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naturalpet Each Species Grooves to Its Own Beat PETS ¤ MUSIC by Sandra Murphy
ust as dogs’ and cats’ noses are more effi cient than ours, they also have better hearing, reacting to a broader and higher range of frequencies and vibrations. “We sense our world from where our ears are. Our plane is generally fi ve to six feet high; animals closer to the ground hear things differently,” says Janet Marlow, founder and CEO of Pet Acoustics, in Washington Depot, Connecticut. The internationally renowned musician, composer and sound behaviorist has invented species-specifi c music based on her 30 years of research.
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Humans hear up to 23,000 Hertz (Hz), which differs substantially from that of many other creatures (
lsu.edu/ deafness/
HearingRange.html). A Hertz is a standard unit of frequency set at one cycle per second.
Horses Hear Up to
33,500 Hz Marlow found that horses prefer rhythmic pieces matching their natural movements. “When a Tennessee walking horse breeder played music during a birth, the foal and mother recovered faster than usual.” After that, “The horses ran to the barn upon hearing the same music.”
Sally Morgan, a physical therapist and advanced certifi ed Tellington TTouch practitioner in Northampton, Massachusetts, who has enjoyed freestyle performance riding, says, “I liked to play our songs in the barn. Five CD players can keep horses relaxed most of the day. They don’t
like country-western music; it’s often sad and in the wrong cadence. Classical music like Bach is calming. When I played Pachelbel’s Canon in D on my fl ute, my Morgan gelding, Ten Penny Moonshine, listened for hours.”
Rabbits Hear Up to
42,000 Hz “Rescued rabbits like long tones, common in music accompanying yoga or reiki,” Morgan relates. “Long tones hold a chord with layers of notes on top.”
Dogs Hear Up to
45,000 Hz “People hear in stereo, animals in mono,” says Marlow. It’s why dogs tilt their heads left to right— to allow more sound waves into their ears—collecting information from various angles. Sound frequency and intensity keeps an animal alive in nature; they learn to fl ee in another direction, not analyze. Separation anxiety is often due to a sound the dog doesn’t recognize, Marlow explains. Sound triggers behavior, whether good or bad, as dogs relax or are stressed. Music releases tension from their being ever-vigilant as seen in their posture. To understand what a dog hears, sit or crawl on the fl oor. Electronic speakers are usually positioned at heights conducive for our ears, not theirs.
28 Central Florida natural awakenings
He could tell by the way animals walked that they
were keeping time to some kind of music. Maybe it
was the song in their own hearts that they walked to. ~Laura Adams Armer
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