I love how quiet my house is during the day. My dog seems to as well. When we come home, she is totally snuggled on the sofa with my blanket and acts like she was in the deepest and most wonderful sleep (call me jealous!). Sometimes when I come midday, she is on a different sofa bathing in the sunlight and doesn't want to move. Who can blame her? It is a perfect sun-napping situation! The neighbors don't complain and when I ask, they say she only barks at the doorbell or if she thinks she hears us which isn't often. We live on the upper level of a two unit town home and not even the mailman comes to the door, we have mailboxes on the corner.
So my dog is by no means anxious. She goes into her crate in the morning without promoting, but we took the door off so she doesn't stay in it all day (obviously she naps on the sofa, what a life!).
Buti am wondering if music or turning on talk radio or the tvhelps anyone's pets. Why do you do it, or why don't you? What do you play? How do you think it helps your dog? Do you think I should bother with my dog? My grandparents played news radio for their dog so she wouldn't get lonely, their reason, so that made me wonder.
Re: Do you play music/radio/tv for your dog during the day?
I came home from work one evening and heard our puppy yelping {i've never heard her do this since we first got her a long time ago} and my husband and I wanted to try playing the ipod on soothing music while she's in her kennel, and I haven't heard anything from her since and haven't got any complaints from the neighbors.
Dog psychologists have looked into this sort of thing and it's proven that music can help calm them. You can even youtube "soothing music for dogs" and they have things specifically for your dog! It'll be things like piano, with the sounds of a broom sweeping a concrete floor, birds chirping, waves crashing, a high pitch sound, but not in an annoying way. It even relaxes me!
I feel that if it's just dead silent, then she will easily focus on any kind of noise she will hear outside {which will sooner or later be another barking dog} therefore, she will start barking.
try it. you never know (:
Our fur baby had really bad anxiety when we lived in Chicago, so we got into the habit of playing a puppy movie (basically dogs running around and barking), or the animal channel... both seem to keep her occupied all day.
At this point we know she won't bark or be restless if we forget to turn the TV on, but it makes us feel better that she isn't bored all day. :-)