Home is wherever I'm with you – How music is entwined with our Dogs

By Steve Goodall

“Where words fail, music speaks”. – Hans Christian Andersen

Music has been a huge part of my life alongside working with dogs. I've been in bands for as long as I can remember and have played hundreds and hundreds of live shows. Music is written through my soul like Blackpool is through a stick of Rock, and when these two worlds inevitably collide in, what I can only describe as, an emotional, serendipitous explosion it never fails to inspire me.

So something happened this week that got me thinking... Last year Corrin came up with a wonderful idea to create a Playlist for everyone who was attending PACT's annual conference DOGx. The idea was we'd put a list of cool tunes together that people could listen to leading up to, and on the way to the conference, a way to get everyone in the mood for a day of dog geekery. It was a fabulous idea and it was really well received. This year we want to do the same and, rather than create the Playlist ourselves, we came up with the idea of asking people what songs remind them of their dogs in order to make it a more bespoke and personal Playlist to celebrate the dogs that have (in the past or present) shaped our worlds. So I took to social media and asked the question "What song reminds you of your dog and why?". The response was staggering. What started to flood in were songs, attached to stories, attached to emotions, attached to the lives we've shared with our incredible dogs. The songs and the stories ran through the entire gambit of the emotional experience we share with dogs and, as they came in, I started to feel inspired to write this.

Last years DOGx playlist, That social media post that started it all and this years DOGx line up

There is one song that never fails to raise a smile whilst simultaneously causing an football sized lump in my throat. That song is called "Home" by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeroes. This song was set as my phone alarm and, for years, whenever it played my Border Collie cross, Scooby, would leap up and come find me. It wouldn’t matter where in the house he was or even if he was in a post-walk coma the conditioning for that song was very strong indeed. For what seemed like an eternity this song would be inextricably linked to that joyous, wide eyed, expectant big ol’ face staring at me just inches away from mine. I didn't think much of it at the time. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was cute/funny and always caused a giggle but I never realised the power this association held.

Then one day Scooby was gone. Taken, like so many, far too soon and the meaning of that song rapidly changed for us. First I’d hear it and be struck with a tidal wave of emotional pain. The kind that hits you in the gut...Hard. I remember changing the alarm to avoid that visceral, guaranteed daily gut punch. As the months, and ultimately years, passed by that song took on another meaning. Before we continue my tale of this particular song let’s dive deeper into why music can hit so hard…

The Danish author, Hans Christian Andersen once wrote, “Where words fail, music speaks”. This simple yet wonderful quote rings true for nearly all of us. But why? Us dog geeks all love a bit of science don’t we? So in the four (yes four) hours I spent researching this blog I went down a wonderful rabbit hole and found out why the power of music is so linked with our memories, our emotions and ultimately our dogs.

Most of you, I’m sure, are only too well acquainted with the power that music has to affect our emotions. I found a survey that was done on 2000 people where 71% of those 2000 participants reported that music had a powerful influence on their mood, with 64% saying that they listen to music to cheer themselves up, when they are lonely, feeling sad or even when it’s cold and dark outside. Have you ever found yourself getting excited when the needle drops on a “fast paced banger”? That feeling is all down to a tangible, physical reaction. Your heartbeat and breathing pattern accelerate to match the beat which, in turn, produces that friendly neighburhood hormone dopamine. The same reward systems are activated when we eat or have sex (and we all know how great eating is)! It’s no wonder that, for some, music can be akin to an addiction.

I wonder what patterns you recognise here?

There is also some fascinating research that is linking our obsession with music with the human animals obsession with patterns. We’ve evolved to recognise and memorise patterns that might be essential for us to ensure we don’t pop our clogs and successfully pass on our genes…Does that smell of smoke mean our village will be burnt to the ground?.. Does that rustling in the bracken mean there’s a Sabre Tooth Tiger, salivating and ready to pounce just metres away? When you think about it music is another pattern. How often do you not like a song before you’ve heard it a few times, until the familiarity of that beat and melody has entwinned within and around our brains like an ear worm made of ivy?

 So why does music seem to trigger these emotional memories within us? Research has shown us that music activates different regions of the brain, including the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. Those neuroscience geeks amongst us will know that the amygdala is an old part of the brain responsible for processing emotions, and thus, plays a key role in linking experiences with memories. In fact, when we listen to music - that we associate with a particular memory (or dog), the amygdala lights up like a Christmas tree and sends signals to the hippocampus, which is involved in the job of long-term memory storage. Together, these two areas of the brain create a powerful combo that allows us to retrieve those vivid memories from our past when we hear certain songs. These “ auditory sensory polaroids” will then likely remain within us for the rest of our days.

Because of its powerful associations music can end up lodged firmly in our memories and even be used for helping treat people with certain neuropsychiatric symptoms that come along with diseases like Alzheimer’s. It doesn’t take much googling before you find countless stories of people who, suffering from dementia, are unable to recognise their partners of 65 years but when they are played their wedding song, for example, the individual turns to their spouse, recognise them and start to dance. You’ll find similar stories of people with Parkinsons disease who are unable to walk, be able to dance to their favourite songs as well as, and my mother in law has witnessed this, some patients unable to talk, who are instantly able to sing. Music therapy is, undeniably wonderful and indispensable in equal measure.

So let’s go back to where we began with my song. After looking deeper into this I started to realise why this song meant so much to me. This was a song that from that first association was destined to light me up, bring me down, raise a smile and shed a tear. A link with a dog made possible through the pattern recognition of countless ancestors that has been passed down through unbroken line in time. A collection of sounds that, when played in a certain order causes a hormonal release that takes me on a blissful journey. But more importantly than all that, a powerful process that I shared for a brief moment with one of the bestest friends I’ll ever know. Listening back to that song now it’s funny how apt some of the lyrics are…

And in the streets you run a-free

Like it's only you and me

Geez, you're something to see

Oh, home, let me come home

Home is wherever I'm with you

Whenever myself or Corrin hear that song now it’s different. Sure, there are still those faint pangs of heartache and loss but now, ultimately there are other feelings that take over. It’s hard to put into words but I feel warm, I feel grateful for the moments that are lodged within my memories. It takes me right there and sometimes I swear I’m almost there, I can remember that he smelt like buttered toast and I can almost reach out and touch him. The song plays and we smile. What a genuine gift music can be.