Law and Disorder, doggy style

Did you know that there about a gazillion YouTube videos of dogs singing (howling, moaning, shrieking, barking or yelping) to the "Law and Order" opening theme? Well now you know -- and this page has most of them. Here's a sampling:



(If you have trouble loading the page, just search YouTube for examples of this crazy K9 criminology chorus.) According to an ABC News report, the phenomenon may have to do with higher register notes in the piece, and suggests that, furthermore, softer music with lower notes may help to calm a dog down. A great article in Modern Dog examines this aspect of the relationship between dogs and music, among many others:

Psychologist Deborah Wells at Queen's University Belfast exposed dogs in an animal shelter to different types of music. The dogs' responses were observed as they listened to either a compilation of popular music (including Britney Spears, Robbie Williams and Bob Marley), classical music (including Grieg's Morning, Vivaldi's Four Seasons and Beethoven's Ode to Joy), or recordings by heavy-metal rock bands such as Metallica. In order to see if it were really the musical aspects of the sounds that the dogs were responding to, they were also exposed to recordings of human conversation and periods of quiet.

The dogs responded differently to different types of music. When the dogs were played heavy metal music, they became quite agitated and began barking. Popular music or human conversation did not produce behaviours noticeably different from having no sound at all. Classical music, on the other hand, seemed to have a calming effect on the dogs. While listening to it, their level of barking was significantly reduced, and they often lay down and settled in place.

Good to know! My dog insists on remaining entirely indifferent to "Law and Order," as well as unmoved by anything in our MP3 collection... but she does seem to cherish the role of featured vocalist to my husband's blues harmonica chops. Or maybe she's just humoring him.