Dogs Howl for Law and Order

Here’s a fun video from the Rachel Maddow Show asking why dogs howl to certain music, using the Law and Order theme song as a prime example. It seems many dogs just can’t resist a good howl with this music in particular. Did those Law and Order theme song writers do this on purpose?  While Maddow has some fun with this topic at the start of the video, she did call in canine behavior expert Robert Brandau who offered some interesting information about how dogs communicate and what howling is used for in wolf packs. 

I don’t watch Law and Order, but now that I know so many dogs have this reaction to the music, I’ll have to tune in to see if Tashi is compelled to let out a primal woo-wooo howl or two ;)

Does your dog have a consistent howling reaction to anything in particular? Maddow is asking that you send along a video to rachel@msnbc.com and she’ll publish it.

The folks in television land sometimes lose the concept of people wanting to see one specific video clip, and if the video below opens to another show, just go back and select the frame at the top left side of the screen for the howling dogs of the Rachel Maddow Show.

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If your dog does not react to the theme song with a howl or two, here’s how you might be able to get one.  I got Tashi to howl some years ago when my mom and I did it first…he joined in with what seemed tentative short howls at first and quickly moved to a full-throated song of things ancient, almost forgotten. It was a wail worthy of an Irishman. He was in a reverie and when we finished he seemed surprised, coming out his trance, but so pleased with himself it made us laugh!  Try it, if you haven’t already, and let me know if it worked for you:)