A little music does wonders for these shelter dogs...

Listening to music helps to calm us down and relax, but did you know that it has the same effect on dogs? At Vance County Animal Shelter in North Carolina, an animal services officer named Chad Olds would be on duty every Friday to load the dogs onto vehicles, which transports them to adoptive homes or other animal rescues. If he is not busy, he Olds would play his guitar in his office. The shelter manager, Frankie Nobles, saw Olds playing his guitar and suggested that Olds should play for the shelter dogs instead.  

After a few days, Olds and Nobles had decided that the live music performance would commence at 2.30 p.m daily, which was just before lunchtime. To prepare for the performance, Olds had even picked out a song to perform. At first, Olds did not think that his performance would have any effects on the dogs, except to make them more excited about lunch.

But Olds' thoughts were quickly proven wrong as he started his performance in front of the kennels. Just awhile after Olds had started to sing, the dogs quickly stopped barking and listening to his performance with wagging tails. As Olds continued to sing and strum his guitar, the dogs simply stayed quiet and continued to listen.

A 2-year-old brown and white pit bull/shepherd mix named Princess was especially moved by Olds' performance. According to Nobles, Princess was usually a timid dog, but now she simply stayed in her position and listened quietly.

Nobles also stated that the shelter looked for different music to play for the dogs, but they are now planning on a concert which will be held at least once a month. In addition, the shelter have also started a program that allows children to visit and read to the animals.

To Olds, the dogs' reaction to his performance reminded him of his grandmother, who passed away three years ago. Both Olds and Nobles also hope that this will inspire other animal shelters to consider non-traditional methods of enrichment for the shelter animals.

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The post Shelter Officer Sings And Plays The Guitar For Dogs "“ And Their Reaction Is Priceless appeared first on weloveanimals.me.