Can Dogs Dance?

1 Overview

To discuss dancing, we must first know a dog’s attitude toward music.

Personality

You have surely noticed that even siblings from the same litter have completely different personalities, just like humans, so personality may make some dogs sensitive to music and others averse.

The owner

Most animal behaviorists believe a dog’s sensitivity to music depends on its owner.

An owner who listens to rap will have a dog that reacts to folk music; the dog is subtly influenced by the owner’s long-term musical environment.

Experiments

Yes, professionals have indeed experimented on dogs and music.

Ten years ago, a group of German scientists studied whether dogs can distinguish music. They set up blue and yellow lights, the colors dogs catch most easily.

These lights flickered with the rhythm, and the participating dogs all wagged their tails to varying degrees.

Do not think the scientists are making a fuss. Biologically, tail-wagging is the most typical unconscious behavior, like suckling at birth.

Such unconscious behavior best reflects a dog’s true feelings, so dogs really can understand music.

Of course, not all music suits dogs. Most are not interested in heavy metal, especially high-frequency harsh sounds, which are just noise to them.

Dolphins

Among mammals, only dolphins respond to music with beat-matched movement.

Which brings us to dancing.

Although no one has studied whether dogs dance, the experiment above tells us that even if a dog danced, it would be its tail doing the dancing.

From a human view it is dancing, and that is all. Dancing needs musical accompaniment and the dancer moves with the rhythm; sadly, dogs have not evolved that far.

Why do some dogs do this?

Because it is a typical after-effect of distemper.