This may appear as an odd topic, but is applicable as many of us are involved in therapeutic modes (physical therapy, water therapy, etc.) to improve the health, healing, and well being of our pets.
My education and training as a musician and certification as a music therapist didn't prepare me for the needs of a handicapped pet.
In a previous life, before children, I was employed as the supervisor and therapist of a music therapy program working with mentally retarded adults whose IQ's ranged from a high of 75 to a low of 4. Many were severely and profoundly retarded with IQ's in the 20 range. One child with and IQ of 4 had one favorite classical piece of music to which she would wave her arms and "sing" in great animation. To all other music, she was silent. If a patient with an IQ of 4 can recognize and enjoy particular pieces of music, why wouldn't animals/pets?
Little has been written about animals and their recognition and enjoyment of music. But they do recognize and enjoy favorite pieces of music both played/recorded, and sung acapella (without accompaniment). My 5 pets vary in their levels of appreciation, but my newly paralyzed doxie seems to enjoy it most.
Before his paralysis, he was my best "singer", howling, hooting, and barking along with pieces he liked. His favorites, Grieg's, "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen", and Glenn Miller's, "In the Mood", elicited his most excited responses. We had music to rev him up, and calmer pieces to end these happy moments. When I hold him and look into his eyes, I sing, "Beautiful, beautiful brown eyes". He relaxes and calms to hear this. It is a moment of gold, such as a lullaby would be to a child.
One day in the last month, after his paralysis, I went to the piano and hammered out his favorite "rev-me-up" song of "Wedding Day at Troldhaugen". He nearly climbed out of his confinement crate to get back to his position beside the piano. The joy was back in his eyes, and his smile reappeared.
Since that day, I take him to the piano daily and sing the favorite songs followed by the calmer "Beautiful Brown Eyes".
It's not much different than working with severely retarded humans with regard to the enjoyment and recognition of sound. The shrill sound of strings and flutes are not popular with animals, but lower tones seem to ellicit the most positive responses. I wonder how much calmer sheltered animals would be if they could hear calm music.
If you can't play music, you can certainly sing a calm song such as a lullaby. Looking into your pet's eyes, stroking, and singing, are very happy moments and can actually ellicit healing.
I'm looking forward to using "These Boots (feet) Were Made for Walking" as we do our leg exercises.
Any other ideas?
Dianne
Story: Music Therapy for Animals
Re: Story: Music Therapy for Animals
Interesting ideas. I can't sing, dance, or do music of any sort, and, in fact, don't listen to it much, either. My monsters are deprived, I guess, but I used to work for somebody with a bunch of kitties that had their own house, and she played classical radio all the time.
Four Fur Feet *LINK*
Hi Dianne,
I'm not such a good singer, but I did sing For Baby (For Bobbie) (John Denver) to my dog the day she walked across the bridge at the school.
We used rhythm to keep us going during her long recovery. I'll describe this, but it is hard to describe and I'm sure many people find it boring. My dog could not do standing exercises on all fours because she's such an acrobat that she would rely solely on her front feet to balance and not really use the back. I discovered the way I could exercise her back feet was to hold her under the chest in my right hand and under the back feet in my left hand, and she would stand in my hand on her two back feet. Then I would swing her feet forward and back while she was bearing weight.
There was no way we would be able to do half-hour stretches of this indoors staring at the kitchen wall, so we developed a routine of going out and walking with me holding her, and she would bear weight and get her exercise while watching interesting sights along the way. But I could only hold her in midair like that for about 8 minutes before my arm would die and we'd have to take a break. We did 40 minutes of this a day for 9 months until she was doing some walking herself. We had to do something to keep going!
The thing that kept us both going was rhythm. I used jody calls (military cadence calls) and poems and songs to keep our spirits up. Had to do them rather quietly so nobody would think I was nuts marching along with a dog in midair! One song that worked well was The Ants Go Marching.
Here is our favorite jody call, which we did over and over and over:
Left, left, left, right, left,
I left my wife and 47 kids
In a striving position
Without any gingerbread
Thought I did right, right,
Right for my country
By jingles I had a good job but I
left, left...
By the way, when I first started doing it I was swinging her back feet in time to the music. Then one day I realized she was a small dog and this was too slow for what was natural to her, so I learned to double-time her legs to the music. I think this helped her make the connections she needed better. There's nothing slow about chihuahuas.
Our favorite poem is Four Fur Feet. Below I am putting a link to the book by Margaret Wise Brown. It has many verses, and eventually you find yourself making up your own. It starts out:
Oh, he walked around the world
On his four fur feet,
His four fur feet,
His four fur feet,
Oh, he walked around the world
On his four fur feet
And he never made a sound-o.
(He walks out in the county, and along the river, and all sorts of places. It's a wonderful book.)
This poem continues to have meaning for us, because the part about "never made a sound-o" is significant. She is learning to walk without dragging her toes. You hear a lot of tssk-tssk when they are relearning to walk.
I am sure your dog will learn to walk better and enjoy it more with the help of the music. I would have done that kind of enrichment for my dog too if I was more musical.
CLICK HERE to see Four Fur Feet
I'm not such a good singer, but I did sing For Baby (For Bobbie) (John Denver) to my dog the day she walked across the bridge at the school.
We used rhythm to keep us going during her long recovery. I'll describe this, but it is hard to describe and I'm sure many people find it boring. My dog could not do standing exercises on all fours because she's such an acrobat that she would rely solely on her front feet to balance and not really use the back. I discovered the way I could exercise her back feet was to hold her under the chest in my right hand and under the back feet in my left hand, and she would stand in my hand on her two back feet. Then I would swing her feet forward and back while she was bearing weight.
There was no way we would be able to do half-hour stretches of this indoors staring at the kitchen wall, so we developed a routine of going out and walking with me holding her, and she would bear weight and get her exercise while watching interesting sights along the way. But I could only hold her in midair like that for about 8 minutes before my arm would die and we'd have to take a break. We did 40 minutes of this a day for 9 months until she was doing some walking herself. We had to do something to keep going!
The thing that kept us both going was rhythm. I used jody calls (military cadence calls) and poems and songs to keep our spirits up. Had to do them rather quietly so nobody would think I was nuts marching along with a dog in midair! One song that worked well was The Ants Go Marching.
Here is our favorite jody call, which we did over and over and over:
Left, left, left, right, left,
I left my wife and 47 kids
In a striving position
Without any gingerbread
Thought I did right, right,
Right for my country
By jingles I had a good job but I
left, left...
By the way, when I first started doing it I was swinging her back feet in time to the music. Then one day I realized she was a small dog and this was too slow for what was natural to her, so I learned to double-time her legs to the music. I think this helped her make the connections she needed better. There's nothing slow about chihuahuas.
Our favorite poem is Four Fur Feet. Below I am putting a link to the book by Margaret Wise Brown. It has many verses, and eventually you find yourself making up your own. It starts out:
Oh, he walked around the world
On his four fur feet,
His four fur feet,
His four fur feet,
Oh, he walked around the world
On his four fur feet
And he never made a sound-o.
(He walks out in the county, and along the river, and all sorts of places. It's a wonderful book.)
This poem continues to have meaning for us, because the part about "never made a sound-o" is significant. She is learning to walk without dragging her toes. You hear a lot of tssk-tssk when they are relearning to walk.
I am sure your dog will learn to walk better and enjoy it more with the help of the music. I would have done that kind of enrichment for my dog too if I was more musical.
CLICK HERE to see Four Fur Feet
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markcrobinson
- Site Admin
- Posts: 310
- Joined: Sat Apr 28, 2001 7:00 pm
- Location: Amherst, NH
Can I post this?
This is lovely!
I'd love to perminently post this, along with a photo.
I'd love to perminently post this, along with a photo.
Re: Four Fur Feet
Your cadence work still comes under the realm of Music Therapy. Karl Orff, the Hungarian, began with chant/cadence work and then added music to his works. And you didn't know that you were using a recognized therapeutic mode.
It is really not so "far out" to use rhythm, music, or chant to rehabilitate animals. My more than 10 years of experience working with profoundly retarded, multiply handicapped, non ambulatory, paralyzed, incontinent humans with no skills, tells me that if humans with a very small intelligence can learn/enjoy or be therapeutically assisted by music, animials could possibly be assisted as well.
If animals can learn to understand words and tone of voice, why wouldn't they remember repeated musical phrases, and enjoy the "play" of repeated words?
Anyway, I'm sure there are skeptics who would scoff at the idea. Perhaps there are other therapeutic modes that they would prefer, but my doxie seems to enjoy music. If it adds to his enjoyment of life, why would I stop!
It is really not so "far out" to use rhythm, music, or chant to rehabilitate animals. My more than 10 years of experience working with profoundly retarded, multiply handicapped, non ambulatory, paralyzed, incontinent humans with no skills, tells me that if humans with a very small intelligence can learn/enjoy or be therapeutically assisted by music, animials could possibly be assisted as well.
If animals can learn to understand words and tone of voice, why wouldn't they remember repeated musical phrases, and enjoy the "play" of repeated words?
Anyway, I'm sure there are skeptics who would scoff at the idea. Perhaps there are other therapeutic modes that they would prefer, but my doxie seems to enjoy music. If it adds to his enjoyment of life, why would I stop!
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GabrielDeafBlindPupFamily
- Posts: 5011
- Joined: Thu Dec 11, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: St. Helena Island, SC
Re: Story: Music Therapy for Animals
When Allix lay dying in the hospital (22 cal. gunshot tospine) I sang HER song " You are my Sunshine, My Only Sunshine" and even paralyzed, she tried to move to mommy. Of course mommy was on floor sobbing. I have "certain" songs I sing to my pups and they delight in them, they are their special songs. Jude's is now the Sunshine song (it was alsomy Son's when he was a baby) Jude was run over by a car, starved and then SHOT! When Jason was rescued from the crackhouse (I swear I am not making this up) I played classical because he had lived with fighting pits for a year and was totallly vicious. My son was a classical musician, so classical it was. Yea, the puppers love music, especially AllicksBlindPup. She wiggles all over when I sing and dance (how she knows, maybe the house shaking) But when I sing and dance, AmbrrNanaDog becomes AMbrr the Dancing Dog. They love it.
Re: Story: Music Therapy for Animals
I knew that I wasn't completely bonkers in my assumption of applying music therapy principles to animals. If it helps to distract from pain, makes movement easier, or adds to the enjoyment of life, why wouldn't we do it? There are too many indications that animals remember and enjoy sound.
Thanks to you and CarolC who validated the same principles. You both sound like such kind people that I wish I could know you both.
Doing Music Therapy with animals is still an untested field, but one that could benefit our handicapped and disabled pets. I have never heard of any studies using it with animals.
My pets have enriched my life so much that I want to do the same for them.
Thanks to you and CarolC who validated the same principles. You both sound like such kind people that I wish I could know you both.
Doing Music Therapy with animals is still an untested field, but one that could benefit our handicapped and disabled pets. I have never heard of any studies using it with animals.
My pets have enriched my life so much that I want to do the same for them.
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Debbie-Spain
- Posts: 622
- Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2003 7:00 pm
- Location: Catalonia, Spain
- Contact:
Re: Story: Music Therapy for Animals
Hi Dianne
I thought your post was really interesting. I have a cousin who is mentally disabled (from hydrocephalus), and I remember that when he was a teenager he responded well to music therapy.
I think there are some good kennels that play piped classical music, not sure if that has been extended to include many shelters but I am sure it would be interesting to see if it has a calming effect on the animals. Here is one reference to a shelter using classical music:
http://forums.somd.com/archive/index.php/t-3393.html
I found a few links for you that offer music that has been designed for pets with music therapy in mind, the first one is in Japan and comes with a book (seemingly in English) explaining the philosophy behind it:
http://www.aeon.com.hk/aeonvogue/020201/020201_e_g2.htm
"just dogs studios":
http://www.justdogsrecords.com/index.ht ... le=af.html
"music therapy for pets"
http://www.pamperedpetsit.com/musictherapy.htm
Not suggesting that you would need to buy them, I just thought the sites might make interesting reading for you!
Debbie
I thought your post was really interesting. I have a cousin who is mentally disabled (from hydrocephalus), and I remember that when he was a teenager he responded well to music therapy.
I think there are some good kennels that play piped classical music, not sure if that has been extended to include many shelters but I am sure it would be interesting to see if it has a calming effect on the animals. Here is one reference to a shelter using classical music:
http://forums.somd.com/archive/index.php/t-3393.html
I found a few links for you that offer music that has been designed for pets with music therapy in mind, the first one is in Japan and comes with a book (seemingly in English) explaining the philosophy behind it:
http://www.aeon.com.hk/aeonvogue/020201/020201_e_g2.htm
"just dogs studios":
http://www.justdogsrecords.com/index.ht ... le=af.html
"music therapy for pets"
http://www.pamperedpetsit.com/musictherapy.htm
Not suggesting that you would need to buy them, I just thought the sites might make interesting reading for you!
Debbie