Shelter’s Edge

Fourth in a monthly miniseries by the ASPCA’s Katherine Miller, Ph.D., CAAB, CPDT, Director, Applied Science and Research

Did you know that when you are stressed out your hearing becomes highly sensitive? True for dogs and cats, too. Now, if you’ve ever walked out of your shelter and breathed a sigh of relief as you stepped out of the noise and into the quiet, you’ve had a preview of where I’m going with this blog post.

We all know that a shelter can be a stressful place for animals (and staff!). In addition, many shelters are pretty darn noisy as well, at least for a fair percentage of the day. Dogs are barking, fans or A/C are running, dishwashers and laundry are humming, metal bowls are clattering, high pressure hoses are blasting, phones are ringing, people are talking, doors are slamming, all in a building made of non-porous, noise-reflecting material. Studies show noise levels in shelters can regularly exceed 110 decibels (human hearing can be damaged at over 85 decibels).

So basically we’ve taken animals who have highly sensitive hearing to begin with (hearing sounds up to four times quieter than humans can and in a range that exceeds ours), stressed them so their hearing is even more sensitive and put them into a place with loud, unpredictable sounds. Yikes!

And now you want to add music, too?

Yes, there are a multitude of CDs out there that aim to calm cats and dogs. Some make pretty legitimate-sounding claims of success, and maybe they are calming to your housepet, or even to you. But call me a geek — I say show me the shelter animal data!

I have found no published studies of the effect of music on cats in shelters and only one on shelter dogs. In that one study, dogs displayed less standing and less barking when a classical music compilation CD was playing than when heavy metal music, pop music or talk radio was playing.* But those dogs had acclimated to the shelter for a few months already, and the music was only played for four hours. Also, “classical music” is a very broad genre indeed, covering 1,000 years of music and a variety of instruments and tempos. Does all classical music have the same effect?

Unlike with other forms of enrichment, all animals in the room or the shelter are simultaneously exposed to playing music. None are able to avoid these sounds if they choose, and they have no control over their exposure. So, are we really soothing animals with “audio enrichment” in shelters, or are we just bombarding them with yet another source of noise?

Now, some shelters are pretty quiet places, with sound-attenuating building materials and glassed-in kennels. In such places low-volume, slow-tempo music may be better than unnatural silence. And animals who’ve been sheltered a long time may benefit from some novel sounds to reduce boredom and encourage activity. Also, a “household sounds” CD or talk radio can be useful for acclimating young animals to normal household sounds, while soft, slow music has the potential to soothe shelter staff and adopters.

But until I see some credible data suggesting otherwise, my take is that most animals in our care would benefit more from sound REDUCTION than playing “calming music.” How about starting with preventing staff from blaring rock music or hip hop during the morning cleaning when they think no one is looking (or listening!)?

Kat Miller is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT). She has been with the ASPCA for six years, serving as an Animal Behavior Counselor in the Adoption Center, as Assistant Science Advisor, and now as Director of Applied Science and Research.

* The influence of auditory stimulation on the behaviour of dogs housed in a rescue shelter, Wells, D.L.; Graham, L.; Hepper, P.G., Animal Welfare, Volume 11, Number 4, November 2002, pp. 385-393(9).

Photo 1 courtesy of Dr. Miranda Spindel
Photo 2 courtesy of Kelley Bollen

Related links:
“The Hidden Life of Shelter Cats”
“Are You Giving Cats the Workout Of Their Lives?”
ASV Shelter Guidelines Webinars

Tags: behavior, cats, Dr. Katherine Miller, enrichment, music, noise, shelter environment, stress

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.