My dog doesn't like Sun Ra or Sunny Ade

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

My dog (20 months) gets very grumpy when he hears Sun Ra or King Sunny Ade. I think it's the occasional whistles, steel guitar whoops and other somewhat extranaeous noises.

Will he get over it or should I try to persuade my missus to get a refund on the dog?

He likes Soul Jazz, however

What about your pets reactions to music?

MG

[Pete C]

I remember I was watching my brother's dog about 35 years ago, and I was playing Coltrane's Meditations. During one of Pharoah's screaming solos the dog put its ear up to the speaker and was transfixed!

[A Lark Ascending]

Not a pet, but a few summer's back a blackbird sat on a fence in my back garden and screeched all the way through one CD of Miles Davis's Cellar Door set. As soon as the record ended he flew away.

Maybe he was requesting 'Bye Bye Blackbird'. I hadn't the heart to tell him it was no longer in the set list.

The worms in the garden burrow a bit deeper when I play Messiaen.

Edited August 11, 2012 by A Lark Ascending

[Shawn]

My cat can't stand Miles' harmon mute stuff.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Henry doesn't complain about Paroah Sanders.

He doesn't complain about Miles Davis, either - I haven't got any

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Oh, he does complain about sermons, though I've got very few not on vinyl, which he never hears, because he's not allowed upstairs and can't climb them by himself. It's the congregations that get on his nerves, I think, not the preachers themselves.

MG

[CraigP]

I don't think our 3 dogs are thrilled with Braxton's Ghost Trance Music. They don't seem to mind Monk, though.

[Dave James]

My dog (20 months) gets very grumpy when he hears Sun Ra or King Sunny Ade. I think it's the occasional whistles, steel guitar whoops and other somewhat extranaeous noises.

Every time you put on Sun Ra or Sunny Ade, give your dog a biscuit. I guarantee he'll see the error of his ways in less than a week.

[mjzee]

I had on some Sun Ra from the Art Yard box recently, and my dog looked very worried and concerned throughout the performance - she kept looking from the speakers, to me, and back to the speakers.

[robertoart]

Does your dog bite?

[Pete C]

Does your dog bite?

Does your bee sting?

[Spontooneous]

My cat can't stand Miles' harmon mute stuff.

My cats (now gone, alas) just LOVED the harmon sound. One of them seemed to think it was the voice of his long-lost Mom.

[mjzee]

Does your dog bite?

She's orally fixated, but it's limited to food, wood, rawhides, cheese wrappers and chew toys. My wife gave a new chew toy to her today, and she ripped its head off within 30 seconds.

[Free For All]

Does your dog bite?

No....

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Does your dog bite?

No....

I'd completely forgotten the punchline! Thanks FFA.

MG

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

My dog (20 months) gets very grumpy when he hears Sun Ra or King Sunny Ade. I think it's the occasional whistles, steel guitar whoops and other somewhat extranaeous noises.

Every time you put on Sun Ra or Sunny Ade, give your dog a biscuit. I guarantee he'll see the error of his ways in less than a week.

Nope; my dog's a black pug. Pugs can't be trained. If you see Cesar Milan claim lasting success with a pug, you'll know he's cheating. Pugs will behave themselves to suit themselves; and misbehave to suit themselves. You can't bribe our dog with anything. And the blacks are naughtier than the fawns.

MG

[Dan Gould]

I have no idea if pugs can be trained or not but this isn't really training. Its just conditioning the treat with the music. I have to believe that the dog would in fact show up for his treat after a week or two.

Unless of course Pavlov never tried his theory on pugs.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

I have no idea if pugs can be trained or not but this isn't really training. Its just conditioning the treat with the music. I have to believe that the dog would in fact show up for his treat after a week or two.

Unless of course Pavlov never tried his theory on pugs.

I don't expect he would have reported it if he had. Pugs have minds of their own. Henry's our second. And he has no choice about listening; I'm only making him listen to music when I'm looking after him if my wife's out, or if she wants lunch watching TV in peace and quiet, so he's shut in the dining room with me and the portable CD player. He generally lies down, nice and quiet, but gets irritable if the wrong music is on.

MG

[WD45]

My cat has a distaste for Kevin Drumm's "Sheer Hellish Miasma" LP. So does my wife, also.

[sonnymax]

Nope; my dog's a black pug. Pugs can't be trained. If you see Cesar Milan claim lasting success with a pug, you'll know he's cheating. Pugs will behave themselves to suit themselves; and misbehave to suit themselves. You can't bribe our dog with anything. And the blacks are naughtier than the fawns.

MG

Past trauma or neurological conditions can make it difficult to train individual dogs, but it isn't true that "pugs can't be trained". No offense, but the problem probably lies in your methods. 99% of effective training is teaching owners how to behave.

As to the OP's question, my two cats have never displayed obvious distaste for any of the music they've heard. With names like Max Roach and Sonny Rollins, I guess this isn't surprising. Of course, I've never subjected them to smooth jazz. I'd conduct an experiment to test this possibility, but APA guidelines for ethical research prohibit me from doing so.