Through a dog’s ear: using sound to improve the health and behaviour of your canine companion is written by Joshua Leeds & Susan Wagner, DVM, MS.
Published 2008. ISBN 978-1-59179-811-8
In my research on ways to help Donna’s Thunder Phobia, the Through a Dog’s Ear calming music CD is something that I happened on quite a few times.
But this CD was never on my list of things to try NOW, simply because I just think (without proof :P) that Donna was too far in the deep end when it storms to even allow the music to work.
So when I happened on the book Through A Dog’s Ear in the local library, it seemed like a good time to learn more about it. How exactly does the CD promise to be effective for thunder phobic dogs? I hoped the book will have some credible answers.
Through a Dog’s Ear
The book – Through the Dog’s Ear – is written to help readers understand that an environment of sound can have good and bad effects on dogs.
The authors – a vet and a music producer/sound researcher – found from their inital research that Classical music relaxes dogs. And that a 2002 study by Wells found that heavy metal and/or grunge music can promote hostility, sadness, tension and fatigue in dogs.
They then decided to carry out two pilot studies. One, to find out if the effect of ALL classical music is the same on dogs. And two, if the music can be designed to “have an effect on specific anxiety issues in dogs.”
They found that
“solo instruments, slower tempos (50-60 beats per minute), and less complex arrangements had a greater calming effect than faster selections with more complex harmonic and orchestral content.”
The acoustically-designed music was also more calming on dogs with specific anxiety issues – other dogs/children, visitors in the home, thunderstorms, riding in the car, excessive need for attention, separation anxiety and fireworks.
The book goes on to explain how to use sound as a tool to help alleviate these specific anxiety issues.
I found the volume very easy to read. I finished it in two sittings, on the plane to vacation and on the plane back. :P The lack of distraction on the plane probably helped. :P
Does Donna show this sort of discerning taste for music?
I have been playing the CD that came with the book for a few days and Donna appeared to be happy to spend her time sleeping in her crate in the living room where it was playing. Or in the study, which means the CD in the living room sounded more distant.
She did seem to sleep more deeply and have more dreams or jerky movements.
In contrast, I have observed before that if we were watching some noisy action movie in the living room, she would retreat to her bed by the bedroom, which is the furthest point she could get away from us and the television set. This dog does not enjoy noise as much.
What most applies to a dog like Donna living in a flat in the city
Leeds and his co-author Susan Wagner also wrote about looking at the sounds a modern dog living in the city may have to adapt to.
They suggest a sonic inventory. That is, ‘spend thirty minutes sitting quietly in one place and catalog the sounds you hear inside your home’. The idea here is that if the dog has to live in a noisy environment, the CD can be played at a suitable level to help calm the dog.
“…we are not suggesting that this music be blasted at loud volumes to mask other disturbing noises. We actually suggest it is played at a soft volume. When played at a soft volume, it has the ability to calm the canine nervous system, which then makes the dogs less reactive to outside noises.”- Lisa Specter, Pianist for the CD
For our normal day, Donna will mostly be exposed to the loud construction noises coming from outside. Because I was at home, there was also the sounds of the fan, washing machine, closing of child gate, fridge doors, balcony doors, phone sounds, water sounds, etc.
But if not for the construction noises, this would be a pretty quiet flat since we live pretty high up and there are only 5 flats on each floor. So this environment could be pretty conducive for encouraging calmness in the dog. But if the human were not around during working hours on weekdays, one can imagine Donna may become very under-stimulated.
I have read before advise to leave the television or radio on for the dog when nobody is in the house. This was suggested to perhaps help the dog feel less alone with the human voices from the radio or TV. The book has other advice:
“The best thing would be to play an intentionally selected CD rather than the uncontrollable playlist of your local station – especially if you have a sensitive dog. Radio programming is driven by advertising dollars and the stations are looking to either stimulate or soothe their human listeners depending on the time of day and traffic patterns. Consequently a wide array of classical music is delivered with specific intentions that might not fit what you are looking to accomplish with your pup.”
Thankfully, the noisy construction sounds did not seem to cause over-stimulation in Donna. Perhaps because we keep the doors and windows closed so the noises are muffled when they filter though. And through time she has gotten used to them, despite not being able to tell the source of the sounds and analyse if it is a danger or not to her mortality. :P
It could of course be a different case for some other dogs, who may live with bigger, noisier families or on lower floors and get more stimulation and sounds from the streets.
Conclusion
In general, the book was very useful for understanding how the CD was designed and what perhaps makes it different from other calming music products.
The authors have added enough anecdotes to keep it interesting so it doesn’t become too factual and dry.
The book comes with a 44-minute CD with two tracks – one for calming the dog and the other designed to be uplifting. The uplifting one helps in that it is deliberately calibrated to NOT have adverse effects on dogs, although it may not be as soothing as the calming one.
As I said, I have been playing the CD for Donna on good days so she may relax and enjoy it. I’m just not sure when I can start playing it for her on stormy days, and when the next stormy day will come.
The book says that after she has been positively exposed to it for some time, it may be played on stormy days but does not really provide any sort of timeline as a recommendation. I suppose it would be difficult since it also depends on the particular dog and how often the human plays the CD!
I think the CD is good to have especially if you would like to have something easy to use with minimal effort on the human’s part. In fact, the authors suggest it as an intermediary tool since any desensitisation sort of training will necessarily take time.
Since it’s designed to be calming, the human finds it easy to listen too as well. Although sometimes, it might be just a tad too relaxing, which can be distracting if I am trying to be efficient and productive! :P
On that note, if you would like an alternative method of masking sound because music is too distracting – Eileen has a sound masking article here talking about using other alternative sounds instead.
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Through a Dog’s Ear:
Using Sound to Improve the Health &
Behavior of Your Canine Companion.
Get this book on Amazon.
Official site: http://throughadogsear.com/about-book-and-cd/
More reviews from other sites
– review by Janet Tobiassen Crosby, DVM
– PetMed.com
– foreward reviews
– Goodreads reviews
