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Last week I wrote about music and pets and then listed a couple of resources. There are actually some more that I didn’t have the time to include so here they are.

In my last post you saw music for pets and music for birds but these specialty products are rare.

Even so, I found another cat specific composition called Cat-a-tonic. This selection consists of acoustic guitar, jazz, rap and other genres with unique lyrics related to felines instead of instrumentals.

Very amusing and unique collection–my favorite? “Kittie knows more that I do” cracked me up.

 Through a Dog’s Ear: Music to Calm Your Canine Companion, Volume 1

is the companion CD to the interesting book released this year called Through a Dog’s Ear: Using Sound to Improve the Health & Behavior of Your Canine Companion.

I wrote about the scientific studies related to music for animals in the first post in this series and if you are interested in the topic I urge you to read this book.

It looks like the group will be releasing a series of music for a variety of uses such as this Music to Calm Your Dog in the Car which also comes with a booklet.

I really enjoy listening to this music for pets selection. If you are interested, you can also purchase individual music for dog compositions and listen to excerpts here.

I like to listen to classical music or instrumentals when I am working. It is also what I recommend for most of my clients who have noise phobia or anxiety issues. So when I found Dog Gone Classical Music: Mozart it immediately captured my interest.

Plus, how could you resist the cover photo?

I have not listened to this compact disk yet so if you have be sure to leave a comment below and let me know what your impressions are.

The Pet Music people have produced a variety of compact disks with music for pets.

The one to your left provides over three hours of music.

Pet Music combines instrumentals with nature sounds for each of their products.

They have two volumes out for separation anxiety and stress Creature Comforts and Just Chillin.

In addition, they have a title called Soul Mates which is specifically titled for when you leave your companion home alone.

Laurel Canyon Animal Company has produced a variety of musical CDs.

Although they are not my cup of tea, some find them upbeat compositions. Each track includes vocals–but they seem to be more for people than for animals.

You can listen to a sampling from a couple of the collections here.

Titles include Songs to Make Dogs Happy, Music from the Pink Dolphins, Koko, Fine Animal Gorilla, and the seasonal Bring an Animal Home for the Holidays. Finally, if you can figure out I’m a Green Chicken–let me know!

Okay, this list wouldn’t be complete without a few dog songs for people–I just happened to find a few in my search for music for dogs.

The first is a collection of Dog Songs put together by Disney. Then The Dog: Silly Songs is available with a collections of songs related to certain breeds.

Finally, you gotta have Doggone Country: Favorite Songs About Dogs.

You can listen to a few of the Doggone Country selections here.

Yesterday I spent some talking about how science has not quite caught up with the anecdotal observations of how music benefits pets. There are many new products on the market so I thought I would list a couple…more to come later.

While You Are Gone: Music Pets Love by Robbins Island Music (2000).

This work was composed by a musician whose dog suffered from separation anxiety. This compact disk has received rave reviews. Personally, I don’t like the narratives added in at the beginning of some of the works.

Sounds such as children on a playground, ocean waves, and other sounds appear in selected compositions.

They also produce two other pet music CDs you might be interested in. They are composed in similar fashion: M usic Cats Love: While You Are Gone and Music Birds Love: While You Are Gone.

Despite my reservations, many people report that their pets seem more relaxed after just a few minutes of the listening to the compact disk and it remains one of the most consistent selling music for pets.

Relaxation Music For Dogs and Cats Volume 1 (2003), Relaxation Music for My Pet and Me Vol 2 (2005) and Relaxation Music for Horses are just some of the works produced by Janet Marlow who is now running a website called Music for Pets & People.

I enjoyed listening to the various clips from her collections and think you will too. The musical compositions can be used to relax companion animals and used by practitioners who are providing bodywork for your animals.

She suggests you use the relaxation music for horses in your barn, during farrier visits, equine massage, and therapeutic riding lessons.

Photograph of Rhode Island Red courtesy of Sherool

So, over on the Pet Connection blog Kim mentioned her surprise to find chicken pets listing in Men’s Journal. The author of the article, Ragan Sutterfield, is a writer and farmer in Arkansas–where chickens in the yard are not something new–just a recent fad in the big urban areas.

Growing up we lived in Los Angeles County and had chickens as pets. So, I don’t think of this trend as something new. (Or maybe I have now hit the age where it is new and I am just old now–Ugh.)

The fine feathered friends had a coop but were allowed to roam in our large yard during the day under supervision. They were great at keeping down the weeds and bugs and I loved listening them.

We ate their eggs and maintained quite a group until a member of the local urban wildlife clan (a large raccoon) discovered them.

But our rooster, Oscar was mean. (He was actually one of the few animals in my life that I was afraid of!) As a fine specimen of the Plymouth Rock variety, this cockerel put up a good fight with the raccoon, saving his flock, but losing his life from the injuries several days later.

It was the only time we had a truce and it broke my heart. I was probably about eight years old or so.

Anyway, over the years we had Rhode Island Reds and later Silkies. If you are interested in chicken breeds try Henderson’s Chicken Breed Chart. Although I liked the colorful eggs of the Silkies , I preferred the personalties of the Rhode Island Reds.

In January of this year I discovered that some of my neighbors were raising chickens and so decided to video and cover the “breaking news about chicken pets.”

Then today I found this article talking about how pet chickens are ruffling feathers in Houston and don’t miss the chicken pet video.

I was recently interviewed about pet trends–basically I think that the pet industry pushes novelty animals and creates trends to make more money off of livestock (pets).

In this particular case, I am wondering if it is just how some people are getting back to nature…going green and all that.

After all you can get fresh eggs, fertilizer, maybe a few feathers, and keep down the weeds and bugs in the process–right?