We are excited to share our journey with Puppy Sleep Music! It all started three years ago with our beloved 8-week-old pup, Bas. He is half German Shorthaired Pointer and half Tolling Retriever. As a pup, he never took the time to fall asleep. This resulted in really annoying and bad behavior. He was overly dominant, aggressive, and completely untrainable. It got so bad that we had to stop puppy training because he couldn’t handle the stimuli. Many times, we didn’t know what to do anymore. He was always awake. We knew how damaging this would be for his development, but nothing we tried worked. Some people even advised us to bring Bas to an animal shelter. But the thought of leaving Bas in a cage in the hope of adoption broke our hearts.
We Didn’t Give Up
Despite the difficulty, quitting on Bas was never an option. For a little context, I am a musician by profession. One day, I was playing the piano in the living room. Surprisingly, Bas came and lay next to me, and he fell asleep instantly. He kept snoring as I played. But as soon as I stopped, he was on high alert! I was so happy; I felt this was a big moment for Bas!
Let’s Make This Work
I was so happy that I found out how I could help Bas fall asleep. But playing the piano for hours on end wasn’t feasible. So I hooked up my synthesizer and piano to my studio. I made hours of recordings, which we played almost day and night. And the results were there. Bas finally gave in to his tiredness and kept sleeping like a normal pup. We noticed a big, big difference.
Bas Started Making Progress
After a few weeks, Bas became more rested. He showed more affection to me and my girlfriend. We were able to go on walks again without him freaking out after one minute! This gave us (and Bas) more confidence. A few weeks later, we were able to start training again with him. And boy, he made such a big leap in progress! He went from dominant to loving. We did notice how he could fall back into his old behavior, especially after a long walk or intense puppy training. But as soon as I started my music recordings, he was distracted enough to fall back asleep and process all the events of the day. This gave us a lot of hope! You can read about the progress in our next blog!