Happy New Year everyone! This is Krista with Episode #167 on the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. Canine Cognitive Dysfunction, or CCD, is the medical term for age related dog dementia. And it is a progressive disease that is more common than you might think. And studies show that about 50% of dogs over the age of 11 display at least one sign of CCD. And for dogs 15 to 16 years of age, the prevalence goes up to 68%. Now, it's a difficult process to watch a beloved dog go through, and many dogs with CCD lose all pleasure in their life, so they no longer respond to their own name. They stare at walls, they don't engage socially, they urinate inside, won't eat, don't perk up. So there are things that can be done to slow the progression and the key is to keep an eye out for the symptoms. And the sooner you act, the better the outcome and it can be as simple as a change in diet, the addition of certain supplements, bodywork, light, exercise, and of course enrichment activities. Last but not least, play your part with lots of patience and affection. You know time with our pups is limited, so savor every minute with them. Welcome to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast, where we are obsessed with bringing you helpful tips on canine health care, nutrition, and overall wellbeing. If you'd like to support the show, check out the amazing online events, products and resources that I personally recommend on the Wag Out Loud website. I'm your host, Krista and I'm super excited to be bringing you yet another tail wagging episode. Lisa Spector's Juilliard degree has gone to the dogs, and she couldn't be more thrilled. Spector's piano recordings for dogs are soothing pets in over 1,500 shelters worldwide. Featured on NPR, The CBS Early Show, CBS Australia, and DOGTV, Lisa is the only classical pianist to reach Billboard’s Classical Top 20 Chart with pet music.  Lisa is the host of The My Zen Pet podcast and the founder of The Dog Gone Calm Club. Her latest album, Dog Gone Calm, Vol. 1 can be heard on all streaming channels. Hello dog lovers and thanks so much for tuning in to the Wag Out Loud pawdcast. I am super excited to have the Pet Calming Maestro Lisa Spector with us today. And we're going to be talking about dog gone calm and the benefits of canine sound therapy for both ends of the leash. And I want you to make sure that your pups are around for this segment because Lisa is going to be playing some live music samples that your dog will for sure enjoy. So Lisa, thank you. Thank you for being with us today. Thank you so much, Krista. It's an honor to be here. Well, we're gonna have some fun. So before we get into it, you've got a lot of credentials, so I need for you to introduce yourself and share. How did you come to be the Pet Calming Maestro? Well, in 2017 NPR called me the Pet Calming Maestro and I decided to stick with that. I joke in my podcast, that my Juilliard degree has gone to the dogs, and I couldn't be more thrilled. I did not plan to be playing concerts and make recordings for dogs when I went to Julliard, but sometimes the best things in life happen by seemingly accident. My biggest passions are dogs and music. And they just came together. Way back in 2003 when I was a volunteer puppy raiser for Guide Dogs for the Blind and professionally, I owned a music school. And I started wanting to learn about different prescriptions of music that would calm my four year olds, a wild class of four year olds, and they'd come in happy and screaming and I needed to get their attention. So I started exploring different kinds of music. And in the process, I found music that helped calm and focus them in 30 seconds flat. And I looked over to my I was volunteer puppy raiser for Guide Dogs for the Blind. And I looked over to my four month old puppy and he was snoozing in no time. And I thought I am onto something. And that's how it all began. That is so cool. Well, another thing that people need to know is that you are the only classical pianist to reach Billboard’s Classical Top 20 chart with pet music. That is pretty cool. I was pretty excited about that one. Yeah. What is Sound Therapy for Dogs? Lisa, let's talk about sound we all know. I mean, we're filming this in July, we just had July 4, come and go. I know we're not releasing until the beginning of the year, but fireworks, one of the huge stressors and that is sound. So we have to remind ourselves that dogs can hear three times higher frequencies and sound than we can and because it is is such a huge sensorial pathway for our dogs, it's cool to know that music can reach them so deeply and calm them. So can you talk to us about the science and what's going on? Sure. So first of all, the dogs definitely hear their Hertz range is much greater than ours, it's not quite three times, it's like two to two and a half. And then cats hear twice as high, almost twice as high. And far as dogs, which is you have to think about distance, location and frequency. So even though this is being published, the beginning of the year, and many parts of the Year New Years, the fireworks, I know in the UK, the fireworks gone for weeks, like three weeks into January. And when you think about sound, every year, first of all, it gets worse in our human households. Because technology, there's more and more technology and more and more appliances make beeps at the end of when the washing machine is done the dryer the dishwasher. Then there's the technology beeps of the emails and all the dings and the text messages. Well, we know what those sounds are. We know those are safe sounds we know what they're for. Dogs don't know that dogs are always trying to orient the source of the sound. Where's it coming from? Is it safe? Is there a pattern? Dogss are always looking for pattern? Is there a pattern do I need to protect us and they're always on alert. And every dog is different, you might have a dog who's so sound phobic, and it's very obvious because he goes under the bed or hides in the bathtub during construction noise or thunderstorms or fireworks. And you might have a dog who's just panting and pacing. And maybe a dog who's just not comfortable can't settle down. So it's all different degrees. And sometimes the most subtle signs of sound sensitivities are right in front of us, and we don't always see them. So dogs are always trying to alert where is the sound coming from? And is it safe. So I know like for example, when I years ago, when I drink a lot of tea, when I got a water kettle, that pinged at the end, you know, when the water is boiled the first time when I had two dogs at the time, and the first time the dogs were in the dog bed, and they looked up and they're like, where's that sound? Is it safe? Where is it coming from? And you know, a few minutes later, they put their head down. So the next day, they didn't lift their heads, they just lifted their ears. The third day, they didn't do anything, because by the third day they knew it was safe, nothing happened. So they're always trying to figure out that information. But we also have to keep in mind dogs hear a higher frequency assuming it's you know, a younger dog that hasn't lost hearing a higher frequency than we do and a longer distance. So they may also be hearing sounds that we don't and so sounds like the buzz very commonly dryers you know, the buzzer goes off, the clothes are dry. I've had people tell me oh my god, my dog is so afraid to go into the garage. It turns out he wasn't afraid at all of the garage. He was afraid of the buzzing of the dryer in the garage. So nowadays, the good news is some appliances. I'm noticing they're making it optional to turn off those sounds. And I invite your listeners to turn off those sounds. Even if you don't have a sensitive sound sensitive dog, or you don't think you do very oftentimes, it's really common dogs change behavior as they mature. I have a 13 year old lab who used to be bombproof with like pretty much anything destruction. She's not anymore. And so she's did fine during the fireworks, but she is more sound sensitive. She's just you know, she's 13 she's always is it safe? All right. So canine sound therapy to the rescue. What is it? So canine sound therapy is music designed for dogs. Sometimes it's written for dogs. I have one piece written by a current day composers, Zach Gulaboff Davis is on my album. Sometimes it's music I take you know, I'm a classical pianist, so I take the great composers, Bach and Beethoven and Chopin and Mozart. I can't make that music any better. But sometimes there's some subtle little things I can do to it. That is more conducive to calming dogs for example, I have a Chopin Prelude. It starts out fortissimo. It is really loud, that could charge your dog's nervous system I want to discharge so all I do is I take that fortissimo really loud. I play a pianississimo which is very soft. I play it at a slow tempo, and it has a very steady beat. So the components of canine sound therapy are lower frequencies. So I'm going to come back to that to lower frequencies at the end because it has the longest explanation. Slow down tempo, soft and long legato lines that you'll hear in this sample I'm going to play for you and your listeners. So long legato means how we use our voice. So this comes back to lower frequencies. When you're talking, you know, saying goodnight to Fido, at the end of the day, you usually instinctually just go into a lower, long legato voice, good girl, good boy, that's legato and it's slower. If your dog is crossing the street and you see a car coming guaranteed, you're not going to be using a low voice, you're going to be using a high pitch short staccato. And I don’t want to say it. My dog’s right here, and very calm, but short staccato, you're going to call them very quickly, in short sounds because that charges their nervous system, which is what you want to do when you want to get their attention and basically change their pattern, you know, come right to you. So how we use our voice and how we use the sounds in our, in our environment, in addition to music and canine sound therapy can be really helpful. Music in Shelters Yeah, that makes sense. And I love to tell the listeners that this works. So well. I mean, this is science, that your music is played in shelters and rescue organizations because of the calming effect, right? One of my greatest honors, seriously of my life is that the music I've recorded for dogs has helped increase adoption rates in shelters, for several reasons. One is because it's for both ends of the leash, so it's calming for people. So when people are visiting shelters, and they're in a calm state hearing this music, they stay longer, and they stay longer visit, visitors stay longer, and then adoptions increase, and then also dogs become calmer. And I'll never forget one of the first stories. You know, when I started this project when I was in my previous company, and I started the music in shelters program, a shelter manager called me in tears and said, Lisa, I am crying because this is the first phone call I've been able to make from my desk for 10 years. Because the dogs are quiet. They stopped barking and I have to tell you about Trello a dog who was here a year and had so much anxiety and couldn't get adopted. And then he listened to your music. And he calmed down and he got adopted. That's beautiful. I mean, that says it right there. That's amazing. That's why I'm so proud that my Juilliard degree has gone to the dogs. Yes, exactly. Well, why don't we take this opportunity to have you play a little bit because I'm sure the listeners would like to get a taste of what this canine sound therapy would sound like and I can listen to you play forever. So let's just take a few minutes, we're going to listen to Lisa and if your dog is around, just watch them during this part of the episode. You know, how are they reacting? What are they doing? So Lisa, I'm gonna let you take it away. Lisa Plays a Calming Piece on Her Piano Sure, I just gonna say one thing is I'm going to circle back to the lower frequencies because that’s what this piece is about. This is my own arrangement of a Vilvaldi piece, the four seasons for violin solo, which is a high frequency beautiful instrument but a high frequency that could charge your dog's nervous system and string orchestra. So I rearranged it for left hand only there's three reasons I play for left hand only. One is because lower frequencies which my left hand is playing in this case I've talked about calms the canine nervous system. Two is because I had hand injury five years ago and for two years, I couldn't use my right hand at the piano. I'm playing concerts with two hands but it gave me good exposure to left hand music. And three is because my dog Gina loves it when I have my right hand free to pet her when I'm playing the piano. Of course. You're so talented. Bravo. Beautiful. Lisa. Gina's snoring I don't know if you can hear. Of course she is. Well, Winston is right by me curled up and snoring as well. Beautiful. Are there other types of music that dogs do best with? Obviously, classical piano is very calming for them. But wasn't there a study that said, reggae is also good music for dogs? Studies About Music that Calms Dogs The one I had this idea back in 2003, there had only been one research study in 2001 by an Irish behaviorist, Deborah Wells. And she had done a study actually in San Francisco testing different kinds of music in a control group and also TV sounds on dogs in the shelter environment and found that classical music was conducive to calming the dogs in the shelter environment, causing them to lay down, stop panting, and so forth. And I wasn't surprised at all by that I've had dogs my entire life and they always gravitated towards the piano. But here's the thing. All classical music is not created equally, if I put on a classical music station, and back in the days before it was an app, and it was timed, you know everyone at three o'clock it was programmed to charge the human nervous system because everyone generally gets tired, you know, the mid afternoons, and they might have the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, with 140 piece orchestra or Tchaikovsky, 18 film overture with cannons coming out. That is not what you want to be playing for dogs event like Rachmaninoff second piano sonata, that's like virtuostic and loud and fast. That's not what I want to play when my I wanted to calm my dog. So first of all, all classical music isn't created equal. And then second of all, since then, there have been many, many studies. And one of them did say that reggae was helpful for calming dogs, I haven't tried it, I'm just will say the classical has worked for my dogs and the dogs that I know and the dogs that I've cared for. And every dog is different. So I would say, play different things for your dog at different volumes, I want to get back to talking about volume that's so important, because you don't want to play it too loud, but play different kinds of music and see Do they gravitate towards the source of the sound do they go towards the speakers do they go away. However, there's a big variable component in that which is you. We love our dogs, because they love us so much. And they will do anything to be near our side. So if you're in a household where your teenager’s playing rap in one room, your husband's watching a football game in another and you're listening to jazz in another, they're gonna put themselves in the middle of that cacophony of sound or near their favorite person. So people say all the time, like, well, I play violin, I play flute, that's high frequency, my dog’s always near me, of course, because you're attached to that instrument. But play, you know, flute on the stereo and see what happens to them. So I like to say I create music that is really designed to calm and soothe both ends of the leash. It’s based on research for dogs, but it also helps humans. And I’m going to cut you off right here. We're just going to take a quick sponsor break, and we're going to continue this amazing conversation. So hold on everybody. Thanks to our friends at AnimalBiome for sponsoring today's episode.  They are brilliant at applying science to improve your dog’s health.  Did you know that 60-70% of your dog’s immune cells are located in the gut microbiome?  And when their microbiome is out of balance, it can lead to inflammation associated with GI and skin issues.  My dog Winston was tested and the results were shocking!  He had way too many harmful bacteria and too few strains of the beneficial bacteria.  No wonder his immune system was always compromised!  Thanks to the AnimalBiome team for getting him back on track so that he can live a much healthier life!  Isn’t it time to test your dog’s gut health? Learn more by going to https://animalbiome.com/home and be sure to use the discount code WOL-20 for 20% off! And we are back with Lisa Spector, the Pet Calming Maestro, and Lisa, I'm sorry, I cut you off before we went on that commercial break. You know, we were talking about the types of music and you were gonna say something about reggae. Reggae for Dogs? Yeah, so it's you know, do you like it? And is it something that you want left on all day if you're home alone, I'm, I'm more of a classical music fan. So introduce your dog to different music people asked me all the time Do dogs prefer Bach, Beethoven, Brahms or Chopin? It doesn't work like that. It just doesn't work like that. It's all because there's certain parts of Beethoven there's certain parts of Bach, there's certain parts, or certain parts of Beethoven, I would not want my dog listening to if she were home alone. It's very virtuosic. A lot of surprises a lot of rest. That's what Beethoven was all about. There's other Beethoven like the opening the first movement of Moonlight Sonata, it's very predictable patterns. It's very different. So it's really not about the composer, but it's about the things I talked about earlier about the lower frequencies, the slow tempo, the predictable patterns, and so forth. And, you know, observe your dog because they're all different in my entire life. And all the dogs I've known, and I've visited and cared for and known a lot. I've only met one who had a specific preference for certain composers, certain pieces of music they recognized. Beats Per Minute Okay, so is it safe to say, music with less beats per minute, are better for dogs? If you want to calm your dog, then beats you know, generally from 40 to 100 beats per minute is a good tempo, and a consistent tempo. So in other words, like I play an orchestral arrangement, on my album, Dog Gone Calm, I played one of my favorite pieces by Algarve Commons from the Enigma Variations. It’s the Nimrod movement. But I love it for dogs, because it's very, on piano, their piano arrangement, it's very steady beat is consistent, I play this really loud section soft, and I keep that beat really, really steady. And so it's also about, you know, the pattern is not changing. It's not like in the middle of it, there's this big virtuoso section. And that happens, you know, when you're listening to classical music, which is such a broad term. I mean it is 600 years, and it could be one instrument, it could be 140 pieces, orchestra. And so it's so broad, but when you genuinely when you listen to classical music, and let's say you're listening in the car, do you ever notice you're trying to have a conversation, you're constantly adjusting the volume, because classical music, it's up and it's down, and it's up in one room, it's loud, and one room is slow and soft. And it's you know, it's constant. So I remove all that. I no longer make rearrangements of classical music, you know, unless it's just for left hand. I used to do that in my previous company. But then research came out and said, classical music that's not rearranged, is actually more conducive to calming dogs in the shelter environment. So instead of making rearrangements, I take sections, and I play things soft, and I but I'm still playing what the composer wrote. Okay, at least I know myself, you know, when we leave the house, we put classical piano on for Winston, I would assume that dogs that have separation anxiety, that if you play said music, just when you're leaving, then it's probably going to have the opposite effect. Then they say, Oh, they're playing that music. That means they're leaving me Oh, my gosh, I'm gonna freak out. So play it at other times as well, to get them used to it. When to Play Calming Music for Your Dog Exactly. So think of music that's designed for dogs. Think of canine sound therapy as a thing. It's invisible, but it's a thing. So just like you'd want to condition your dog that let's say your dog doesn't like I was training Gina, she's older and trying to get her to use a ramp. And she's not really comfortable. So I'm training her that the ramp means cookies are coming, you know, so I introduce her to the ramp, she gets cookies, and then she takes one step and she gets more cookies and she takes so she I'm changing her association. But it's it's kind of easier in a mindset because it's a big physical thing. Music is also a thing, it's just invisible. So you can actually condition your dog that the music means to be calm. So that's why veterinarians use it prescriptively use my music prescriptively to condition your dog that listen together. You know have a ritual like before bedtime. Have a half an hour where you’re just listening together and then the dog begins an association of I get it this music means to be calm, everything's good with the world. My person is with me they build that association and do that you know for about a week or so before you gradually introduce it when you're when you're gone. And the other thing I just want to get back to because it's so important is volume. Because people do this all the time, particularly when the dogs are alone. It doesn't need to be loud it even when there's fireworks and all that it's not about overshadowing sounds, it's not going to overshadow the construction going on whenever it's about calming the canine nervous system. So oftentimes, you know, I'm so proud that music I've recorded is being played in 1500 shelters, but I go into one of those shelters and it's too loud, and it drives me crazy. And then dogs hear, you know, their hertz capacity range is so much more than us. And I think, Oh, my God is going to drive them crazy. I would go nuts. If I heard my own music way too loud all day long, I would just go bonkers. So play it at a gentle volume for you, and maybe then drop it down a tiny bit notch up in volume for your dog. Because it's not about blasting it. It's about what is comfortable for your dog. When to Play Music for Your Dog Thank you for adding that that makes sense. So in addition to the scary fireworks or the thunderstorms, other instances where I can believe that this will help calm them is you know, if you have people coming over, if you have to take your dog to the veterinarian, that's not usually a good time for them. So car rides, maybe as everybody settles into bed, you know, that can be a great start. Exactly. Whenever you know, who doesn't need to be calm right now? I mean over these last few years whenever you need to de stress and decompress and you know have that time together with your dog and use it for your benefit. Because no matter how calm you want your dog to be, if you're not calm, your dog’s gonna pick up on whatever energy so work, that's why you might really want to work on both ends of the leash. And it also can be used for prevention of canine anxiety. So it's, you know, if you have a puppy or a newly adopted three year old dog, and it's like, doesn't seem to be sound phobic or sound sensitive. It's always good to start because guaranteed it can't do any harm. Right? Well, I know you probably have tons of stories of how your music has benefited calming dogs. Can you think of just one or two stories on how everybody wins? Yes. So this goes back quite a few years. And I heard so. I don't know what year was it? You know, at least 15 years ago, when all the Michael Vick dogs when that whole story, the whole fighting dogs got rescued. And we're trying many of them were, could not be rehabilitated. And my music helped several of them. And I remember Little Red, just hearing how much it helped her through her rehabilitation that she got to be she went from being a Michael Vick fighting dog against her will to being a calm pet, household member, love member of the family that could be around other dogs that could be comfortable with people that it took a long time to you know, she was so cowardly and so shy but the music helped her open up and I remember getting an email from her person. I believe her name was Susan saying Lisa for the first time she opened her belly to me. She let me touch her and your music was playing. I have to say of all the stories. Even that one surprised me that my music that I had recorded could make that much of a change in a dog I was kind of blown away. Ah Love it, love it. Well we talk about your music. How do people tune in to your music? Where do we find it? So there are several ways it's streaming my album Dog Gone Calm is streaming all the you know Apple Music and Spotify and Amazon music and all those. And by the time this is published I will have a new album with Meditating With Your Dog. That will be out and that's coming from my podcast. My Zen Pet is my podcast the first podcast with music for pet stress. And if your listeners want to get training tips with using canine sound therapy with using music to help your dog's anxiety issues go to MyZenpet.com/tips and Krista you will also win Oh, because you're a member, in my Dog Gone Calm Club, where we help you recognize your dogs sound sensitivities, we help, you know with treatment and it's not only music, I have guest experts going into everything from separation anxiety, to animal communicators to building chemistry with your dog. I mean such interesting conversations working with aggression with dogs. And then I also do monthly Dog Gone Calm concerts for the members and their dogs. It's you know, who doesn't want their dog on the Zoom screen instead of you? Exactly. Oh, people, it is amazing. Again, it's the Dog Gone Calm Club. Great for all dogs and all people. It's fantastic. And the members are wonderful as well. It's a great community. So Lisa, as we run out of time, so quickly, unfortunately, what would you like to leave us with? Before we check out today? Social: IG https://www.instagram.com/my_zen_pet/ FB http://facebook.com/myzenpet LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaspector/ Website: www.MyZenPet.com I'd love to leave your listeners with a little bit of a short assignment that will help create a sound friendly canine household for you. Take a few minutes, just sit on the sofa, you have your dog. Next you sit on the sofa, take a notepad and just listen to all the sounds you hear. What do you hear inside? What do you hear outside, don't make a judgement just write them all down what you're hearing. And then after that half hour is up or you know, minutes, 15 minutes, make a checkmark next to all of the ones in your control. You can't control the motorcycle going by outside, but you can control appliance sounds more and more. So now that we can control what we turn off. You can control electronic sounds and turn off your notifications and your devices. There's a lot of ways that you can control the TV sounds, computer sounds, so forth. So see what you can do to control the sounds in your environment. So you really start to think of Sound Health for your dog is just as important as nutrition and training and exercise and all the other things that we all love to do for our dogs their sound environment. You have control over it. They don't unless you have a dog who's smart enough to turn on his own or her own playlist. You're in control of that. So I invite you to take charge of that and do what you can control and make that a sound friendly dog environment for you and your dog. Perfect advice. Lisa, this has been wonderful. And I have no doubt that our listeners learned something new today. So all of the information on how to find Lisa and those tips that she mentioned as well at My Zen Pet It's going to be in the show notes with links to everything. So everybody, thank you for tuning in. Let's have a better sound therapy world for ourselves and our dogs. And Lisa, I want to thank you for being with us today. Thank you so much Krista. I love talking to you always a pleasure. Thanks again to the team at AnimalBiome for sponsoring this episode.  Learn more by going to animalbiome.com and be sure to use the discount code WOL-20 for 20% off.  Your dog will thank you! Thanks for listening. You'll find some helpful links in the show notes and if you enjoy the show, please be sure to follow and listen for free on your favorite podcast app. And please, please share your feedback. Visit WagOutLoud.com for great product recommendations with discounts, amazing online events and fantastic resources. That's also where to visit our Bark About It page where you can suggest topics, guests or products. Be advised that this show offers health and nutritional information and is designed for educational purposes only. You're encouraged to do your own research and should not rely on this information as a substitute for nor does it replace professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your dog's health, you should always consult a veterinarian or a nutrition expert. Have a tail wagging day and we'll catch you next time. Hey Winston was that another tail wagging episode? 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