How Dog Laughter Helps Restore Peace

Like the giggle of babies that charm us and restore our positive view of the world, a dog’s laughter has been proven to calm other animals. Yes, dogs do laugh. Many might mistake their laughter for heavy panting, but in fact Patricia Simonet, an applied animal behaviorist and research scientist, who counsels pets and their humans and researches the behaviors of animals. She has studied dog laughter, dog rules during play and reducing stress in shelter dogs by broadcasting a recording of dog laughter.

Her research has garnered world-wide attention, newspapers & magazines from Russia to Australia, from Japan to Germany, and from the US to the UK have published stories on her original research.  She has appeard on Good Morning America, NPR, BBC World Service, and more describing her research.

During her studies with dogs at the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service (SCRAPS) in Washington, Simonet noticed that the sound of what she believed to be dog laughter had a calming effect on dogs, even more than a product called Dog Appeasing Pheromone (DAP), a substance that mimics the scent of a mother dog. The experiments with a recording of dog laughing actually had a an astonishing effect in calming the dogs completely and fairly quickly. Since her findings, a number of shelters and boarding kennels have purchased her CD of dog laughter to assist in calming animals in their care.

Other people have gone as far as learning to mimick this dog laughter as a way to get a dog’s attention for training purposes in a positive “good dog” approach to training.

Simonet is selling a CD of the sound of dog laughter for $19.95 (plus shipping) at www.petalk.org and a portion of each sales goes to support the important work of the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service. So if your pet has anxiety issues, this dog laughter CD might just be the ticket to a calmer time for dogs and dog owners alike!

For other dog-training information check these excellent dog-training articles and an anxiety-reducing wrap (created by dog training specialist Susan Sharpe) that helps to calm and assure your pet dog, especially in thunderstorms. If your dog shows signs of anxiety another option to consider is pet communication which can help to find the underlying cause of the anxiety. For excellent information about animal communication we suggest you check in with Val Heart, Expert Animal Communicator and Master Healer who works with people and their pets.