My springer spaniel, Bliss, gets a munchie treat just before the News at 10pm - which is when I finish my practice. Tonight, about 8.30ish, she started wagging her tail as I reached the end of my piece and when I looked at her properly, went into 'can I have my munchie' mode. Told her to settle, it was too early - back to practice, going section by section through the second part - as I reached the end, Bliss came over again and laid her head on my knee (which is meant to melt my hard heart). Allowing for the fact that she is always in the room when I practice - can she recogise the end of the piece - because she 'knows' it or she recognises a cadence?

Given that sheep dogs can recognise lots of different whistles, she probably can!

Dogs are very musical. My dog prefers Bach and Mozart to anything else! I am sure if she had hands instead of paws she would be studying the Goldberg variations by now.

Seriously - you can train your dog to recognize a specific tune/piece to mean "Time for your treat now". That way you can play other pieces without being disturbed!

I've wondered this before too! I used to see if I could see a difference in my dog's reactions to a perfect cadence and an imperfect cadence. Did he only jump and run to the door at a perfect cadence, or was it any cadence? He definitely knew cadence points, but it's possible that he just got used to these being breathing spots, or - ''she's going to make herself a cup of tea'' spots, as he recognised the body language. It's also quite likely that he was familiar with what I was practising, and remembered either the rhythmic patterns or pitches which meant 'the end'. (But then, isn't the latter what recognising cadences is all about in humans too?) Dogs recognise pitches and tones of voice, so why not pitches in music?

Archie recognises that little tune that plays when the computer switches off - realises that you've stopped work and that it's probably a good time to leap about like a mad thing and hope it's play time.

This got so bad that I have now disabled the little tune from playing when I turn off the computer.