We all have different ways of living life. For me, experiencing the nature of animals is fascinating and I’m always looking for an opportunity to do so. So when I saw that Debbie Labbe of Country Quilt Llama Farm in Cornwall, CT offered walks with Llamas I jumped in to schedule.

Debbie gave us an address by a country road to meet up. We came to the trail and lo and behold across the street coming out of a van were our two Llama walk-mates, Theo and Rio. Seems that Llamas are perfectly comfortable sitting in a carpeted van floor and traveling to their next walking mission. (great idea for a car commercial) In the hour, we walk on a beautiful trail where we learned about these wondrous beings. They weigh about 350 lbs, live up to 20 years, they are gentle and calm. Some fun facts:

• Llamas make excellent guards for herds of small animals. They are very social and will 'adopt' a group of sheep or goats as their own herd. ...

• Llamas are smart. ...

• Llamas are the camel's hippie cousins. ...

• One of the ways llamas communicate is by humming.

• They are bright-eyed, sure-footed hiking companions.

I had read up about Llamas but found very little exacting information on their hearing ability. As cousins of camels, camel hearing is from 20Hz to 14,000 Hz meaning very similar to human hearing range from 20Hz to 20,000Hz. However, during our walk we observed how Llamas behaved when hearing animal movement in the woods and hearing a dog and their person approach on the trail even before we humans saw them. Here’s a video of Theo’s ears movement capturing sounds.

Llamas get sheared once a year and their wool is spun into wool.

Theo on the left is 11 years old was a cool personality. Rio on the right was a young Llama about 9 months old and was a willing follower.

In 1992, Debbie developed a children’s enrichment program for preschools, daycare centers and libraries called “Hooked On Llamas”. Also an Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) program sharing her llamas with adults at convalescent homes, rest homes, assisted living facilities and Adult Daycare Centers.

When it was time to go home, I brought some carrots to give to our walk-mates as a treat. Then they hopped into the van. A fascinating morning learning more about our gentle animal world.

If you want to Walk with Llamas visit: https://www.countryquiltllamafarm.com/

I started the journey into the study of canine hearing and the responses to sound in 1994. My first research was looking up information in veterinary medical books to learn about the effects of sound on the canine ear. To my surprise, there was no information on behavioral responses to sound but solely on ear structure. My curiosity grew stronger and inspired me towards finding out more about canine hearing. It became clear to me that this was an overlooked area of canine and feline life.

I wrote to world leaders in the study of animal hearing such as H.E. Hefner and R.S. Hefner at the University of Toledo Laboratory of Animal Comparative Hearing asking them for copies of their research. I received these papers which showed hearing ranges of animals from chickens to bats in decibels and frequencies. Over three years, I began formulating a concept. I focused on canine and feline hearing ranges first as these are the most common companion animals. By acknowledging that dog and cat hyper-vigilant behavior is triggered by high and low ranges for survival, I thought surely this is occurring behaviorally in our homes. Are pet behaviors being triggered by sound and overlooked because these agitating sounds are not being heard by humans? What can be provided for pets to help them feel calm?

The concept soon solidified in my mind. By eliminating these alert levels in our pet's environment, the result should elicit calm. Relating this to my dogs and cats who demonstrated their soothing as I practiced for performances, I saw music as the answer. As a recording artist in my studio, I was adept at manipulating sound modifying decibel and frequency content. This was the beginning of my journey.

In 1997, I invented species-specific music which is music designed for the hearing comfort range of dogs, cats, horses and birds to help balance behaviors. Since then, proven clinical studies, published research, awards and thousands of products sold globally have been a solution for separation anxiety and noise phobias for pet parents, veterinarians and shelters disbursed through my corporation, Pet Acoustics.

In 2020, I’m continuing animal hearing research in collaboration with veterinary research institutes around the world, most recently in the agricultural field for pigs and cows. Janet Marlow, Founder of Pet Acoustics.