Songs for Dogs

Marie is too busy trying to survive a gray and dreary February in Minnesota so I, Buddy the Wonderdog, am stepping in to write a post.

I want to tell you about a super great thing Marie and Russ did for me and my girlfriend Bea. Yes, I have a live-in girlfriend! Bea is a collie mix rescue dog. She was found in a ditch with her littermates next to a local highway by a mail carrier. Even though she was a stray, I think she’s priceless. She keeps me company when our masters are gone and sometimes even plays with me. Not often, but the rare times she does make me feel all goofy inside.

Bea (left) and me listening to our play lists.

Anyway, I digress. The wonderful thing our masters did for us is to make a playlist of songs on Spotify. We listened to the music during a recent road trip, and I loved it! I think Bea did, too. You can see how happy we were from the photo I’ll include with this post.

The songs are customized to our personalities. For instance, for me, they inputted that I am super-friendly, curious, and have an average energy level. For Bea, they said she is less friendly and more mellow. My music was a mix of fast songs (including Led Zeppelin, my fave!) and slower songs. Bea’s mix were slower songs, but they were classics and very tasteful.

Now, besides being able to leap tall walls with a gesture from Marie, I am a well-read dog. The New York Times recently published an article, “Does Your Pet Really Need Cat TV or a Dog Playlist?” The story argues that all pets really want is their masters, not music to make them feel better when their masters are gone. But I would argue that if the masters have to be gone, why not play some music that I like? Also, because I’ve already listened to the songs when I was with my masters, it makes me feel like they’re here even when they’re not.

Those videos for cats that the article describes sound pretty funny. I laughed (in my own doggie way) at the quote by one person, who said, “When you are watching birds and chipmunks fight over a corncob, it makes you stop thinking about impeachment.” Anything that can do that has got to be good!

Our masters used to leave the Animal Planet station on TV sometimes when they were gone, but some of those programs are violent to animals. They show people hunting animals and killing them! I didn’t like those very much. I’d much rather have music.

So, to answer the question in the NY Times story, no, I don’t really NEED my own playlist, but I’m sure glad I have one.