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contents
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features 20
Diseases and disorders: Which breeds are affected and why?
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Listen up! How music can help heal your furry friend
Feline fitness from scratch Choosing a scratching post for your kitty companion
animal wellness
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Eight ways to a happy, healthy holiday Seasonal safety tips for your dog or cat
48 Pass the
cranberries! Add this healthy holiday fruit to your animal's diet
67
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61 Can your animal catch a cold?
A close-up look at respiratory diseases
67 Top ten eye problems
What to look for
79 Are you
rewarding unwanted behavior (without knowing it?) Training tips for good manners
80 We are the cat
A look at life through feline eyes
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88 How often does
he really need a rabies shot? New fund set to challenge the status quo
5 steps to a better diet Good nutrition is easier than you think
86 k9 connection
97 Enter our Amazing Animals Photo Contest!
Send us your best shots and you could win!
teams kids with canines
Helping troubled teens and shelter dogs
ONTARIO REGIONAL SECTION
animal wellness
How music can help heal your furry friends by Linda Ostreicher
Imagine if you had a cat or dog’s ears and could hear an earthquake before it happens, or pick up the movement of a mouse from 30 feet away. How would you react to a radio tuned to a heavy metal station? Not too well, as it turns out. A study led by researcher Dr. Deborah Wells indicated that when shelter dogs were exposed to heavy metal music, they barked and paced more. When they listened to classical music, they spent more time resting quietly. “We have actually received quite a bit of feedback from other shelters and organizations that keep dogs in kennels for various periods of time, all reporting similar effects,” says Dr. Wells. Music’s healing benefits In human beings, music has been found to ease depression, lower blood pressure,
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animal wellness
and reduce the need for pain medication after surgery. It makes sense that animals would also benefit from the healing and stress-reducing effects of music Certified music practitioner Karen Johnson (www.clarinet-therapy.com) explains how she broadened her audience from human to animal listeners. “Before I ever worked as a music practitioner, I was a greyhound owner. I couldn’t help but notice how the dogs responded to the sound of my clarinet: deep sighs, stretching and rolling as if wanting to absorb more of the sound, and always seeking out the source of the music whenever I played.” Her experience parallels the work of
Austrian veterinary behaviorist Dr. Hermann Bubna-Littitz, who recorded the behavior of cats in an open room, with and without music, over a four-day period. He found the animals came closer to the speakers when there was music playing, and showed less aggressive behavior than when there was no music. He recommends music based on the rhythm of the animal’s own heartbeat when it is relaxed. Discs for your dog – and cat You can experiment with your own CDs to see which ones your animals respond to most positively, or choose from the growing number of albums created especially for dogs, cats and other animals. Toronto-based musical composer Sharon Howarth-Russell of The Musical Rainbow (www.themusicalrainbow.com) designs music to create specific effects in animals.
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Her CD Pet Ease relieves anxiety, Infinite Mind helps dogs focus on obedience training, while Sea Magic helps with nausea and car sickness. +
Sharon’s music has been tested on elderly or brain-injured humans, and on students with learning disabilities. These subjects found they could focus more on tasks and also saw their memory improve, perhaps because their brain waves were altered by the recordings. Instead of exhibiting only beta wave activity – the normal waking function – their brains showed delta waves as well. Delta is the deep-sleep rhythm that is hard to reach when we are stressed; a lack of delta sleep leads to forgetfulness, stress, confusion, and slow healing. Fido-friendly frequencies Some musicians draw on the ability of dogs and cats to hear sounds across a
wider range of frequencies than we can. A dog can hear sounds from 67 to 45,000 Hz, and a cat’s range is even greater at 45 to 64,000 Hz. In contrast, our human ears are limited to frequencies between 64 and 23,000 Hz. The Music Sales Group offers recordings by composer Hiroki Sakaguchi, who adds sounds at “pet-friendly” frequencies only animals can hear. Their CDs, Cat Naps and Dog Daze, will sound like Japanese New Age music to you, but you’ll never know what they sound like to your dog or cat because your ears won’t be able to pick up those frequencies. Composer Janet Marlow’s recordings (www.musicforpetsandpeople.com) eliminate sub-low and ultra-high frequencies. “For an animal, very low frequencies such as kick-drums or sequenced bass lines, can easily generate a fight-or-flight response,” she says. “The vibrations that these produce animal wellness
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