Comments on: What, ‘Born To Run’ doesn’t work for dogs?

By: Lisa Spector

Lisa Spector — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:52:49 +0000

I’m really not trying to advertise a product, I just would like to clarify because I think there was some misunderstanding in Nicole’s comment about the music of Through a Dog’s Ear not exacerbating canine anxiety. She is referring to a completely different CD created for a different purpose that wasn’t even mentioned on this site. And, yes, we are very pleased that there is other music for animals on the market and people are realizing that music and other non-drug related remedies are available to their animals. Gina, thanks for your explanation above and for your comments.

By: Kim

Kim — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:43:32 +0000

Guess we’re on the same soundtrack, Gina. I recently interviewed Susan Wagner, the vet neurologist coauthor of Through a Dog’s Ear, for my upcoming column on noise phobias, which I think will be up on Monday. By the way, cats can develop fears of certain noises, too, according to vet behaviorist Terry Curtis at University of Florida, but we don’t usually notice it because they just run and hide instead of becoming destructive or crashing through windows like dogs do.

By: Gina Spadafori

Gina Spadafori — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 03:06:17 +0000

It wasn't an ad. Keith Turner wrote about the product on our DogCars.com and I thought it was interesting enough to link over here, too. You know, company reps come over and make comments all the time. Sometimes they get hammered for it (remember the pet insurance discussion?) and sometimes they get thanked. Fine, either way. But if you see something written about in this blog, I will guarantee you it's not a paid product placement. We don't do that. If we write about something, it's because we find it interesting, innovative or sometimes even just weird. We sometimes even trash a product. (Anyone remember the hailstorm of grief I gave the poor company stupid enough to bring out and gush over six-packs of three-ounce spring water for dogs the week after Hurricane Katrina? I mean, people are dying and these idiots are pushing "the most exciting innovation in new pet hydration" or some such nonsense. Gah! ) The banner ads at the top of the pages on our site are sponsors, and yes, they pay us for that space. But they buy the banner space to promote their product. They do not buy coverage. That's in their contract, by the way, so everyone understands the rules. Speaking of that previous product, the Pet Music CD set ... I found it! I was amazed that I was able to guess which box in the garage it might be in, and it was the third one I checked. (Yes, I need to clean out my garage.) I listened to it this afternoon, and I still like it. The dogs, cats and parrot didn't comment much either way. Pet Music is on sale here, and it looks like the same product, but I have a three-CD set and this is three two-CD sets, so I can't be sure. The covers have changed a little, too, but they look similar.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:42:40 +0000

Had I known that this was an advertisement for a specific product I certainly wouldn’t have mentioned an alternative product that came out seven years ago. So sorry. But this is not new. And I should stop here but this sort of ticks me off a bit. You say it is designed to calm the canine and yet the website says :The arrangement techniques used in this music have been clinically demonstrated to not exacerbate canine anxiety. That is not the same as demonstrated to calm. And I don’t even mean to pick on your product because I haven’t listened to it but I can not stand when a maker claims to be so innovative when it has already been done and done well. Sorry Gina. This just rubbed me wrong.

By: Gina Spadafori

Gina Spadafori — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:14:11 +0000

Thanks for the clarification, Lisa! Can’t wait to get my copy of the CD and listen to it.

By: Lisa Spector

Lisa Spector — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:12:50 +0000

I am the pianist on the above mentioned Through a Dog’s Ear music series of CD’s. Just wanted to inform everyone that regarding Driving Edition: Music to Calm your Dog in the Car, there are detailed instructions written by a behaviorist on how to use the music for dogs with mild, moderate, and extreme automobile anxiety at: http://throughadogsear.com/dri.....ctions.htm
The instructions are also in the CD liner notes and includes information on a special 20 minute music track called “travel prep”. This music, along with Music to Calm Your Canine Companion, is not classical music that you can find on any other CD’s. It is music that has been clinically demonstrated to calm the canine nervous system, through pyschoacoustic changes of slowing down, simplifying patterns, and lowering frequencies. We are receiving emails from all over the world telling us how much the music is helping dogs with numerous anxiety issues.

By: Lost for Words

Lost for Words — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 18:54:04 +0000

Oh cool… parts of the Through a dogs ear cd is available from iTunes store. Neat. search for “through a dogs ear”

By: Nicole

Nicole — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:41:24 +0000

Nancy, I would start playing it when your dog is in a completely secure mode. They say that before bed time is when a dog feels most secure. I don’t know why. Maybe that is when the family is all together talking or watching tv and it is cozy and comfy. I would do that many many times and then introduce it in the stressful situation.

That is what I did many years ago. My dog actually spent a day tearing every single page,one by one, out of the phone book while I was out. I came home to four million individual pieces of phone book pages on my floor. I didn’t want to keep him crated forever and so I tried the pet music. I really spent time with the conditioning part. He never destroyed again. I attribute this to the music. I put it on repeat and so it played the entire time he was alone.

By: Sarah K Andrew

Sarah K Andrew — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:18:49 +0000

They also play “Born to Run” before the Haskell every year :^)

— Your Jersey Girl buddy

By: nancy freedman-smith

nancy freedman-smith — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:08:48 +0000

OH yes H , that is how I read it. I thought they wanted you to put it on while getting ready to go in the car. You could create warm fuzzies with music if it is played at good non stress times.
And Gina, sure there can be other things at works. There have been studies that classical music calms dogs down and heavy metal has the opposite effect. big duh there huh?