Canine Lullabies

My friend Sarah gave me a CD called Canine Lullabies. It's made by a musician who has studied the calming effects of music on babies, and decided that if it works for upset babies, it must work for anxious dogs. The CD includes classic lullabies including "London Bridge," "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," and "Mary Had a Little Lamb," all set on top of a very loud and continuous heartbeat. The heartbeat is apparently calibrated to the normal rhythm of a dog's heartbeat.

Sarah brought it over on the suggestion of someone else who has used it to calm her anxious dogs. We popped the CD in and waited with baited breath for it to do its magic for Porter.

This was all happening days after Brenda's passing, and Porter was pretty agitated. Moments after "London Bridge," the first track, started, he perked up his ears, started staggering a little and made a beeline for his bed, where he flopped into it. Sophie, Sarah's dog, nestled into another bed, and Sarah and I looked at each other with jaws dropped! It couldn't be. This was way too good to be true.

While the CD seemed to work for Porter and Sophie, there were two things wrong with the situation. The CD seemed to actually make Sadie more agitated. It did after all, put her two favorite playmates out of commission. The more pressing issue, though, was that Sarah and I had to listen the music as well. It was driving us crazy.

We turned it off to see if the calming effect would last. It didn't. The moment Ben came home and the dynamic in the apartment changed, Porter went straight to humping his bed. I tried to put the CD on my laptop and play it right next to his head, but it didn't do a thing. I guess his humping trance can't be broken by Canine Lullabies.