Music For Animals

It’s a well-known fact that a very large percentage of people who end up doing heinous things to other people started out on animals. A very accurate measure of a person, male or female, can be construed by how they relate to pets and animals.

In my experiences dealing with animals through my business I have found there are basically three kinds of people when it comes to relating to animals.

1     The person who loves animals.
2     The person who is afraid of animals
3     The person who ignores animals

I give a person who loves animals much more credence because they love animals even if I donn’t particularly like them.  If the same person was afraid of animals I don’t necessarily hold it against them because I have seen people who were afraid of animals do a 180 once they met their soul mate animal. Many times they become animal activists. Like born again smokers.

It’s the third category – people who ignore animals that scare me. People who shoo dogs or cats away and treat them as chattels are the same people that you should take great care with because they’ll shoo you away too. I’ve learned this through my business dealings. If some one I’m dealing with ignores my dog and treats her like a pest we usually end up not doing business.

People who ignore animals and mistreat them will ignore and mistreat you -which brings me to the reason I’m writing this. An article in the Los Angeles Times with the headline:

PETS BANNED IN RIYAD.

The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice want to ban the sale of dogs and cats as pets (what else do you use them for a comes to mind immediately –but that’s another article) and arrest people for walking their pets with penalties of fines and confiscation of the pet. They’re afraid men are using them to make passes at women and pester people – which is really stupid because men always make passes at women and pester people.

The whole country of Saudi Arabia or at the very least The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice falls into the category of people who ignore animals. That’s the scary category. Maybe we should look at the Saudi’s a tad more carefully.  I just don’t trust or like people who condone the mistreatment of animals – for any reason.

I personally was outraged by the article, which I think should have been on the front page instead of page six. It infuriates me anytime I learn of animal abuse especially animal abuse condoned on a national level.  How would you like to be living there? As Count Floyd used to say, “Pretty scary kids!”

In gambling it’s called a “tell” and if you don’t read it properly you lose. It’s the same with the information in the Times article.

I know Saudi Arabia is our “partner” in the “war on terror” and a staunch friend of the current administration but think it would behoove us to remember:

People who hurt pets hurt people. That’s all.

I have to say that I was very disappointed after watching The Greatest American Dog – or rather, after watching about five minutes of the show.

I was hoping that someone in Hollywood had finally got it right vis-a vis creating a reality show based on animal content – dogs specifically. Once again it seems that people creating shows about animals have missed the boat by featuring the owners, not the dogs.

I was involved with a show on Lifetime with the same problem – the writers and/or producers seemed to have forgotten that a show called something like The Greatest American Dog should be about dogs – not the people who own them. Anyone tuning in to the show for the first time is doing so because they love dogs – not because they want see people they don’t care about trying to get famous through their dogs.

I also noticed that there didn’t seem to be any mutts involved – dogs or people. Beverly Hills all the way. There’s nothing wrong with Beverly Hills but I certainly think some other neighborhood might have been included. After all, it is called the Greatest American Dog and most dogs in America are mutts. The whole show was a mish-mosh of the worst of three or four other reality shows currently on air. Doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of creative originality going on in Hollywood land these days.

Why the producers didn’t go to shelters for a contestant or include rescue dogs or guide dogs or war dogs or fire dogs or just plain dogs is a mystery to me. It seems like the people who created the Greatest American Dog didn’t really like dogs at all. I wonder if any of them actually own a dog.

I personally couldn’t have cared less about the human contestants - or the hosts for that matter. They were interchangeable with every other Hollywood reality show and boring from he start. I don’t think it was their fault, I think probably it was the direction of both the actors and the show.

The whole program reeked of corporate Hollywood. Those guys should get out in the real world a tad more. If you’re going to do a program about dogs – especially the Greatest American Dog – do a show about dogs. If you would like to see a great American Dog google Skid Boot.

CBS has a chance to do some really good things for dogs and the network itself. All they need to do is get some people on the show that actually seem to like dogs as opposed hanging around the swimming pool swirling champagne. Maybe it’ll pick up, but I doubt it. It’s very hard to screw up something that is canine based, but I’m sorry to say I believe the Greatest American Dog has achieved that distinction.

It’s really too bad. The only thing missing on the Greatest American Dog were the dogs.

In the course of working with many different pet psychics and intuitive animal communicators I’ve heard some pretty amazing stories. This is one of them.

Jean Connelley was one of my favorite pet psychics. She was a little, roly poly woman who was completely in tune with animals all over the world. She told me this story. She said thought it was the craziest thing she ever heard but that it happened.

I had asked Jean to check out my dog Daphne and in the course of the conversation Jean asked me if I wanted to hear tone of the craziest thing that had happened to her as a pet psychic. I told her absolutely – pet psychics have told me some of the most fascinating stories I’ve ever heard.

She said she had gotten a call from a friend of hers. The friend was on vacation with her grandson and was calling from the side of a road in Montana be cause she knew Jean was a pet psychic and thought she might be able to help.

She told Jean that her grandson, who was about eight years old, had been standing in front of a barbed wire fence next to the road staring face to face with a large bull elk directly on other side of the fence. It had been going on for fifteen minutes. They were both just standing there staring at each other. She was getting freaked out and wanted to know if Jean could find out what was going on.

Jean said she managed to get in contact with the elk and it told her an amazing story. It said that it had a message for the little boy – and the message was from a whale.

The message was – her grandson should become a marine biologist.

Jean said as crazy as it sounded she relayed the message to her friend and asked her if she could make any sense of what the elk had told her.

Jean’s friend told her that it was incredible because three week previous to the meeting she had taken the boy to the beach in San Diego. The boy had seen whales there for the first time and had spent hours staring at them in the ocean. They then went to Sea World and the captive whales and dolphins had come up to the boy as he sat during the show and looked directly at him. She thought at the time it was very strange as did the animals keepers, but she didn’t think anything more of it – until Jean had passed along the elk’s message.

Now it seemed to make sense. The little boy had spoken about nothing but whales since he had seen them from the beach and had come into closer contact at Sea World.

I asked Jean what she thought of the situation and she said she thought it was as crazy as anyone but that was what the elk had told her.

I asked her how she managed to contact the elk and she said that pet psychics can, as best as I can describe it, tap into a world wide net like the web without computers. Apparently distance makes no difference. May the force be with you.

Jean told me that this happened several years ago and that the boy is now pursuing a career in marine Biology. Go figure.

Believe it or not, pet psychics say the darndest things.

Lions and Tigers and Bears.
That was the local scuttlebutt. The guy up the hill who owned a soft drink company had his living room set up to hold large cats. Like at the zoo. He supposedly brought them home on weekends. I had almost forgotten about the whole thing when one of his company trucks rumbled past our house. It was something to behold. A brand new Dodge stretch pickup with double rear axles and what sounded like glass packs. It was totally tricked out in his company’s colors done in pearl-flaked electric metal pastels tastefully accented by three or four square yards of chrome. A large chrome-plated cage and padlock sat in the bed of the truck. It was empty.
Lions and Tigers and Bears.

Now that I had actually seen evidence of the possibility of large carnivores spending their weekends in the neighborhood, I hoped that Raymar of the canyon had his security down pat. I could just imagine our neighbors going down to their garden to pick some Walla berries and finding a Siberian tiger wallowing in the catnip, but nothing happened.
A week later we had some friends over for dinner. They were terminally trendy Melrose Avenue flatlanders not into the rusticness of Laurel Canyon.
“I don’t know how you can stay up here all the time,” said Gavin. “It’s so, so — quiet.”
“Yup,” I nodded my head.
“I mean we’ve been here for almost an hour and nothing interesting has happened.”
“Precisely. That’s why we like it up here.”
He turned and smiled smarmily, “That may be fine for you, but I need a minimum of one major bizarre occurrence a day or I’m not a happy camper. You just can’t find that here, too quiet.”
“It has its moments,” I said.
We walked out to the carport to fire up the old Weber. Gavin was going on about no matter how beautiful it was up here, it was too darn dull.
“Tell me, just for the record. Does anything ever happen up here?”
I was getting a tad tired of Gavin’s canyon knocking, good-natured as it was. I was just about to zap him with a rapier-like canyonesque retort when the canyon itself answered him — right on cue.
Lions and Tigers and Bears.
You could feel the throb of the big engine through your feet and see the glare from the chrome all the way up from Grandview. A long snout poked out from behind the Hibiscus bushes and started to make the turn. Gavin stopped in mid-sentence and stared. I stopped and stared. It was a large metal-flake blue shark’s nose. Apparently Raymar had more than one kind of truck. In addition to being tricked out, this one was built in the shape of a twenty foot bluish shark. Right behind the dorsal fin was a big chrome cage. There was a large black panther pacing back and forth in the cage. The shark finished its turn and rumbled majestically past the carport. The panther stared directly into Gavin’s eyes, curled back its lips and snarled — ten feet from his face. The carport reverberated. Then it was gone. Shark, cage and panther disappearing in a cloud of dust on their way down the hill.
Gavin turned around, his eyes as big as the panther’s. “D-D-Did you see that?”
“See what?” I was enjoying this immensely.
“The Lion!”
“Panther,” I said. I could tell that Gavin hadn’t been a cat person before this but he was now.
“Does this happen very often?”
“Just weekends and holidays.”
“Does anything else like this ever happen?””” he asked, the look of epiphnized amazement still on his face.
“You’d be surprised. Light the charcoal will you? I’m going in and marinate the chicken.”
As I walked into the kitchen Gavin yelled, “So you think there might be any places for rent around here? We have to move in September. Maybe we’ll check out some places in Laurel Canyon.”
“I know what you mean.” I could tell that Gavin hadn’t been a canyon person before, but he was now,
Lion and Tigers and Bears.
And Laurel Canyon.

Dog That Name
(Canyon Moment #2)

“From now on, I won’t refer to people by their dog’s names. I’ll refer to people by their own names.”
We had taken a break from recording to walk the dogs. They were making so much noise we couldn’t do vocals anyway.

“It’s really strange.” I was telling Jeremiah as we walked up towards Grandview.

“What’s that?” he said craning his head to watch two blue jays going ballistic on a squirrel in a eucalyptus tree at the top of the hill.

“It’s about the dogs.”
“The dogs?”

“Yeah, the dogs — in the canyon. I never thought about it until just now when you asked me about my neighbor.”

“What does your neighbor have to do with the dogs in the canyon?”

“It just came to me. I know the names of my neighbor’s dogs better than I know the names of my neighbors. When someone asks me who that person down the street is, I say, “That’s Bartok’s owner. When I think about it, everyone up here knows everyone else by their dog’s names. If you meet someone walking their dog, the first thing both of you do is — introduce your dogs
.
“Seems reasonable to me,” Jeremiah said, “I like my animals better than most of my friends.”

“I mean really! Every morning I walk Daphne around the hill. Every morning I meet this guy walking his dog Lucy. Every morning we greet each other. I say, “Hello, Lucy.” He says, “Hello, Daphne. We talk for a while then he says, “Good bye, Daphne,” and I say, “ Good bye, Lucy.” I don’t remember his name. He doesn’t remember my name. We know our dog’s names three generations back.

“This happens all the time!” I was starting to get worked up. “I mean it’s not just Lucy! It’s Neutron, and C-dog, and Sheldon, and Wilson, and Annie, and Rosy, and E-Z, and Buck Shot, and the twins, and. . . . !” I was really getting into the metaphysical possibilities of calling people by their dog’s names, not to mention the fact I was starting to hyperventillate when a car horn brought me back to Earth.

Webster (my mostly miniature Schnauzer) chose to bring my epiphany to an abrupt end by choosing the middle of Yucca Trail as fitting and comfortable place to make his morning deposit — directly in front of a Jeep Cherokee. I grabbed Webster, collected the little speed bump he had left in the middle of the road, yelled at Jeremiah to get Daphne away from the poison oak and waved the Jeep on.

“Good thing Webster pooped when he did, you were starting to lose it with that dog name thing,” Jeremiah said as he got Daphne in tow. “I think we’ve been in the studio too long.

“Amen,” I replied, “That’s probably it. I won’t do that again. I promise.”

We were standing at the top of the hill. We watched the Cherokee turn around and head slowly back towards us.

She’s lost. I can tell by the look on her face,” I said, “She’s gonna ask for directions.”

Sure enough, the Jeep rolled to a stop. The driver leaned over, rolled down the window and asked us if we knew where a certain address was. According to the numbers, it should have been right down the street. I didn’t have a clue as to where the place was. She said she’d been up and down the street for twenty minutes and couldn’t find it. She had asked three other people and they didn’t know either. I felt sorry for her she was so upset. Sometimes up here in the canyon you never find the address.

Then I had a brainstorm!

“By any chance do these people have a dog?”

“Why yes they do.” she said.

“Would you happen to know it’s name?”

“Bandit.”

“Bingo,” I said with a smile. “Around the curve. It’s the fourth house on the left. Park right behind the black Camarro.”

She thanked me and drove off towards Bandit’s house. I turned to say something to Jeremiah but he was already headed down the hill towards the studio shaking his head and talking to the dogs. . .

The Dog Whisperer came to our neighborhood here in Laurel Canyon through the canine misfortunes of my neighbor Jane’s dog Gus. Gus obeyed everyone except Jane. Although Jane had saved Gus’s life on numerous occasions (literally) Gus didn’t seem to be aware of the fact, although he was totally attached to Jane he gave her a really tough time - behavior wise.

Enter the Dog Whisperer.

Normally, you heard Jane and Gus coming down the street long before you saw them.

GUS! STOP IT!.’ GUS DOWN! GUS SIT! These were the precursors, along with the sounds of bushes breaking, shoes skidding on gravel and good natured growling of Gus dragging Jane down the street on one of their many daily walks around the hill.

Today it was different. I didn’t even hear them walking up to me as I watered the plants in front of our house. They took me completely by surprise. I didn’t hear a thing but there they were. Totally quiet - like Ninjas. I was amazed.

Jane, what happened to Gus!’ He’s a totally different person. Did aliens come down and take over his body’ Is he on drugs’ Are you on drugs’ What happened’ It’s great he’s a new dog!

The Dog Whisperer happened is what happened.

The Dog Whisperer’ What’s the Dog Whisperer’

Cesar Milan the Dog Whisperer.

Who’s he’ I asked.

He’s this amazing guy in East L.A.’ I heard about through my friend Chris. He does things with dogs that will blow your mind. She said as Gus just sat there quiet as the perverbial mouse.

You mean this Dog Whisperer guy changed Gus’s behavior this radically’

Yes and it’s wonderful. Nobody knows about Cesar right now but he told me he’s going to be an Oprah and then he’ll be famous for what he can do with dogs that are considered unreachable.

Well, I said still somewhat stunned by Gus’s new persona, based on what he did turning Gus around I can sure believe that! Do you know why they call him the Dog Whisperer’ Does he whisper to dogs like the Horse Whisperer’

Jane said she wasn’t sure but that Cesar had this uncanny ability to communicate with dogs in a way that the animals responded to. He wasn’t an animal psychic, but a behavior expert when it comes to dogs with an uncanny ability to communicate to dogs.

Since Jane knew I own a record company that creates music for animals and used animal communicators she suggested I try and get in touch with Cesar to do some music about what he does.

A Dog whisperer CD’ I liked the idea. Unfortunately, I didn’t act on it soon enough. The Dog Whisperer did, in fact, go on Oprah and became a huge hit so that by the time I did try to contact him about making music for dogs he was so famous I couldn’t get through to him so our Dog Whisperer CD never got off the ground.

All I know is whatever the Dog Whisperer whispered; it worked and made our neighborhood a better and quieter place to live. My hat is off to Jane and Gus and Cesar.

To the Dog Whisperer. Maybe someday we’ll be able to create some music with Cesar and the dogs. Until then, if you have a dog you can’t handle, before you take it to the pound or give it away call Cesar Milan the Dog Whisperer. It will change you and your dog’s life in ways you can only dream about..

Most people don’t realize just how important a dog name is to you and your dog. I didn’t until I started creating music for dogs with the help of an intuitive animal communicator.

We dealt with many dogs and many dog names in the process of involving the dogs directly in the creative process of making music with dogs. After working with our communicator and literally hundreds of dogs for a period of months I learned that a dog’s name has far more effect on an pet and its guardian than just being a name.

We learned that, many times, when a dog didn’t like its name it exhibited anti social behavior such as chewing, urinating and constantly trying to escape from the house. Sometimes when the dog’s name wasn’t liked it would act in an antisocial manner towards other dogs in the home also. A dog name that was not liked by its recipient could also involve nipping and biting.

We also learned that a dog name improperly given could cause the animal to become ill. I was this happen several times. However, when the dog’s name was changed to a name that the animal liked, the illness and symptoms disappeared. I was amazed that a name could have so strong an effect on dogs and their behavior.

There was also another aspect of a dog name that we became aware of during this process. A wonderful way to choose a dog name for a new canine addition to your family and home whether they come from the pound or are born into the family is to pick nine or ten names that you can live with then try out each of the names for a day or two. You will be amazed when your dog chooses the name they like. They will respond to the name instantly, literally choosing it’s name for itself.

This process will save you and your new addition a whole lot of trouble and heartache and help insure a good relationship between you and your dog. A dog name is a powerful tool to help insure a good relationship and communication between you and your best friend.

It’s not just dog names either. The same principle applies to any other animal (and probably your children also) you become involved with. Dog names, cat names, bird names and any other pet addition to the family.

So, the next time you have to choose a dog name, try this process out. It might make all the difference in the relationship you build with your dog not to mention the money you’ll save on vet bills, reupholstering, lost sleep and peace of mind for you and your dog. Dog’s names. There’s more there than meets the ear.

Dog toys have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. In fact, they even became part of my business and music. You don�t realize it, but if you have a dog you�re going to end up spending a lot of money on dog toys.

Of all dog toys, squeaky toys in particular are my favorites. Despite the fact they drive me crazy every night about one o�clock in the morning when my Griffon, Afghan, Terrier, Border Collier mix, Eliza Doolittle decides to get frisky and wants to involve me a dog toy game, I still have a soft spot in my heart for toys that squeak.

In fact I like them so much, we sometimes use them as a basis for songs � or rather, we use them as instruments. Dog toys with squeakers inside make great lead instruments when we create our songs for dogs. You�d be surprised how difficult it is to make a dog toy sound good � whether it squeaks or barks � plus they�re really hard to tune.

That, however, did not stop us from creating Squeaky Deaky � an homage to dogs and dog toys. You�d be surprised to know how many dog toys I had to go through to find the squeaky toy with the exact sound, pitch and duration suitable for recording and performance art.

I spent about two weeks getting thrown out of dog toy departments because I�d been standing there for twenty minutes squeezing dog toys to find just that right balance between pitch and playability.

Once I found the right instrument, we went into the studio and immediately recorded Squeaky Deaky. Then, to check and see if we had used the proper dog toy sound brought in our resident dog testers and music critics � Budha and Eliza Doolittle. Both responded by howling and circling the speakers so we knew right there we had chosen the right dog toy for the song. I still have to be careful playing that song around the house � Eliza still goes goofy � and I know why.

After all that careful searching in the pet stores for the right dog toy, it turned out that Eliza�s old indestructible squeaky foot was the dog toy that ended up in the recording. She knows it�s her toy and wants it back. The dog has a memory like an elephant. I got her a replacement � in fact, many replacements but no dice. That was her dog toy and no other dog toy would do.

We learned about this during the process of creating a musical CD for dogs approved by dogs. We worked with Dr. Kim Ogden, an intuitive animal communicator (pet psychic) who was acting as a translator between the dogs and us. She also helped us develop the process of creating music involving animals directly in the making of the music.

Dr. Ogden put together focus groups of dogs (taken from over two hundred dogs nationwide) and tested out different kinds of music to see how the dogs reacted. We then based the music on the dog’s responses.

The lyrics were based on Dr. Kim going back seven years into her records to ascertain what things or events came up the most frequently during her consultations. The things included in the list are the things that interested dogs the most as related through Dr. Kim’s qualitative and quantitative research procedures. The following list is the result of that research.

The responses were solicited from dogs at two national dog shows, shelters and Dr. Ogden’s private clients. The sample populations for the dogs consisted of companion dogs, agility dogs, obedience dogs, conformation dogs, and rescue dogs, providing a very good across the board sample of dogs and human companions,

The data follows:

Would You Like To Hear This In a Song? Yes Total Percent

1. Hear That My Human Loves Me 93 100 93%
2. Tell My Human I Love Them 92 100 92%
3. Eat Food 87 100 87%
4. Be Outside 76 100 76%
5. Get Petted or Hugged 75 100 75%
6. Have a Dog Bed 14 15 93%
7. Play With a Toy 43 47 91%
8. Have a Stuffed Toy 13 15 87%
9. Chew on a bone 9 15 60%
10. Go in the Car 27 56 48%
11. Throw a Ball 25 92 27%
12. Get Brushed 20 78 26%

For those of you who are interested, Parts 2 & 3 will deal with the dog’s individual responses to the different genres of music and artists Dr. Ogden presented for the dog’s consideration. Part 3 will relate to an actual focus group, exactly how it worked, and what was said – by humans and dogs. Stay tuned.