Bringing a puppy home and creating an environment that nurtures calm behaviors sounds easier than it is in reality. Even if you’ve had many dogs throughout your lifetime, each dog, each breed, each circumstance brings a new challenge to this wonderful handful of furry being.

Adopting a puppy into your home is an undeniable joy. Seeing a puppy’s playfulness and energy is endearing and entertaining. The first two years of a puppy’s life are full of new experiences about their world, and hearing is essential for their learning and training.

Newborn puppies are deaf until about three weeks of age. Until then, a puppy uses her sense of smell to navigate to Mom, siblings and her surroundings. Eyes begin to open in the second week of life, between ten to fourteen days. Puppies’ ears begin to open generally around fourteen to eighteen days old and continue to develop until eight weeks old. Once they have their full hearing ability, they hear twice the frequency levels of humans and sounds four times farther away. When you first bring home a puppy, at this early age, the distinctive sound of your voice becomes imprinted as their new family.

Hearing and Sleep

Canine ears, like human ears, never close! When we sleep, our ears are still hearing, though our brains go in and out of responding to sound according to the different stages of sleep. There are two basic types of sleep: REM-sleep and non-REM sleep, (rapid eye movement) which has three different stages.

Stage One occurs right after you fall asleep and is very short.
Stage Two is a light sleep. Heart rate slows and body temperature drops.

Research has identified that the brain waves of dogs during sleep are comparable to those of humans. Have you seen your dog twitch when she is sleeping? This is when your dog has entered REM sleep or rapid eye movement. Compared to humans who have 25% of REM deep sleep, dogs only need 10% of REM for health. Getting quality sleep every day is a key component of your dog’s health at any age.

If your dog experiences agitating noises while home alone, your dog may not be getting sufficient rest. This is important because during sleep, dogs, just like humans experience allostatic regulation, which is the balancing of cell function. How much sleep a dog needs depends on the breed of dog, the size of the dog, their diet, daily walks, and amount of play exercise.

Canine rest periods weave in and out of daily life. As sleep or rest is a major part of their day for health and rebalance, the acoustics and sounds in their environment is a key factor. If their environment is noisy, like the reverberating cement walls of animal shelters, dogs hardly get a chance to rest deeply. In a veterinary kennel, the same acoustic issues can apply

Stage Three is the deep sleep

Each of these stages is linked to specific brain waves and neuronal activity. These are developments which can exacerbate the emotional stress of separation anxiety. Have you seen your dog go into a deep rest right after a veterinary checkup? Just being home helps your dog succumb to the quiet and safety to release muscle tension due to stress. There’s no place like home!

When a puppy is learning to be home alone, they can experience acute separation anxiety. The release of the adrenaline hormone causes a state of stress and if the stress continues, cortisol, known as the stress hormone, is released into the body, causing your dog to be anxious and reactive. During the night, if you’ve ever tried to sleep while your puppy is being crate trained, you have heard with your own ears the level of stress they are experiencing. It’s understandable that your puppy just wants to be cuddled and be close to you for deep relaxation but just like a baby, they need at some point to self-regulate into a state of relaxation.

“ I have a new puppy that has separation issues not only when I'd leave the house, but when I leave the room. He will cry, bark and even go to the bathroom in his crate when I'd leave. I use Puppy Calm music now and my puppy knows when the music goes on it’s time to crate up and goes to sleep and rests.”

“Our puppy is very anxious and this really helps calm him. He sleeps really well, it's soothing and helps block out any sounds that would wake him. If he's whimpering or barking, he usually calms down within 3 or 4 minutes after playing the soothing sounds. I also enjoy having it on during the day to keep him calm while I work (since I work from home).”

New! special music designed just for growing puppy behavior balance.

$34.99 SD card

compatible with Pet Tunes speaker or other device.

Does your dog have singing talent to win a DogGrammy?

Pet Acoustics has created The 1st Singing DogGrammy Award Contest culminating with a live event on June 15th to announce the winner!!

The talented canine winner will receive $250.00 cash, (1) Pet Tunes Canine, (1) Ultra Calmer Collar , (1) Fit Tunes and (1) Pet Acoustics Logo Hat.

How to participate:

Record your dog singing

Go to this Link: https://www.facebook.com/SingingDogGrammyAward

Post the video on Send Message with your dog’s:

Name and your email address

Join the Pet Acoustics Award Event Live!! on June 15th on facebook.com/petacoustics with the announcement of the talented canine winner!!

When a storm is occurring in your area, it is heartbreaking to see your wonderful dog panting, pacing and drooling in a highly anxious state. You’d like to hold your dog and help her break out of this behavior, but more often than not your loving efforts are to no avail. Dogs and cats can also suffer static shocks in the buildup to a thunderstorm. If you become nervous or anxious yourself, your dog may mirror your behavior. “There’s something about their makeup that makes their thresholds for developing this, or their ability to recover, lower than that of other animals,” says Lore Haug, DVM, a veterinary behaviorist at Texas Veterinary Behavior Services.

The decibel range of a thunderstorm is between 100 dB to 115 dB, way beyond the safety range for canine ears. Thunder also occurs in the infrasonic range (below 20 Hz), which is inaudible to humans. During a storm, pressure will occur in a dog’s ear, which is experienced as a pulsating sensation. Both ultrasonic and infrasonic sounds can be observed in the same thunderstorm. A clap of thunder can reach 120 dB. So, you can understand why a thunderstorm is an intense experience for their ears and ours.

 A dog will want to escape to safety, and the shift to flight-or-fight behavior can happen quickly. Pet parents have shared with me stories of their dog jumping into a bathtub, shaking under a bed, and running right through electric fences. If a dog lives in an area that has rolling thunderstorms due to afternoon heat, the dog will develop storm phobia, which will need a behaviorist and calming tools to overcome. There are also hereditary predispositions to fear or anxiety reactive to thunderstorms, especially common in some hunting and herding breeds which includes the German Shepherd, Australian Shepherd, Labrador Retriever, Border Collie, Havanese, Shorthaired Pointer, Vizsla, and Bichon Frise.

 Young dogs and senior dogs display fear of thunderstorm sounds for different reasons than adult dogs. To a young dog, storms are a new experience to learn and can be terrifying as awareness grows. Senior and geriatric dogs, whose hearing has greatly diminished, will still experience the pressure of sound by absorbing vibrations in their bodies and through their paws, which can be disorienting.

 To assist a young pup in desensitizing to loud noises like thunderstorms or fireworks, you can pop bubble wrap in a room where they are. First, use your Decibel App to test the loudness of the pop yourself. Have your dog smell the sheet of bubble wrap to know where the sound is coming from. Then, keeping a distance from your dog in the room, pop one bubble and stop, then say “It’s okay.” During another session, pop two bubbles and repeat saying “It’s okay.” Evaluate your pup’s response to see if it lessens reactive behavior as you increase the experience. Make sure to keep the bubble wrap away from your dog’s head and ears.  Your reassurance by saying “It’s okay” will be good practice for when you and your dog are on the street and there's a loud pop sound that may startle your dog. Desensitizing your dog to street sounds, trucks and car horns is a good practice when they are young to minimize noise phobias later on.

 For adult dogs and cats, playing Pet Acoustics music will mask the thunderstorm sounds. For senior and geriatric pets, it’s best to confine their movement to one area or room to prevent injury during agitated roaming.

For Mother’s Day, we’re celebrating YOU being a Dog Mom or a Cat Mom!

Pet Acoustics announces our special partnership with Basepaws, a pet health & genetics company. Starting now, see their special Mother’s Day Gift Guide discount offer for a Cat DNA Test to know your cat better. Basepaws helps you discover more about our cat's genetic background, lineage, health, traits, – what a great gift for Mother’s Day!

Daphne and Rigby

I was walking Rigby (on right) in a nearby park, when we spotted another Springer Spaniel for a tail wagging meet and greet. “Daphne” was introduced as a 12 year old female who had recently lost her hearing a few weeks ago, the pet parent shared. She expressed to me that she is now trying to re-train Daphne to respond to hand signals for behavioral direction when needed. As a sound behaviorist, this inspired me to share with you the importance of teaching your dog hand signal behavioral training as well as verbal training before your dog loses hearing which is inevitable starting in senior age so you can be prepared.

Listening communications by our dogs are so much part of their relationship with us along with visual cues. Our movement is an energy that our dogs look to for direction. Just getting up from a couch can mean it’s treat time, meal time or time to go for a walk and your dog is cued and ready. They do the same with us. Getting a toy, playing with it a bit and then dropping it in front of our feet is an invitation to play. No words needed!

Even though my years of research and focus in the science of sound and how a dog hears, I am keenly aware that behind it all is a field of energy that is a silent communication. Dogs are energy beings. Even when a dog is completely deaf, the energy of movement and sound is felt through your dogs paws and body. To know this makes this stage of senior life easier for you to transition your communication from verbal to intention through energetic communication. You only have to look at the language of signing by the deaf community to observe the energy of this beautiful language.

Whether you use verbal direction or hand communication, it’s all fun for your dog. If you already have hand signals with verbal directions for your dog (with or without treats in hand) you can forgo speaking these out loud and you will see the good results and be prepared for later on in your dogs life when hearing diminishes.

Here are some common hand signal gestures that you probably already do with your dog but can practice without sound.

Whenever you notice your senior is not responding to you as always, make sure to take your dog for a veterinary visit to check their ears for infection , excessive wax or senior hearing loss. At home you can test your dog’s hearing by taking our Home Pet Hearing Test which will tell you if there is partial or full hearing loss in 1 minute, at any age.

Please write to me if you have any questions about your dog’s hearing and behavior. hello@petacoustics.com There is also a lot of information in my latest book, What Dogs Hear: From Puppy to Senior.

Thousands of animal shelters across the globe share the goal of inspiring people to adopt. Approximately, 7.6 million companion animals enter shelters in the U.S. every year. Pet Acoustics, a global pet brand, produced a motivational song and video for animal rescue organizations to boost support and inspire new adopters.  

Animal rescue organizations can freely download to use the Rescue, Rescue song and video as an uplift to their campaigns and noble cause of helping those who have no voice. The lyrics are catchy to the ear with driving beats with a video story created to motivate adoption. Rescue, Rescue is written and sung by William Johnson, founder of Beats By Make. Pet Acoustics founder, Janet Marlow, wrote the lyrics and created the video production as The Pet Acoustics Rescue Initiative.

Rescue, Rescue is a story of one person’s search for a beloved companion to give them a forever home. 

Then I brought you home, Every day you lift my soul 

You’re life is warm and safe, You make mine truly whole

You’re no longer abandoned, Your safe from head to tail

Adopted from the shelter, You rescued me as well

“The sentiment of rescuing an animal begins with a burning desire that one’s heart is called to do. I know so many stories of people who, once they decide to adopt, will search and search until they find their beloved companion, myself included. It’s a journey of goodness and love. We want everyone to share and enjoy this song.” Janet Marlow, Founder and CEO of Pet Acoustics.

The Rescue, Rescue - The Pet Acoustics Rescue Initiative song is available on all streaming platforms, including, Spotify, Apple Music, TikTok, Pandora, Amazon, and iHeartRadio.

Watch and Download the video form the Pet Acoustics Youtube channel. Please share this video!!

The video is a give back to the pet community from the team at Pet Acoustics, which we have served since 2009.  We know that fundraising and support for each of the thousands of rescue organizations is motivated by the most dedicated people. We want to make this effort easier for them, with a media platform that gets straight to the heart of the world of rescue. 

Pet Acoustics Inc. has helped thousands of pets worldwide to overcome behavioral and environmental stress. Their popular clinically proven products, Pet Tunes Canine and Pet Tunes Feline are used by pet parents, rescue shelters and veterinarians to calm pets. The Pet Acoustics Rescue Initiative offers special discounts to purchase and gift to rescue shelters. Learn more here.

William Johnson, Singer, Composer, Engineer Janet Marlow, Composer, Sound Behaviorist

The Collaboration Back Story

Before Janet’s dedication to animals and leading Pet Acoustics’s mission, she was an international performer and recording artist. In the early 90’s as soon as digital composing came into being, she was one of the first to jump on board. Excited to educate others, she offered a course at a school to interested young people. William Johnson was one of those students. A few years later, The Janet Marlow Trio was performing, where backstage a fan came up to her and said I’d like to produce your next recordings. Amazingly, that was Will’s Dad, Taylor Johnson, a master recording engineer. The following six years, Taylor Johnson and Janet Marlow produced three albums, Passion & Grace, Essence and Latin Lover available on all streaming platforms. During this time Janet and Will reconnected as he too became a recording engineer, creating beats for hip hop artists and other recordings, called Beats By Make.

A few months ago, Janet reached out to Will with the project, which has now become The Pet Acoustics Rescue Initiative.

I’ve been writing meditations for my dog, Rigby and I to calm into and I’d like to share them with you. Here is a five minute meditation called “The River”. I hope you and your pet enjoy it too! Janet Marlow, Sound Behaviorist, Founder of Pet Acoustics.

Here are five benefits you and your pets will enjoy through a shared meditation practice:

1. Strengthen Safety and Trust

Often humans lack the ability, or in some cases the desire, to create a truly safe environment in which pets can flourish. Without a sense of stability, especially in their early developmental phases, many animals may begin to feel and act from a place of insecurity and fear—which can be particularly true for adopted rescue friends. The experience and emotions you invoke in them from the beginning either builds confidence and lessens fear, or it erodes one of the most important aspects of relationships: trust. Just as you feel more grounded following your own meditation practice, so do your furry companions. Find a quiet spot where you and Rex can practice together daily, and watch your bond grow.

2. Reduce Stress

Among other positive influences of a regular meditation practice, your stress response takes a much-needed break (this is also why a good night’s rest is so important). When you lessen the stress response of the body, its natural healing capabilities are able to go to work. This is especially important for older, ailing, or otherwise compromised animals. In fact, a rejuvenated body and mind, along with the other benefits you experience as a result of meditation, is something that may end up being one of your pet’s favorite benefits of being with you (although they probably wouldn’t turn down a tennis ball if offered!).

3. Harmonize and Attune Energy

When meditating, you are naturally in a calmer and more passive state. Your energy center tends to open and realign when you’re in the practice. As energy isn’t bound by the physical body, and is not limited to human bodies, you and your pet can merge together on this subtle, yet powerful level. This is the same energy that draws animals to certain people more readily, or causes them to react strongly to someone new. Meditation helps to deepen the bond and understanding between you and your pet.

4. Build a Bridge of Communication

Your intention of peace and harmony is like a safety blanket to an animal who desires bonding. This is especially true for animals who aren’t yet confident in their surroundings, or perhaps feel confused by the circumstances happening around them. In the silence of meditation, the messages of your heart energy can be felt by your pet on a vibrational level. Another way to connect to your pet is to partner your breathing for a minute or so. While sitting quietly with your companion, place your hand on their chest area and bring your attention to the movement of their breathing. Then, as long as it’s comfortable for you, match your breathing pattern to theirs. Take a few moments to tune in to your physical and energetic union.

5. Thrive with Daily Routine

Instinctively, animals align themselves with the rhythms of nature. Since this is their natural inclination, a daily routine helps them to stay more balanced—and potentially healthier overall. Practicing meditation first thing in the morning is the best bet for committing to a daily routine. Even five or 10 minutes will help start the day with a calmer, clearer mind and an alert, but relaxed body. Set your clock a few minutes earlier each morning, find a comfortable place to sit with your pet, and give yourselves the gift of silence. You’ll be reaping the reward in no time at all.

There are many wonderful ways to share time with your companion animals, yet doing something like meditation together may be one of the most meaningful. Meditation can help improve your overall health and well-being, and can make a huge difference in theirs as well. And with all the unconditional love they give to you each day, they deserve the very best in return.

Excerpts from Chopra.com

We surely have a lot to be thankful for this holiday. Our global community has been through a roller coaster of daily living in different ways. We adopted pets during the pandemic which emptied the shelters and treasured the comfort of our fur companions. So first up, thank goodness for the love of our pets that continue to keep us steady during these kinds of times. So in consideration of our pets during our upcoming Thanksgiving we’d like to offer six safety tips that can help you help your pet experience the holiday safely and with less stress. 

Tip #1 Sharing foods that are good

There are a few great options for Thanksgiving treats. Raw fruits and vegetables like baby carrots, green beans, apples (no seeds or skin) chunks of sweet potato, or pumpkin puree (not the sweetened, spiced pie filling) are good food treats to share with your dog. A small amount of unseasoned white Turkey meat (no skin) is okay. They will feel part of the festivities as their noses will be working overtime!

Tip #2 Prevent Losing Your Pet

With family and friends coming and going over Thanksgiving weekend, make sure that your dog or cat doesn’t find their way out the front door. Keep your cat in a separate room with the door closed so they don’t escape outdoors or down the hall if you’re in an apartment building. For dogs that get highly enthusiastic and like to jump on your guests, have your dog greet your guests with their leash and in a sit position. During their stay, ask your guests to be aware of your pets.

Tip #3 Toxic Spices

Garlic, onion, leeks, and chives common in Thanksgiving dishes are toxic to dogs and cats – they can cause destruction of red blood cells. Avoid giving your pet a bite of anything cooked with these ingredients.

Tip # 4 Decorative Plants Can be Toxic 

Some flowers and plants can be toxic to pets such as  Amaryllis, Baby’s Breath, Sweet William, some ferns, hydrangeas and others.

Tip #5 Keep your pet’s daily schedule  

Animals feel safest when their daily schedules are adhered to such as walks, feeding times and rest times. On Thanksgiving, this will probably not be possible and you may see that your cat is meowing more or your dog showing some anxious behaviors. If you’re doing the cooking and can’t pay attention as usual, designate a member of your gathering to take over some of these responsibilities. 

Tip #6 Play Calming Music 

As you know, Pet Acoustics is the most clinically proven calming music for pets in the world. We, of course, recommend playing our music designed for dogs and cats which will bring your pets into a state of calm throughout the holiday. You can place our Pet Tunes Bluetooth speaker near your pets on the floor for guaranteed effect without interfering with your human music playing during the festivities.

Out of everything, we are so very thankful for this Thanksgiving season and our Pet Acoustics connection to you and your pets are at the top of our list!

Janet Marlow, Founder and CEO and our Pet Acoustics Team

Fight or Flight

Living in partnership with a dog or a cat, one can witness moments of flight as simple as a response to the sound of a plastic cup dropping on a kitchen floor.  The origins of the terms fight or flight were first defined by Walter Bradford Cannon (1871-1945), a twentieth century American physiologist. His theory states that animals react to threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system, preparing the animal for fighting or fleeing. The hormones estrogen, testosterone, and cortisol, as well as the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, also reflect how organisms react to stress in animals.

What Dogs Hear: Understanding Canine Hearing and Behavior

$19.99

These responses are recognized as the first stage of the general adaptation syndrome which regulates stress responses among vertebrates and other organisms. The phrase fight or flight has been part of our culture in the way that we describe canine stress behaviors. I’d like to take the liberty to add a third word – balance- to this description. Why? Because the daily survival of animal life includes seeking a balanced state within their environment.  The term allostasis describes the ability of an animal to adapt to an environmental change by regulating its physiological state. The concept of allostasis was proposed by the neurophysiologists, Peter Sterling and Joseph Eyer in 1988 as being essential  in order to maintain internal viability amid changing conditions. In the wild and in our homes, animals seek balanced states of being through a combination of activity, rest and play. Lions, as an example, are crepuscular hunters but spend their day seeking a balance state (allostasis) by resting sixteen to twenty hours of the day. It’s not always about fight or flight.

As crepuscular hunters, our domesticated canines look forward to an early breakfast from our kitchens and a dog walk, with various rest times up to ten to fourteen hours a day. Seeking rest is also a response to stress. Muscles relax, energies reboot, and the pleasure of finding the sunny square on the floor to bathe in makes for a healthier and less stressed dog. That’s good self-regulating. 

Providing your dog with his or her own comfort zone, like a pet bed or a special blanket on a couch with calming music playing is as essential to their health and wellbeing as providing nutritious food, exercise and love. Sensory balance with minimal fight-or-flight stress will lead to a longer lifespan for your canine. 

Excerpt from What Dogs Hear by Janet Marlow, Sound Behaviorist

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