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Australian Dog Lover
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Pet Tunes is a mobile Bluetooth speaker for dogs, pre-loaded with ninety minutes of special Pet Acoustics music to calm your dog.
Its inventor, Janet Marlow is a fifth generation composer and Sound Behaviourist who is internationally recognised for her contribution to the understanding of acute hearing in pets and the importance of sounds as a trigger for behaviour.
The range was created to calm pets in a range of situations such as separation anxiety during home alone time, thunderstorm and noise phobia, travel anxiety, excessive barking or training sessions.
Pet Acoustics has developed species-specific speakers to also soothe cats (green), horses (black) and birds (grey) as different animals hear frequencies differently.
Being owned by one Belgian Tervueren who hates storms and two highly strung Malinois, we were ideally positioned to give this product a fair trial in a range of situations to find out if it could help our dogs.
- Pet Tunes audio pod
- USB cable to charge the unit via your computer or USB wall adaptor plug
- Orange lanyard for portable use
- Quick Start Guide
The unit comes with minimal battery charge when purchased so give it a couple of hours to charge. On the back of the unit, the light indicator will glow red whilst charging and turns off when fully charged.
This device will play continuously up to 8 hours. Now the light indicator glows blue whilst playing. If for some reason you need to be away longer than 8 hours, simply leave your unit connected to a power source via its USB cable.
If the unit starts to skip when playing, then it is an indication it needs to be charged again. At the back of the unit, the large centre is both the PLAY/PAUSE button, you can skip to the next track forward/backward and also increase/lower the volume.
You can also use it like any bluetooth wireless speaker. On the unit's side, there's also a SD/TF card slot so you can play your own favourite tunes and a "Line In" if you'd like to connect your headphones. It's a nice little unit to take on a trip, with or without dogs! We were shocked at how small the unit is whilst it can certainly pump up some tunes to the other side of the house!
HOW DOES PET TUNES WORK?
Whilst our human maximum hearing frequency is 20,000Hz, the canine range reaches 45,000Hz. Still, this pales into significance compared to our feline friends whose range can go all the way up to 64,000Hz. Never sneak past your cat!
Providing ideal sonic environments is increasingly used in vet clinics, doggy daycare centres and by dog trainers as a natural method to help restore more balanced behaviours. The Pet Tunes special music works by detouring your pet's hearing to restore their natural calm behavioural state. Well, that's the theory anyway!
The range of clinical studies we accessed on the Pet Acoustics US website (we could only find the topline results) suggest a "success rate" of around 80% to 90% for canines in relieving their state of stress (within 5-20 minutes) or displaying positive reactions / a greater ability to focus on a task.
HOW TO USE THE PET TUNES BLUETOOTH SPEAKER
If you're at home, try to position your Pet Tunes unit on a similar height to your dog's hearing height. The speaker does not have to sit higher or play really loudly as our dogs have a much higher hearing range than we do.
We noticed our Malinois Porthos coming to sniff the unit on a few occasions, probably trying to work out where the sounds was coming from...
If you're out and about, you can use it during your walks (e.g. if you have a reactive dog), simply attach the supplied orange lanyard to the slot in the top corner of the unit and you can hang it to your belt or your dog walking bag.
The Pet Tunes is fully transportable (don't forget to give it a full charge) and one recommended use is to relieve travel-related anxiety (car trips on holidays or to the vet) which is not something we have not had the opportunity to test yet.
WHAT WE LIKE
We were definitely impressed by the design of the Pet Tunes with its metallic bright blue shell. We also were surprised by how light and compact this unit is making it fully transportable for dog walks, car journeys (vet/holidays), camping trips etc.
I'd describe the pre-loaded music (10-12 songs) we listened to as "new age"or "ambient" and therefore completely unobtrusive... I know it was meant to "soothe my savage beasts" but I found it quite relaxing myself which is quite hard to achieve...
We experienced one thunderstorm shortly after receiving our Pet Tunes Speaker and decide to test it that night with our Tervueren Conner. He appeared to come down slightly but he still showed obvious signs of stress as he does during any big storm.
Fast forward to 18 months later and we've now used our Pet Tunes Speaker multiple times and - combined with the swaddling technique - he's certainly not "losing it" as much as he used to so it's now the first thing we switch on as soon as we feel a storm is on its way...
If your dog is not confined to one room and is likely to pace, the Ultra Calmer Collar positioned right behind your dog's ears may be a better option for you.
PRICE & WHERE TO BUY
RRP: $129.00 (free shipping in Australia) at www.thepetcalmer.com
Please Note: The Pet Tunes is backed by a 30-day return policy (minus postage cost) and you will find more details on their website.
Disclaimer: Product gifted by The Pet Calmer for the purpose of this review
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