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Spotify introduces personalised playlists for pets

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Stills Dog 05
Stills Dog 05

Spotify has launched its personalised Pet Playlists, alongside a podcast exclusively for dogs called ‘My Dog’s Favourite Podcast’, designed to keep your dog company while you’re out!

With nearly three-quarters of UK pet owners claiming audio helps soothe and calm their pets at home, Spotify’s new Pet Playlists provides users with a curated playlist based on their tastes and their pet’s character attributes. So, if your pet has an energetic personality, they’re likely to receive a playlist with more upbeat music.

Each Pet Playlist features approximately 30 tracks for your pet to enjoy. As for ‘My Dog’s Favourite Podcast’, created in partnership with animal experts, this features a mix of soothing music, dog-directed speech and original sound designed to provide comfort and help alleviate stress for dogs who are temporarily home alone.

Alex Benjamin, Pet Psychologist and lecturer at York University, whose 2008 research study ‘Who’s A Good Boy’ explored the role of human voices in stimulating animal behaviour, commented:

“Dogs are extremely social animals but, in order to fit in with our busy lives, may spend some time by themselves during the day. “My Dog’s Favourite Podcast” is a bespoke podcast that is designed to encourage your dog to relax through calming gentle praise and story-like speech accompanied by original music and gentle ambient sounds designed to help mask startling sounds of the outside world such as traffic, car doors slamming or the bins being emptied, for example. I hope that the podcast becomes a fun and useful resource for owners to explore with their dogs while they are at home together as well as when their dog is alone for short periods.”

Neil Evans, Pet Physiologist and Professor at University of Glasgow, who also consulted on the project, added: “While there is a lot of scientific research that has shown that short periods of music can make dogs more relaxed we have shown that providing dogs with varied auditory enrichment can be used to reduce stress and anxiety over long periods of time. When dogs have appropriate auditory enrichment they may bark less, lie down and sleep more and their bodies are in a more relaxed physiological state. We worked with the Spotify team on the development of My Dog’s Favourite Podcast, advising on the types of music, sounds and speech to be included based on the ability of auditory enrichment to benefit dog welfare.”

Discover the Pet Playlists tool HERE and ‘My Dog’s Favourite Podcast’ HERE.