a down/stay and not only leave the room but leave the building for 15 minutes. The only person that stayed was our trainer, not the owners. Most of the dogs in my class did not break their stay, which would be an automatic fail. I'm happy to report my dog was one of the ones that passed.

Answer 6

The recording does not have the high frequency response as does the overtones of your piano. The dog's ears are sensitive to very high pitches well beyond human hearing. The piano probably hurts his ears.
Try playing in the bass cleft and see if he is equally disturbed.

Alternate ans: He doesn't like the music LOL.

Answer 7

My shih tzu "sings" like she's possessed when anyone plays the harmonica. And just like yours, not a peep if it's a recording. This same dog is terrified of thunder. Her vet told me to get a recording of thunder and play it louder and louder until it didn't upset her anymore. Guess what? It never DID upset her when it was just the recording. Still scared stupid of the real thing, though.
The only thing I can figure is that there must be a certain tone or vibration missing in the recording that is there in real life.
So much for "Is it live or is it Memorex?", huh? Oh wait, are you old enough to remember that commercial??

Answer 8

This is the funniest question I've seen, I'm laughing here by myself imagining the dog like you say. You should send a video tape to America's Funniest Videos you both will probably win some money. That's so cute and funny. He want s to sing with you while you play.

Answer 9

dogs ears are really sensitive to sound. if he is close to the piano the sound waves are probably hurting his ears. it is not the same with a recording because it is through a stereo not in person. i know because it is the same with the vacuum in my house my dog will freak when we vacuum but not when the vacuum is on TV. he may also try to be howling at it like it is part of the pack. because dogs are relatives of the wolf whichh howls for warning purposes. my dog howls when the fire alarm near my house goes off. he is probably trying to warn other "dogs" coming into his terretory.

Answer 10

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