April 10, 2006
Section: Stacy Milbouer

Music to tame the wild beast in your pooch

According to Chinese tradition, this is the year of the dog, but for Hudson resident Judy Mirabito, 48, it's been all about the dog - or rather dogs - for much longer than that. You could say Mirabito and her husband, Rick, have latched all their dreams onto dogs, inspired by their collection of fuzzy Pomeranians - there are four now - but there have been others before, many of whom were handicapped with injuries and disease when they were first adopted.

And as the newest hit show, "American Inventor," so illustrates, necessity is not only the mother of invention, but the stuff of which obsessions are made.

Mirabito was working as a janitor in a local food warehouse store when she began inventing things that would make her ailing dogs comfortable. She didn't see it as a pipedream; she saw it as a necessity.

After all, dogs are all about loyalty, fidelity and unconditional love.

She came up with a bed that her dogs, especially those with achy joints, would not only be able to climb on easily, but also seek out if their first choice - their owners' bed - was not accessible.

Mirabito's idea was simple - a dog's first preference is your bed, so make their bed look and feel like yours, which included headboards and soft, attractive mattresses.

They came out so well and her dogs loved them so much, that Mirabito decided right then to bring those beds to others. So in 1999, she quit her job. Her husband took on extra shifts and she's never looked back, forming a business she called Allforpaws.

The Mirabitos have sacrificed a lot for their dream - money, time, tears. There was a lot of interest in the beds and they were on the cusp of making it big, when 9/11 hit and everything seem to come to a halt.

It looked bleak for Mirabito's dream. Her husband's company had downsized from 10,000 to 500 employees to 400. He survived the cut, but has felt like another downsizing could come at any minute.

The money invested in Mirabito's venture was money that would not be there for early retirement or emergencies. They had already sunk thousands into their venture for prototypes, legal fees, traveling expenses.

For most people, that would have been the end of the line. But like those people born in the year of the dog who are said to possess a deep sense of loyalty and inspire other people's confidence, the Mirabitos carried on and developed another product. The came up with a compact disc geared to canine family members. "Doggie Classical: Music for Your Pet's Wellness" was released last week under Judy's new SoundBites label.

"A dream starts in the mind and finishes in the heart," Mirabito told a group of people and her dog Kobe at a launch party for the CD held recently at T-Bones in Bedford. Among those in the audience was Tony Camillo, who in 1974 won a Grammy for producing Gladys Knight and the Pips' signature song, "Midnight Train to Georgia." Camillo and his engineer, Joey Baron, produced "Doggie Classical."

Camillo said he believed in Mirabito because "she is a perfectionist with a great heart - a class act who can create beautiful things." And as a tribute to Mirabito's dream, Camillo's fiancee, recording artist Michelle Parto, sang a cover version of Josh Groban's "You Raise Me Up."

The "Doggie Classical" CD includes a collection of familiar classical selections, including Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major," "Brahms Lullaby," Debussey's "Reverie" and Mozart's "Piano Concerto No.21."

Mirabito and Camillo couldn't resist throwing in a classical rendition of "Rock-A-Bye Baby." After all, for must dog lovers, our puppies are our babies or at least an important part of the family.

Mirabito told the group at the launch that she came upon the idea after she, like so many other dog enthusiasts who have to leave their pets at home when they go to work, snapped on radio and television stations in hopes that her dogs wouldn't get too lonely during their absence.

She said one day she stayed home to see what her dogs did when she left the television channel Animal Planet on all day.

"I thought it would be comforting, interesting for them to see and hear other animals," she said. "Boy was I wrong. When they saw a chimpanzee move across the screen, they began to run back and forth and bark like crazy."

Then Mirabito tried a classical radio station and discovered, she said, "that all classical music is not created equal. Certain pieces were soothing to the dogs, others made them agitated."

So using her own dogs, she researched the pieces that had calming effects and with Camillo's help and synthesizer arrangements, came up with the selections on the CD.

Does it work? Well at the launch party, Mirabito's buff colored Kobe, seemed a tad jealous when his mistress was shaking hands and hugging the guests. As a reward for his long wait, Mirabito sat down and sliced up some filet mignon, but then the CD was put on the sound system, and Kobe barely made a dent in his steak before curling up in a ball and falling sound asleep on Mirabito's lap.

OK, it was a long day and that might have had something do with Kobe's spontaneous nap. But then a few days later, Gloria Diaz, a waitress at T-Bones who took home a CD, couldn't wait to tell Mirabito that Griffin, her rambunctious black Labrador, was a huge fan, too.

"The minute I put the CD on he dropped his favorite ball and just sat there listening."

But Diaz figured that could have been a fluke so tried it again two hours later. "It was like magic. Griffin just came over to the CD player, sat and listened intensely."

As far as the CD's future, Mirabito and Camillo are now in the distribution stage. There is a large pet chain store that has shown interest and there are other plans.

In the meantime, dog lovers may get the CD on the company's Web site, Allforpaws.com.
Illustration: Staff photo by Emily Harris

Judy Mirabito of Hudson, holding her Pomeranian, Kobe, put together a CD of classical music that she's found to be comforting to dogs.

Copyright, 2006, The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H. All Rights Reserved.