Growing up in the 80s and early 90s my favorite childhood Christmas album was a cassette tape of the Pound Puppies Christmas album. The tape involved a lot of voice actors barking to the tune of classing songs – it was pretty awful. Thankfully canine inspired Christmas music has improved a lot over the years. Sia’s “Puppies Are Forever” from her 2017 Holiday Album is one of the Christmas songs for dog lovers of all time, but it might have some competition this season.
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Now we have a Christmas song not just for us dog lovers, but actually for our dogs! “Raise The Woof” is being called the first Christmas song for dogs. The song was released on YouTube and already has more than 250,000 views.
“Dogs are the best, and we needed them more than ever this year. This is the first-ever Christmas song made just for dogs. We made it for our dogs, your dogs, everyone’s dogs,” says representatives from United Kingdom-based dog food company Tails.com, which created the song.
With the pandemic, Christmas 2020 is going to be pretty weird, but at last, we can bring a bit of extra joy to our furry best friends. The “Raise The Woof” creators call their song reggae designed to wag tails, also known as “waggae.” The song was recorded at Abbey Road, yes the Abbey Road you are familiar with from The Beatles albums.
Tails.com research the way our dogs interact with various sounds to develop the song. It led to them work with dogs and animal behaviorists to design the holiday song which is likely a bit different from anything you might have heard before.
“Raise the Woof” mixes together words that dogs are likely to have some association with such as: “walkies,” “good boy,” “sit,” “good girl,” and “squirrel.” The majority of the song in between these words and phrases are sounds designed to elicit a response from canine listeners including doorbells, whistles, squeaky toys, and the sounds of other dogs barking.
This Christmas song for dogs is for a good cause
Not only is “Raise The Woof” designed to bring Christmas cheer to our dogs, the production is for a good cause. “Raise the Woof” is available for streaming now on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube but there are limited edition vinyl records of the song available via the organization’s website. Proceeds from the song benefit a Bristol U.K.-based group Dudes and Dogs, an organization focused on the mental health needs of men. One of the group’s key programs is to get local area men out walking with their dogs, and talking about their feelings.
Photo: Raise the Woof
What do dogs think of this Christmas song for dogs?
The “Raise The Woof” song itself doesn’t feel especially festive to me compared to most Christmas songs, but it is a really fun idea for a song, and a lot of fun to play it for your dogs and see what they think!
The idea that music could have an impact on the lives of dogs isn’t new. Most of us who live with dogs have noticed that our dogs might respond to or be interested in different music that we listen to. A study conducted in 2002 looking at shelter dogs showed that when dogs listened to classical music their behavior became more relaxed. When classical music was played to the dogs who are living in the shelter environment which is obviously stressful. The study found that dogs listening to classical music resulted in dogs being quieter and less relaxed. The shift in behavior of dogs listening to music in the shelter made them appear more desirable and adoptable.
What are dogs thinking about Christmas music designed for them? If you follow the hashtag #RaiseTheWoof2020 on social media you can see the reactions of dogs all over the world hearing the Christmas song for the first time. I played the song for my dog and she slept through it. I’ll have to give it another go and see if it gets her in the mood for Santa Paws! Let us know what your dog thinks in the comments.
Featured image: Eva Blanco/Getty Images
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