Conscious Choice: Songs to Make Dogs Happy

December 2003

Songs to Make Dogs Happy

A new CD gives you the chance to uniquely connect with your canine

by Terry Loncaric

Ahhh — a dog’s simple universe. The joys of moist food, car rides, back rubs. And, of course, the unconditional love of their doting owners. Dogs apparently feel abandoned when owners go away and forget to say they are coming home. Or they go to work and turn the lights off. Or they pass up the treat drawer and turn on the laptop.

None of this should come as a huge surprise if you are a loving pet owner (or is that guardian?). But this simple knowledge spurred Chicago pet communicator Kim Ogden-Avrutik to use her skills to help create the silly, but sweet, "Songs to Make Dogs Happy."

And you thought your dog really loved your old Rolling Stones albums. How presumptuous! Remember dogs have feelings too — and their own strange love of rhythm. They even listen to silly polkas and songs with squeaky sounds. Even if you don’t think much of an album that has snoring and howling on it — well guess what, bucko? — You don’t have four legs and a tail.

"Songs to Make Dogs Happy" is the first album of its kind. A bouncy collection of tunes — made from the dogs’ point of view. No, the dogs did not record the songs or bark on the album. Although you probably haven’t heard this much panting since you listened to your old Donna Summer albums.

Now what makes such silly tracks so doggone serious is they are the results of doggie focus groups. Ogden-Avrutik, an authentic pet communicator, asked dogs what made them feel good and what kind of music made them happy. "This time the dogs made all the decisions," says record producer Skip Haynes.

A project of Ogden-Avrutik and Laurel Canyon Animal Company — the album has been released at Tower Records, Borders, and Barnes and Noble bookstores. And it should come as no surprise that a feeling of zaniness permeates the songs that were made by the same men who recorded such wacky hits as "Ugly Dogs Need More Love," "I’m a Green Chicken" and "Catatonic."

Haynes and Dana Walden recorded the songs and produced the album in their Los Angeles studio. Since the pop singers work with many other dog lovers they also had instant feedback from their own pets. Haynes says they only recorded songs that felt light-hearted. "In my world, polkas don’t exist," Haynes relates. "But in the recording studio we got to do a polka from the dogs’ point of view and it was a lot of fun."

Haynes and Walden also had a chance to bark and howl and play with their dogs’ squeaky toys. Often, while recording weird sound effects, the Los Angeles pop singers attracted the attention of coworkers’ dogs. "Right in the middle of recording‘Squeaky Deaky,’ a Boston terrier hopped on me," Haynes remembers.

"Songs to Make Dogs Happy" has a feeling of authenticity because Haynes worked so closely with a pet communicator. And that’s where Ogden-Avrutik entered the picture.

Haynes, a former Chicago resident, connected with "Dr. Kim" — as he calls her, because he wanted to work with someone who really understood animals. And after Haynes saw the renowned pet communicator on a segment of "ABC World News" he believed she had the skills to "talk to the animals."

Ogden-Avrutik was happy to work on a project that involved animals because helping them has been her life’s work. The Highland Park pet communicator became aware she could "talk to the animals" when she was a child. "An animal would pass by the street and I would know if it was in pain," she remembers. "I just thought I was a weird child."

Ogden-Avrutik didn’t realize she had a gift until years later. But before turning her attention to the animal population — the pet communicator earned a doctorate degree in public health from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She worked first with the human population as a health educator and researcher.

A trip to Taiwan in the early 1990s changed Ogden-Avrutik’s life. After she witnessed an epidemic of animal abuse, it broke her heart and made her realize she had a calling to help animals. For the scientifically-trained public health educator, working as a pet communicator was not a stretch. "The way I look at it," she reflects, "I have always considered animals as part of the‘public’ and as such, they deserve love, respect, and quality care. "That’s what I did when I was in the field of public health," she emphasizes. "Now I am doing the same thing, it’s just a different population."

Seven years ago Ogden-Avrutik established a practice as a pet communicator. She says animals send her impressions of what they are feeling in words, thoughts, or even pictures. Sometimes she hears this information in the animal’s voice. But mostly, she picks up the animal’s thoughts and feelings in her own voice. "It’s not like I go in and probe their minds," she explains. "They will send me mental pictures of what they are feeling, what their life is like, and what they just ate."

Often she acts as a family counselor for stressed pet owners who have reached the end of their rope when they cannot deal with an animal’s destructive behavior. She says she has a high degree of success persuading animals to change their bad behaviors.

And she also boasts that she has a nearly flawless record for finding lost pets. Ogden-Avrutik says animals often gravitate to her. "They pick up on the respect I have for them and the faith I have in them," she reveals. "I see them differently. I don’t see them as fur on a face. I see them as intelligent creatures."

Right Woman for the Job

With that kind of respect for four-legged creatures Ogden-Avrutik was obviously the perfect person to help select the songs for the first album in Laurel Canyon’s "Ask the Animal" series. "I was the quality assurance person," she reveals. "If Skip wrote a song in a way that animals would not understand I would tell him,‘we need to change that.’"

In the process of doing her market research," Ogden-Avrutik had a chance to ask dogs how they really feel about specific styles of music. She met with focus groups of more than 200 dogs. She visited shelters, dog shows, even a hospice n California for terminally ill dogs.

During these sessions, the pet communicator observed that dogs really do listen to music and even find it relaxing. "Dogs like a catchy melody," she reveals. "They seem to like songs that make them happy."

And what exactly makes a dog "happy?" Ogden-Avrutik asked the dogs. And they told her they want songs about moist food and cookies. But they also desire songs about having their backs scratched, going to sleep, and taking fun trips in the car. And they need the reassurance their owners will always come home.

According to the pet communicator’s research, dogs enjoy music with a cheerful beat. They have a strong preference for samba rhythms. But dogs also find new age and classical music equally soothing. And certain recording artists make dogs feel sad and restless and even a bit agitated.

Dogs get absolutely no satisfaction from the Rolling Stones. "I don’t now what this is," says a dog from the focus group. "It confuses me," relates another dog. "I can’t stand it," chimes in a third dog.

And dogs have the same negative reaction to the sad country ballads of Johnny Cash. "Oh, please, not this," one dog complains. Then a second dog wonders, "What’s this?" and then answers sadly, "This is just a man talking." A third dog offers the ultimate insult when he relieves himself.

All of this work with doggie focus groups may seem a bit strange. But Ogden-Avrutik says she always learns something when she takes the time to "talk to the animals."

"I love to talk to the animals and I love to share with people the treasure they have in their animals," she reveals. "We would never have gotten the responses we did if animals weren’t emotionally stirred by music."

She believes "Songs to Make Dogs Happy" offers the perfect chance for owners to spend more time with their dogs while they listen to such uplifting tunes as "Hap, Hap, Happy," "I’m Your Doggie," and "I’ll Be Back." And even if some songs are aggravatingly repetitious, they are filled with code words all dogs find reassuring, such as "Treat," "Outside," and "You’re a good dog."

One song even encourages owners to scratch their dog’s back while they sing to their canine. "I hope owners will come to realize,‘Oh my Gosh, my dog can really think and my dog really does like music,’" Ogden-Avrutik says. "I think it’s a way to bless the animals."

Terry Loncaric is a Chicago freelance writer specializing in spirituality, travel, the arts, and social issues.

Click here to order "Songs to Make Dogs Happy."

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