Through a Dog's Ear: Using Sound to Improve the Health & Behavior of Your Canine Companion Book & CD

You know that your dog’s hearing is very sensitive, but did you know that you could create an environment of sound to improve the health and well being of your canine companion?

Now, psychoacoustic expert Joshua Leeds and veterinary neurologist Susan Wagner show you how with Through a Dog’s Ear. Using the latest science on how dogs hear and react to sound, Leeds and Wagner bring you a treasury of practical tools for enhancing the lives of our best friends—including a CD of music demonstrated in clinical trials to calm 70 percent of dogs in kennels and 85 percent in households. J

Join these two innovators for fresh insights on the inner auditory life of your dog, featuring:

How to use sound as a tool to help alleviate separation anxiety, excitement with visitors, thunderstorm panic, and other behavior challenges

For nervous dogs: tips and tricks for making any house or apartment more comfortable for canines

Keys to understanding how our dogs hear the human world—including orienting responses, sensory confusion, and over– and under–stimulation

45 minutes of classical music psychoacoustically designed to soothe and calm dogs—and their human companions

Joshua Leeds and Lisa Spector have created a series of clinically tested music CDs. These recordings are psychoacoustically designed to calm your canine and you — separately or together.

On the Starter CD included with the book, you will find two 20-minute tracks, each with a different function.

Track One contains four selections from the Music to Calm Your Canine Companion series, Vols. 1–2. These compositions reduce anxiety, and in many cases, relax dogs into sleep. The instrumentation is simple — solo piano. The individual pieces have been selected and/or rearranged to gradually reduce the heart rate. This is accomplished naturally by progressively slowing rhythms and simplifying auditory data. Music to Calm Your Canine Companion is recommended for when your dog is left alone or anxiety is anticipated—such as separation, thunderstorms, fireworks, or guests arriving. (You will also find it to be extremely relaxing. Just don’t listen while operating heavy machinery.)

Track Two contains four selections from the Music for the Canine Household and Music for Driving with Your Dog series. Given that dogs and people live together, there are times when you want your animal to relax without falling asleep yourself. This uplifting, psychoacoustically designed music can be played for the enjoyment and relaxation of people while simultaneously providing a positive sound environment for dogs. The clinically tested selections from Music for the Canine Household are a little more stimulating than the Calm Your Canine CD, with quicker tempos and more complex arrangements and orchestration.

The Compositions The selection, sequencing and/or re-arrangements of these compositions adhere to clinically tested psychoacoustic principles of resonance, entrainment, and pattern identification.

Track One: Music to Calm Your Canine Companion (23 minutes)

Instrumentation: Piano

Bach / Prelude in C, WTC Bk. I No. 1 (Vol. 1)

Schumann / Foreign Lands from Kinderscenen (Vol. 2)

Rachmaninoff / Vocalise (Vol. 1)

Debussy / Reverie (Vol. 2)

Track Two: Music for the Canine Household (18 minutes)

Instrumentation: Oboe, cello, piano

Schubert / Serenade (Canine Household)

Brahms / Intermezzo in A, Op. 116, #2 (Music for Driving)

Mendelssohn / Cello Sonata in D (Canine Household)

Bach / Prelude in D, WTC Bk. I No. 5 (Canine Household)

All music is performed by The Apollo Chamber Ensemble, featuring Lisa Spector, piano.



If you’ve ever wondered what’s really happening when your furry friend perks up his ears and cocks his head—or when he hides under the bed—here is the first book to examine the powerful effect of the human soundscape on canines. Through a Dog’s Ear provides an indispensable source of cutting edge research, heartwarming stories, and practical, sound–based solutions to help your dog live a happier and healthier life.



On February 22, 2008 on The Early Show on CBS, "Through a Dog's Ear" was featured in a 4 minute segment.



About the Authors

Joshua Leeds of the San Francisco Bay area is a renowned authority on psychoacoustics―the study of the effects of music and sound on the human nervous system. A music producer and sound researcher, he is author of The Power of Sound and Sonic Alchemy. Creator of application-specific sound tracks for Dr. Andrew Weil and other leaders in health, psychology and neurodevelopment, his recordings are used in clinics and classrooms around the world.

Susan Wagner DVM, MS, DACVIM of Worthington, Ohio is a board-certified veterinary neurologist. Practicing and teaching veterinary integrative medicine, she is a pioneer in the area of the human-animal bond and founder/director of The Grace Institute for Human and Animal Healing. An active public speaker, she is an adjunct professor at The Ohio State University Veterinary College.

Music performed by pianist Lisa Spector and the Apollo Chamber Ensemble

Lisa Spector of Half Moon Bay, California, is a graduate of The Juilliard School. She has won first prize in prestigious national piano competitions, and performs concert tours internationally. A lifetime dog-lover involved in agility training and competition, she has served as a volunteer puppy raiser for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

What's Included

159 page Hardcover book, 176 pages, 1 starter music CD, 45 minutes. Published March, 2008.

ISBN: 1591798116