Many Ubiquitous TV Jingles Make Dogs Sing, But Why?

Dog howls to music: does he like it or hate it?

Dog howls to music: does he like it or hate it?

There are certain songs heard over and over on TV that every American human knows. And, it turns out, so do many dogs. There’s now a meme of internet memes: many TV songs have the magical property to make dogs sing.

People started documenting the mysterious property of the irritating Empire Carpet jingle to make dogs sing on YouTube in 2006. If you’ve ever lived in Chicago and wasted time on lousy TV stations, you know and loathe the phone number of Empire Carpet: 588-2300 Empire!  The Fogelnest Files recently revisited the phenomena, with a playlist of dogs being driven crazy by song of the now-national chain. But this internet meme  is just the beginning.

Now dogs are baying to 877-Cash, the song of J.G. Wentworth, which buys settlements and annuities. This seems like a natural progression for sing-a-long dogs. Wentworth has the same low budget style and the identical concept of repeating their phone number ad naseum.

Watch playlist of dogs singing to J.G. Wentworth

But now I see another trend that brings up all kinds of questions about the dogs’ motivation. Are dogs complaining about hearing the same commercial again? Or do they just like to sing along when they know the tune? Our dogs have been our unwitting laboratory research subjects when they hang out with us in front of the TV.

The new YouTube meme: Dogs singing to Law & Order Theme. This song isn’t annoying. It doesn’t have words or a pushy phone number. But, wow is it everywhere. And here’s another: Dogs sing to the General Hospital theme. Which, again, isn’t annoying, but is presumably something these dogs hear every day.

We’re never sure what makes dogs sing. Some bay at harmonicas, fire engines or horns. When we have our beagle meetups only about 20% of the dogs that are infamous for their howling ever sing. I wish I could figure out how to make them sing. So now I think they are just singing along to something they hear all the time and probably kind of like. Look at how much Logan the Poodle seems to have fun singing to Law and Order.

 

 

 

 

 

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