Jake, R.I.P., adopted by Pat Bayers from Labrador Retriever Rescue of Florida
Through a Dog’s Ear recently held our 2nd annual word game. The seven day event involved participants unscrambling a daily word, while downloading a free music track from one of our nine recordings. The object of the game was to unscramble all seven words, put them in a seven word sentence, and submit an entry as soon as the final word was revealed. It was scheduled to be posted at exactly 9 am EDT Sunday morning, December 11. But, there were so many people breathlessly waiting, with fingers on their keyboards, all hitting “refresh” at exactly the same time. Consequently, our web developer was blocked out of getting onto the server until 9:04. What an amazing group of dedicated dog lovers with big hearts, desiring to do everything possible to help pets in need.
The first winner receives the grand prize – a Through a Dog’s Ear 2011 Holiday Gift-Pak (book and 7 CDs) – for their canine household, and chooses their favorite rescue to receive the Calm Your Canine 3-CD series. The next nine winners designate the rescue organization or shelter of their choice to receive the Calm your Canine series. Dedicated dog lovers from the West Coast set their alarms extra early. Others from France, Ireland, and Belgium interrupted their Sunday afternoons, and Australians had wake up calls in the middle of Monday night. All for a chance at winning music that is clinically demonstrated to calm the canine nervous system and has been helping increase adoption rates at shelters and rescues worldwide.
While the clocked slowly ticked, waiting for the last word to be posted, Dave Westenbarger posted on Facebook “We’re playing Through a Dog’s Ear music to be calm before playing the word game! Very exciting and so nice of you to share your music with so many rescue groups and shelters!” Dave speaks from experience. He was one of the two tied grand prize winners last year.
Dan Sterrett also played Through a Dog’s Ear music at home while waiting patiently for the last word.
Patricia Riley got a terrible headache while trying to unscramble E C I L A F N E B I.
At 9:04 the final word S T A N O S A was posted and the entries poured in. Only two minutes later, at 6:06 am in California, I had 25 emails with the correct sentence…
Everybody with legs finds Beethoven sonatas beneficial.
There were also some other really creative guesses that were close and all the effort is greatly appreciated, especially since some were from people who live in a country where English is not the first language.
With Beethoven sonatas everybody finds legs beneficial.
Everybody finds legs with Beethoven sonatas beneficial.
I also loved reading all of the grateful comments and hearing how shelters and rescue organizations were already benefiting from Through a Dog’s Ear. Kelsey Cowger from Nova Scotia told us…“The shelter you guys sent the Through a Dog’s Ear CDs to last year LOVED them and say they’re incredibly helpful (I didn’t win, but you graciously sent TaDE CDs to everyone on the list!) My own dogs, of course, continue to love them (and the new free downloads!), and they’ve been great for my noise-sensitive foster.“
Kristin Wettermann included this sweet note in her entry, “Thank you so much for the opportunity to win this fantastic prize, but more importantly for the opportunity to help a shelter. This is a great way to help. As you obviously know, the shelter environment is so overwhelming at times, and I know this would be a great addition to any shelter. Thank you for helping make a difference in many a dogs’ life this Christmas through your generosity.”
And Donna Pierce contemplated stopping in the middle of running a half-marathon to submit her entry, even though she was having a great run and setting her own personal record.
And the winners please……
GRAND PRIZE of a 2011 Through a Dog’s Ear Holiday Gift-Pak goes to Pat Bayers.
And the Labrador Retriever Rescue of Florida benefits from Pat’s winning prize. 
They will be receiving the Calm your Canine Companion 3 CD series as will the following rescues chosen by the next nine winners:
Tom Zebrowitz: The Homeless Pets Foundation (Marietta, GA)
Lauren Paul: Belgian Sheepdog Rescue Trust (Evergreen, CO)
Nancy McIntire: Austin Dog Alliance (Austin, TX)
Phil Puglisi: Golden Retriever Rescue of Southwest Florida (Naples)
Ashley Niels: Austin Animal Center (Austin, TX)
Jeri Lea Kroll: Last Chance Animal Rescue (Howell, MI)
Kathy Salmons: S’Wheat Rescues (North Kansas City, MO)
Kelsey Cowger: Ador-a-Bull Dog Rescue (Nova Scotia, Canada)
Dan Sterrett: Animal Rescue League of Iowa (Des Moines, IA)
What about the remaining entries?
Since the next 15 correct entries all arrived in my inbox by 6:06 am PDT, we’ve decided to play Santa again and donate an additional 15 Calm your Canine Companion Vol. 2 CD’s to the desired rescues and shelters of the next 15 contestants. 
Congratulations to the following additional winners:
Jill Pearson: ECAH Animals, Inc (Tallahassee, FL)
Nancy Webb: Animal Rescue League of NH (Bedford, NH)
Karen Verchimak: Mureille’s Place (Wapwallopen, PA)
Dolly Ensey: Fuzzy Friends (Waco, TX)
Kay Loveland: Brother Wolf Rescue (Asheville, NC)
Dave Westenbarger: Baytown Humane Society (Baytown, TX)
Jodie Smith: Hamilton/Burlington SPCA (Hamilton, Ontario Canada)
Debbie Babik: Roll Over Animal Rescue, Inc. (Des Plaines, IL)
Jennifer Smith: Mutts Matter Rescue (Emerald Isle, NC)
Pamela Packard: Bellwether Harbor (Fremont, MI)
Kristin Wettermann: Friends for Life Animal Rescue and Adoption (Houston, TX)
Tamara Price: Animal Friends (Wexford, PA)
Colleen Griffin: Greater Houston German Shepherd Dog Rescue (Houston, TX)
bj Altschul : Montgomery County Humane Society (Rockville, MD)
Kim McMunn: North Central Indiana Spay and Neuter (Battleground, IN)
I can barely wait to get to the post office and play Santa again this year to homeless dogs. Thanks to everyone who played our 2011 word game and congratulations to all! If you weren’t a winner, make sure you tell your favorite shelter/ rescue org about our “Music for Shelters Program”. If they fill out an application and are approved to receive our donated music, the dogs might just be snoozing in their new forever homes before New Year’s.
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Calm your Canine Companion Music Series
Simply click here, enter your email address and a link to the free download will be delivered to your inbox for you and your canine household to enjoy.
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I’m excited to learn my entry made it into the top 10, and happy my favorite Rescue will benefit from it! Thanks so much for holding the contest and helping Rescues this way!
Kathy – Thanks for playing and for being ready with submitting the final word in the sentence so quickly. Fun, Fun, Fun! So glad to be getting the music into the ear’s of more dogs who need it.
Thanks so much! I was out of town and trying to play on my cell phone, so I’m happy that NCISN will still get a CD- Thank you TADE! I love your CDs and recommend them all the time, it’s great that you support the rescues of your loyal fans!
Kim – Sounds like you had the right attitude while playing, and it paid off. Thanks for continuing to spread the word about Through a Dog’s Ear.
Wow! Way to go Texas! Six of our rescues and shelters will be on their way to happier dogs soon! I’m so happy for everyone who won music for their shelter and so appreciative of TaDE’s generosity!
Ashley – I hadn’t even realized how many Texas shelters and rescues there were until I saw your comment. Must be your positive energy and all that you do to help pets in need. I look forward to sending the Calm your Canine series to the Austin Animal Center.
On behalf of the Belgians, thank you so much!
Lauren – You are very welcome. Thanks for playing so enthusiastically. Let me know how they enjoy the music.
Loving all the great comments everyone. Thanks also to all of you for how much you do to help homeless pets.
How very generous of you to extend Santa to the “third wave” of entries! And I’m thrilled the Montgomery County Humane Society will be a beneficiary. This should be just the impetus we need to start the program, something I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. Our dogs thank you!
bj – Thanks for letting them know about TaDE. So honored to be helping the dogs. Usually the shelter staff seem to enjoy the music too!
I was disappointed that the site seemed to lock up and the page wouldn’t load for me for the first few minutes. I normally drive rescue transports on Sunday mornings, but didn’t have one this week. I got up just for this and was frustrated that I wasn’t able to get the last word for several minutes. Oh, well.
Linda – So sorry for your frustration. As explained in my blog, even my web developer couldn’t get on the server to post the final word for a few minutes. So many people were hitting “refresh” at the same time, that it caused a delay. I guess that’s the downside of being a small company trying to do anything to help dogs.
Hope you got to at least enjoy the seven free downloads, totaling over 30 minutes of music, that were offered for free last week. That seemed to run smoothly and I was very pleased that there were no technical challenges on delivering them for free.
Thanks again for playing.
So excited that Fuzzy Friends will be getting Vol. 2 of the Calm Your Canine series, that we’re going to send Vol 1 & 3 to complete Fuzzy Friend’s collection! There will be lotsa calm canines and cats chillin’ out. Thanks so much Lisa for your fun contest.
Dolly – How nice of you to give the remaining CD’s in the Calm your Canine series to Fuzzy Friends. Do the cats listen to the music too? Would love to hear about how they react to it.
Thanks for playing and glad you had another win this year.
Will let you know about the cats at Fuzzy Friends. I do know that each night one of my petsitting clients’ older stray, now tamed cats named Cowboy promptly ambles into the laundry room, takes his place on the dog’s plaid soft doggie bed, then settles in for his nightly concert of Through a Dog’s Ear music, as if he’s at an outdoor theatre, like Wolftrap outside of Washington DC. If the music doesn’t begin right away, Cowboy gets up to remind me that the show needs to start NOW! He’s just adorable that way … Thanks for the opportunity to play!
I am so happy TADE extended the generosity to the next 15 of us. I took my laptop to bed to be ready for that last word. Roll Over Animal Rescue takes in a lot of beagles retiring from use in research. This music will help them relax and transition into life in homes. Thank you TADE
Even though I didn’t get my entry in in time to win for my chosen shelter I am so very happy to see all these wonderful places win!
Thank you for such a generous giveaway to help so many animals.
I recently purchased the Calm You Canine Series. My 12 yr olf American Foxhound has always been afraid of Storms, Fireworks, cars driving by with Loud Music…
Now I play the CD’s at night, he is so much calmer. Storms aren’t quite so terrifying anymore.
Thank You for the great CD’s