Lilly sleeps a bit better these days — often only waking us 1-2 times a night. Tom took over most night duty because there are fewer stumbles down the hall to help Lilly and because he is MUCH better at going back to sleep than I am. I lie awake and worry … a lot. There are several reasons things might have improved overnight, including the addition of the latest CD from our friends at Through a Dog’s Ear called Music to Comfort Your Elderly Canine.
As early adapters, we’ve long used the original series of CDs — Music to Calm Your Canine Companion, but this new CD adds frequency modulation to the music Lilly already knows and loves.
This auditory “nutrient,” as they call it, makes “assimilation easier for an already stressed, or weakened elderly canine nervous system.”
I don’t consider Lilly “elderly,” but goodness knows her nervous system is overwrought from this ongoing severe adverse vaccine reaction.
So, I moved our one and only stereo with a CD player into the dining room, next to Lilly’s nighttime crate. I play the CD on repeat all night long at very low volume, and it seems to be helping.
I forgot to turn it on one night last week, and Lilly woke Tom up 5-6 times. So, I got up with them at 4 am and turned the music on, and she slept until 7:30 am with no fussing.
We’ve adjusted the timing on Lilly’s food and water intake to try and prevent overnight accidents, so that might be helping as well.
Tom feeds Lilly dry cheerios at night to fill her tummy and help her sleep, so she may just be fussing for food or to see him, so that’s a whole other challenge.
For now, we assume any cry … is a cry for help from our girl. Both of us slept through a couple of her cries recently, and we awoke to soaked blankets in her crate. (sad face)
BUT, I figure adding some soothing music can only help. Every night, then, Lilly benefits from Lisa Spector’s talents and gift. Thank you!
So, if you have an older, sick, fussy dog, we recommend trying Music to Comfort Your Elderly Canine.
NOTE: That the frequency modulation requires a real stereo with real speakers. The modulation cannot be heard, for example, if you try to play the CD through your computer’s speakers.
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FTC Disclosure
Our friend Lisa Spector from Through a Dog’s Ear sent Lilly Music to Comfort Your Elderly Canine as a gift. She is the professional pianist who performs all the music in the Through a Dog’s Ear series. We were not paid for this review.
You can see these past reviews we’ve posted on the blog:
This is really neat! I’d love to try something like this out on my pups. One of them really seems to enjoy classical music, and the other just really likes listening to the news…
Oh, cool, I was mulling over whether or not I should get one of these. Glad to hear you’re having good results.
Was even considering getting one for our vet, as it’s going to be his 4th anniversary of putting up with me soon! LOL
it’s great to see people looking to music to help their canine friends, and to see musicians working on these projects, too. thanks for reminding people of this and telling of your experiences, Roxanne.
I’m convinced that dogs, like people, have differing musical tastes. When she first came to live with us eight years ago, our border collie Chelsea was so depressed, so lost that we feared she would never come around. Then one night, about three weeks after we’d adopted her, I happened to put on a Bill Evans CD following dinner(Evans is a wonderful jazz pianist). Chelsea had been “hiding” during meal times, in the kitchen. But now we heard her nails ticking on the linoleum–and she appeared in the living room!. She lay on the oriental rug facing a stereo speaker, clearly listening. We identify that moment as the point at which she began to trust us.
One more thing. People who love dogs and reading might enjoy my short dog novel, JUST BILL. All day today, it’s available as a free download at freebooksy.com. Please take a look.
I agree, Barry. I’m not sure what kind of music our big dog (Ginko) likes, but I KNOW he does NOT like bluegrass … because he will get up and leave the room when it comes on the radio.
This is great to know about. When we met our first greyhound, it was explained that on the track they were used to hearing music 24/7. We typically kept the radio on for her, especially when we were away. Our second and current grey was on the track for a far shorter time, but doesn’t seem to mind a good and soothing tune.
I’m a fan of most (not all) of Through a Dog’s Ear CDs, but there’s something that works a whole lot better for my 3 dogs, 1 of which is phobic about thunder and lightening, and another who has a spinning disorder, and still another with severe separation anxiety. The impact on these diverse dogs of * Harp of Hope * by Diane Schneider, available via Amazon, is astounding.
I had sought it out for help with thunderstorms, for which it works better than the famed thundershirt, but now use it for creating a calm greeting of visitors, eliminating resource guarding, reducing nuisance barking and boredom. It was created to soothe frazzled nerves and has been clinically proven to reduce blood pressure in people and animals. I can’t say enough good about it…give it a try! Dogs in particular can hear harmonic overtones and higher frequencies than people, which makes the harp a particularly potent instrument for music therapy. Schneider used to visit patients at Mayo Clinic to provide music therapy. This is the real deal.
I wonder how well that would work in family of mixed age dogs?
Sam
I’m sure it would work great. It works on me, and I’m not old or a dog. (smirk)