Why Do Some Dogs Love to Sing?

Who doesn’t love a singing dog? Last year, a pup appeared on Belgium’s Got Talent and belted out his own rendition of Whitney Houston’s ‘I Will Always Love You’. The results had me crying I laughed so hard.
Check it out for yourself!
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​Have you seen Junior, the French Bulldog who loves to sings with his humans in the car? It’s like puppy karaoke!

​Do you have a dog who likes to sing along with the radio? Share your video or story in the comments!
How about this Siberian Husky? He really gets going toward the end!

Why Do Some Dogs Sing?

Some breed are just naturally more vocal than others. I live with three beagles, so I can vouch that some dogs are just born to share their opinions- on everything. But some dogs appear to be genuinely moved by music. Do they recognize the emotion in the singer’s voice and decide to share in our expression?
Is it just pack behavior to howl along with the humans?
The concept isn’t new. It appeared in a January 1906 issue of Nature Studies  “Why Do Dogs Howl to Music” that suggested the singing is actually howling along with the pack and is due to instinctive behavior.
Maybe it’s just the high pitches in some songs that trigger the need to howl? Dogs do have much more sensitive hearing than we humans.
Do some dogs just genuinely enjoy music more than others or have innate musical talent (like humans)?

​Modern Dog Magazine broaches the subject, referencing a musical from 1980 “composed and conducted by Kirk Nurock, a pianist and arranger who has worked with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Judy Collins, Bette Midler and Leonard Bernstein. Trained at the Juilliard School of Music, Nurock would go on to compose and perform Sonata for Piano and Dog (1983) and Expedition (1984), an arrangement for jazz trio and Siberian Husky.” The pieces proved that dogs do have a sense of pitch.
The article also discuses a famous musical pairing of human and hound. “President Lyndon Baines Johnson had developed a strong bond with a white mixed-breed terrier bearing the unassuming name “Yuki.” Once, while cameras rolled, Johnson sat in the oval office of the White House, with Yuki on his lap, and gave an impromptu performance. The president first sang a Western folk song and then a bit of an operatic aria, both hideously off key, while Yuki accompanied him with gleeful and vigorous howls. The press reports describing this duet were rather demeaning, and music critics suggested that having the dog howl part of an opera was equivalent to having the president make disparaging comments about classical music. Johnson, however, enjoyed “singing” with the dog and was not the least disturbed by the furor it caused. He even proudly displayed one article that described their performance, noting, “Not all the comments are bad. This one says that I sing almost as good as the dog.”
Studies have shown that dogs react differently to various types of music as well. Have you tried this on your own dog? Mine seems to enjoy classical and jazz more than others.
Terry Marie Curtis, a clinical behaviorist at the University of Florida’s College of Veterinary Medicine, explained that dogs can croon to the radio for a variety of different reasons. Sometimes it’s a matter of conditioning- it makes the humans happy when the dog sings, and it’s a shared activity that brings job and praise for the dog. But some breeds are definitely more likely to croon along with the radio than others.
Vocal dog breeds include:

• Chihuahua
• Yorkie
• Dachshund
• Australian Shepherd
• Beagle
• Schnauzer
• Rat Terrier
• Siberian Husky

…but any dog can decide to voice his opinion, regardless of breed! The pervasive opinion in our home is since we talk to the dog like a person, she believes she IS a person, and therefore talks in complete sentences. We just need to learn how to translate better. 
What do you think?