A Fun First: Music Arranged for Dogs Makes Billboard Classical Chart!

Roll over, Beethoven! An album arranged for dogs — yes, dogs — has won a coveted spot on the Billboard Classical Music Chart. It’s the first time this has happened, and Dogster has the news before any other news outlet! (I’ll tell you why in a moment.)

Through a Dog’s Ear: Music to Calm Your Canine Companion, performed by Dogster favorite Lisa Spector, ranks at #19 on the chart this week. The album is the first in a series of solo piano recordings clinically demonstrated to calm the canine nervous system. The music has been selected and rearranged to help dogs suffering from anxiety issues.

Judging by big sales, it looks like there are a lot of doggies who need calming these days. In fact, when we ran our interview with Lisa a couple of years ago, Dogsters were abuzz over this music.

OK, so here’s why we have this news a little bit before pretty much anyone else. By coincidence, I just wrote a story for a publication called San Francisco Classical Voice about how music can calm dogs. It came out yesterday afternoon, so I’ve been in touch with Lisa a great deal before its publication date, and I was “right there” when she got the news.

I think you’ll really like the article. I can’t “reprint” more than a couple of paragraphs here, so come see the full article at San Francisco Classical Voice to learn about not only the Through a Dog’s Ear music, but about music and its power to help dogs chill. I’d love it if you could leave a comment there with your experiences or thoughts, because they could use the voices of some dog lovers.

Little Red

Here’s how the article starts:

Little Red, a pit bull with a tender soul, spent the majority of her first five years chained to a car axle that was planted in the ground at Michael Vick’s notorious Bad Newz kennels. Her only respite from the elements was when she had puppies, or when someone needed a bait dog to test the violent propensities of other pit bulls.

She is scarred inside and out. Her teeth were filed down so she could not have defended herself if she tried. When she was rescued in the 2007 raid on the Smithville, Virginia, dogfighting ring, and placed with Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, she was so fearful that she wanted only to hide — from people, dogs, the world.

Click here for the rest.

View the original article here

Sweet Pit Bull Music Video

Love pit bulls? You’re sure to enjoy the Pit Bull Blues by John Shipe. You may have seen it when it first came out a couple of years ago, but it’s worth a replay.

A big Dogster arf to SAY Media’s Sarah Betts for calling this to our attention!

View the original article here

Music Video: A Sidecar Dog and His Man

Spirit

When his adult son died of cancer a few years ago, Ara was heartbroken, empty, and lost. And then he adopted a dog named Spirit. Spirit had had a rough go of it himself, and had his own emptiness and emotional damage to overcome. Ara and Spirit have been inseparable since. They’ve traversed 140,000 miles by motorcycle together. As they zip along, Spirit sniffs the terrain in his sidecar, looking ever so happy to be with his man for this grand and healing adventure.

“Spirit is my therapy…His unconditional love is always there, lifting my heart,” says Ara.

There is a movie in this. For now, here’s a pretty awesome little music video.

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View the original article here