4 The Love of Animals- animal rescue, wildlife, pets, and more!

I got a great email recently about some ground breaking research done about the effects of sound on dogs. Joshua Leeds, a sound researcher, Susan Wagner a veterinary neurologist and Lisa Spector a pianist, have taken this work to heart and have presented it in a book along with a 45 minute starter CD for calming canines. It’s called Through a Dog’s Ear and will be released on March 1, 2008.

Here are some excerpts from the press release that I found interesting.

Through a Dog’s Ear: Using Sound to Improve the Health & Behavior of Your Canine Companion (Sounds True, March 1, 2008, $18.95) is the first book of its kind to take a close-up look at sound and its effect on our loyal friends, shedding new light on the link between modern sensory overload and the uptick of psychological and physiological problems in the canine population. A 45-minute starter CD of music—specifically designed to calm dogs—accompanies the book. Clinical trials of the music conducted in kennels, shelters, clinics, and in homes produced results that were…well, like music to any dog-lover’s ears. Seventy percent of dogs in kennels and 85% in households showed a reduction in stressed-out behavior, including thunderstorm trembling, excitement with visitors, and separation anxiety.

With the television blaring an average of six hours a day in the American home and the cell phone ringing 24/7, Through a Dog’s Ear suggests we examine our environments to determine whether we’ve created an uncomfortable sensory space for our pets and ourselves. The authors tell us to listen with our dog’s ears while taking a Sonic Inventory—an assessment of all the sounds inside and outside the home—by doing the following:

1. Sit quietly for 30 minutes, pen and pad in hand.
2. Tune into the sounds you hear inside your home and outside on the street—the hum of the fridge, the cycle prompt of the dishwasher, the beat of a dryer, the alarm clock, hair dryer, vacuum, television, telephones, computers, video games, traffic, car alarms, air traffic, screaming children, stereos, etc.
3. Notice your dog’s behavior. Does he actively respond to the sounds? Is there a lack of reaction, or an overreaction to sounds you take in stride? When TV, radio or music is playing, does your dog move closer to the source or away from it?
4. Rate the sounds from one to ten, ten being the most disturbing, one the least noticeable. Use two columns—one for your pooch and one for yourself.
5. Ask yourself how you can make your home a calmer, more peaceful place. Which sounds can you change? Which can you avoid, turn down, or mask? Often, just by listening, we become more sonically aware, an important first step.

Joshua Leeds, a psychoacoustic expert, has spent the last two decades studying the psychological and physiological effects of sound and music on the human nervous system. Approached by award-winning concert pianist and dog-lover Lisa Spector to create “intentional” music for dogs in the hopes of modifying Fido’s dysfunctional, anxiety-caused behavior, Leeds was intrigued.

“I couldn’t help but wonder,” says Leeds, “if music could change a dog’s heart rate and brainwaves, and reduce levels of stress just as it so easily does with people. I wanted to see if the psychoacoustic techniques that I’d honed so effectively with humans could also be effective with dogs.”

Sounds like a great book and CD for people who have dogs that are stressed out by noises! I’m sure it would be nice for the humans in the pack too!

How cute is this? The world’s smallest primate!

Read more about the slender loris, and why people are working hard to protect them and other rare mammals!

I first read about Alex on the Alex foundation website. They even have a clip of him counting blocks, telling the difference between two keys, and asking for the things he wants. Here is a great news story about how parrots are learning to communicate with humans, and it features Alex.