Can "Calming" Music Really Soothe Your Anxious Dog?

Hello, and welcome to the Be Right Back Separation Anxiety Podcast.

Hi, I'm Julie Naismith, dog trainer, author, and full-on separation anxiety geek.

I've helped thousands of dogs overcome separation anxiety with my books, my online programs,

my trainer certification, and my Separation Anxiety Training App.

And this podcast is all about sharing my tips and tricks to help you teach your dog

how to be happy at home alone, too.

If you've ever searched on separation anxiety on social media or on Google, wherever, then

I'd be really surprised if, as a result of you doing that, you haven't then seen an ad

pop up somewhere for things related to separation anxiety, right?

Because, well, the internet, that's kind of how it works.

So there you are, you're in Instagram, and you're seeing all these posts for the things

that are going to get your dog over separation anxiety, right?

Calming beds, or maybe it's an amazing essential oil, you name it, they all seem to pop up

when we've had a look for separation anxiety, don't they?

And if that's the case, if you're seeing those ads, I think there's a really good chance

you'll have seen an ad for calming music, calming music for dogs, calming music to help

anxious dogs.

Well, maybe if you haven't seen it pop up in your social feed, maybe you've seen those

in search results, maybe you've seen it in the community groups that you're in.

Point I'm trying to make is, it's everywhere, this concept that if we play calming music,

specially selected for dogs, then they're going to be calm, yeah, right, it's calming

music for dogs.

You're going to be able to play this music, pop on the playlist, and all of a sudden,

from nowhere, your nervous pup transforms into a dog that you can suddenly, confidently

leave and who aces their alone time, woo-hoo!

But is this really the case, is it?

Or is this just yet another myth about separation anxiety and separation anxiety recovery?

And if you do use music, maybe you're already using music, and you might be worried because

maybe you've heard that if you use music, if you put anything on a playlist or whatever

it is you use, if you do that before you leave, you're actually not going to calm your dog,

you're going to make things worse because putting that music on every time you leave

is just tipping your dog off, and well, not so fast, because that's also another separation

anxiety myth.

And that's why in this episode of the Be Right Back podcast, I dive into the topic of music,

when to use it, how it can help, when it can help, and what it can really do for your home

alone dog.

Let's start off by talking about the uses of music.

You'll find music in vet clinics, in exam rooms, you'll often find groomers playing

specific music, you'll definitely find some shelters that play music for dogs.

And I'm going to talk about calming music in this podcast, but we're also going to talk

about music more generally.

But let's define calming music.

Typically what we're talking about when we talk about calming music for dogs, it's a

playlist or a download or a channel that has been curated specifically to help with

anxious dogs.

So whoever's curated it has decided this music is going to work at helping anxious dogs feel

less stressful.

When I talk about calming music in this podcast, that's what I'm talking about.

And it seems like a really strong overall impression out there that music helps.

Lots of people think it does.

It wouldn't be used in so many places if lots of people didn't think calming music helps.

I've worked with plenty of owners who absolutely swear by it, and who say music, music is everything,

music is the thing that soothes my anxious pup.

So is there any truth to this?

Well, there is research.

You know me, I like my research.

And the research about calming music is actually really quite positive.

A 2020 study was done, and it was a systematic review of studies.

So they took all the studies about the impact of music on dogs with stress, and they reviewed

them all.

Most of those studies were done in a rescue environment or in vet clinics.

And most of those studies did seem to conclude that music produced a calming effect.

And not all of those studies looked at specific dog-focused playlists or downloads or channels.

They also looked at different types of generally available music.

So they were just looking at music broadly.

But it's interesting, isn't it?

So it seems to suggest, certainly the authors of the systematic review, seem to believe

that music was having a benefit.

Here are their big conclusions from that systematic review.

Musical therapy.

They talked about this concept as musical therapy.

Musical therapy, they said, did seem to reduce stress in dogs.

Then they said it was really important, and I actually say this all the time, it's really

important to work out what any one dog found comforting in terms of music, and equally,

if not more important, what they don't like in terms of music.

I'll give you an example of that.

So if you've ever played sweet music, or maybe even some calm music playlist, you might have

heard those ones that are sort of nature sounds, they're from the jungle or the rainforest.

Well, if I play one of those to one of my dogs, he loses it because of the bird song.

So he's like, whoa, what is that?

Sound of creatures, bah, bah, bah, not calming for him at all.

So going back to the review of reviews, the author said, yeah, definitely work out what

your dog likes and be really careful about what your dog doesn't like.

They went on to say another key point that they concluded was they didn't find any benefits

from the dog-specific music that you can get.

Okay, so that's important, I think, because many of us, when we are thinking about music

for dogs, are thinking we have to go and get specifically curated music.

We have to pay for a playlist.

The research says, no, you don't.

If calming music helps, if music helps, it's dog-dependent and you don't have to buy it.

The other point, and the final big point I think is important that they concluded was,

yes, they carried out most of their research in institutional settings.

I mentioned vets, groomers, rescue centres, but the author said they also saw benefits

for dogs in a domestic setting.

So it sounds fairly positive, doesn't it?

They didn't conclude that calming music or music of any type was going to stop a dog

from being anxious.

It's not like play this music and your dog is going to be okay.

And I say that all the time with dogs with separation anxiety.

The way you get a dog over separation anxiety is you gradually expose them to increasing

amounts of alone time and you gently, gently, gently ramp that up over time, right?

So it's just alone time in tiny, tiny increments.

All the other things that we often talk about, and I'll put music into the category of other

things that can help, they are just helping, they're contributing if they do anything at

all, right?

So they are neither necessary in lots of cases, nor are they sufficient.

So don't get too excited.

It's kind of good news, but it's not nearly everything.

I put calming music or music that you might play for your dog when you leave, I put that

into the category of what I call the can't harm, might help category.

Okay, so using it is not going to have any detrimental effect on your dog unless you've

got a dog like mine who reacted to birds, but you see what I'm saying.

If you pick the right music and you're not paying for it, chances are that worst case

it does nothing, but best case it may help a little bit.

So should you use music and if so, how should you use it?

Well maybe I should have said at the start of the podcast, I am a massive fan of people

using music when they do separation anxiety training, but not just music.

I really encourage people to think about background noise, particularly those people who have

a dog, maybe this is you, who reacts to every noise in the hallway if you live in an apartment,

or who barks at every car door slamming if you live in a busy street.

So when you've got a dog like that, who you're trying to get to be happy on their own and

you're doing this gradual exposure training and then 1 minute and 32 seconds into the

training, boom, big noise downstairs, conversation in the hallway, lift, pinging, dog reacts.

If you've got one of those dogs, then doing everything you can to mask noise matters.

If you want to get really geeky about it, the way that sound and light travel is very

different and it might seem like a no-brainer because we're just so used to it, but light

is much easier to block out than sound because sound travels through stuff.

So you can put blinds up at a window and it will block the glare of the street lamp from

downstairs but you really struggle to block the conversation that two people are having

standing under that street lamp downstairs in the road.

So blocking sound is hard unless you find some fancy way to super, super insulate your

apartment, which is not going to happen, it's not the reality for most of us.

But what you can do with sound is you can mask it with other sounds and that's the number

one best way that you can try and achieve some harmony and some peace in your apartment

or in your home if noise is coming in from outside and making your dog react.

So you need to think about layering noise, that's what I call it.

We want multiple different types of noises because the noise that comes into your apartment

or your home isn't just a single noise.

A car door is made up of different kind of notes and tones almost and so are conversations

and conversations sound different to car door slamming and a dog barking sounds different

to the sound of a police siren.

So all sorts of different noises that come into our homes have different frequencies

and yeah, they're just different.

So the more that we can do similar things inside by layering on noise, the more chance

we've got of blocking out noises that cause our dog to react.

So music is absolutely one of those things, but it doesn't have to be music, it could

be the TV, it could be a fan, it could be an air conditioning unit, it could be you

name it.

So anything that makes a noise.

Some people spend money on things like a white noise machine.

I always say, yeah, you could do that.

You could go and spend $50 on Amazon and get a specific white noise machine, but you've

also got white noise playlists on things like YouTube or Spotify or other places where

you might download or stream music.

So look for things that are free.

I'm all about making this as cost effective for you as possible.

But think about music, TV, white noise, fans, those are the biggies.

Side note, white noise can be quite hard on some dog's ears.

So there are white noise channels on YouTube.

If you're delving into those, also look at brown noise.

It seems to be easier on everyone.

Similar kind of concept, it blocks outside noise, but it's a little bit less harsh.

OK, so that's my number one reason for suggesting you use music as part of a layering strategy.

And if you find that your dog is also calmed by that music, then bonus.

The second reason I suggest that you use music is because of the research that I just talked

about.

Right.

I said it can't harm to play music and it might well help.

If you think there's some music that seems to have some calming effect on your dog, go

for it.

How can you tell?

Well, try it out at other times, put the music on when you're not doing separation anxiety

training, but at times when you know your dog might get a little bit upset.

It could be because they're reacting to noises outside, or it could be if you've got a dog

who's really attached to you.

Maybe playing calming music seems to make them follow you a bit less around the house.

So test out the calming music, see if your vet uses music, test it out, find out what

your dog likes.

It may be that music makes no difference to your dog and that's OK.

I would still suggest you think about using it because of reason number one, masking noise

that comes in from outside for a reactive dog.

And then the third reason I suggest you use music is, well, it's kind of all the things

wrapped up together.

It might have some benefits, both for dogs just on a calming basis, but also for the

ones who are losing it at noise outside.

And if you do it right, it doesn't cost anything.

So you can get free subscriptions to lots of different music players and it might not

cost anything.

Now just one thing to throw in the mix there, I've talked a lot about music, but you could

equally talk about TV, some people swear by audio books, or podcasts even.

Again, it all goes back to finding out what works for your dog.

If you're thinking about layering and trying to mask noise from outside, my top tip for

you there would be pick a playlist that's continuous.

I got obsessed with this over the years because we had to manage this situation.

We had one dog who reacted to stuff outside and Percy who had separation anxiety, so India

would react and Percy would start.

And once Percy had started, especially very early on in training, it was game over.

So we were doing all this masking and layering and it really, really did help.

And so I got obsessed by, you know, is it brown noise versus white noise?

And I got really obsessed by things like continuous playlists that don't have any gap between

the music.

So find continuous loop playlists.

I'm pretty sure all the ones on YouTube are like that, but do check.

And also beware of ads.

So that's one of the reasons why I don't love TV necessarily, because you might have ads.

Or maybe it's a radio station and the thing about radio stations is there's always talking

in between the music.

Sometimes the talking is at a lower volume than the music.

So definitely when you're doing this masking thing, you want to pump the volume right up.

If you think music has a calming effect on your dog and that's why you're using it because

you've tested it out, you probably don't need to worry so much about really blasting out

the music.

But wait a minute, I hear you say, what about the fact if I put music on before I go or

if I put the TV on every time I'm about to leave, that becomes a tip-off.

Tip-offs we know are bad news because it becomes a pre-departure cues and that's just going

to be a disaster.

Well, not so fast.

There's a lot of model thinking about pre-departure cues.

Everybody gets really fixed on the concept that all pre-departure cues are bad and they

are going to really affect training and we have to work on pre-departure cues.

No, that's not true.

The thing about a pre-departure cue is not the thing itself, but what it predicts.

So keys are the classic one.

Lots of dogs react to keys being picked up.

Dogs with separation anxiety and without separation anxiety.

Lots of dogs react when keys are picked up.

Dogs didn't come into the world thinking that keys meant anything to them.

Keys develop meaning.

So for a dog who's got separation anxiety and who panics when you pick up keys, your

dog wasn't born being scared of keys, nor did it just develop a fear of keys.

You know, it didn't wake up one morning and go, whoa, keys are such scary things.

What's actually going on is that they were either born with a fear of being left or they

developed a fear of being left and keys are just information.

Keys as pre-departure cues are information that says, uh-oh, mum's about to go.

That's bad news.

I'm going to freak out.

Can you see?

So can you see keys aren't a problem?

It's what they predict.

And it's the same with music or fans or white noise machines or TVs.

It isn't the item or the thing in and of itself.

It's what it predicts.

So if you've never used music before, if you've left your dog in the past, but you didn't

put music on, or if you've never left your dog in the past, and that's so that's irrelevant,

you've never used music because you never left your dog, and now you're doing separation

anxiety training and you are putting on music before you leave, what does the music predict?

It predicts that you're doing separation anxiety training and that should be safe.

You should be leaving for times that are no longer than your dog can cope with.

So music shouldn't predict a bad thing.

It actually predicts a neutral thing.

And we know from different research that predictability is actually really helpful for a brain.

Brains, particularly anxious brains, like to know what's coming.

So predicting that this one's going to be okay, because you know what, when I put this

music on, I go out, but I don't go out for longer than you can cope with.

Music is now saying, it's okay.

Music goes on, it's okay, you can cope.

Ah, okay, so this is different, because when you used to leave me before, it was really

scary, but you put music on, and okay, or you put the TV on, okay, I see, it's going

to be okay.

Right?

So don't get too muddled about pre-departure cues.

They aren't bad.

What's bad, what can be bad is what they predict, but if they predict something neutral, then

they aren't a problem.

Okay?

So let me just summarize with my five tips for when you use music.

First of all, as I mentioned, find out what seems to work best for your dog, and rule

out what doesn't.

Find the music that works for them.

Your dog's not going to tell you which track he loves, he's not going to give it a heart

on a playlist, but you can at least tell which ones he really, really dislikes.

If he reacts to the noise in the music, you know it's not the right one.

Number two, when you're going for playlists, try ad-free ones, and depending on where you

are in the world, there's a ton of music apps, a ton of radio apps, so I won't go

into all of that.

You know which ones that are out there, but try to go for ad-free.

Number three, avoid music with breaks, so radio isn't so good, playlists that have gaps

in them.

Look for anything that's got continuous elevated volume.

Number four, if you've got a dog who doesn't like outside noises, don't just use music

to mask noises when you go out on a training session, when you're doing gradual exposure.

Use it all the time, because when a dog starts to react to outside noises, it becomes more

and more and more on edge.

It becomes sensitized, so the more it barks at outside noises, the more your dog will

continue to bark at outside noises.

It's really nice to see when you start masking the noise, some dogs can actually almost visibly

breathe a sigh of relief, because they're no longer being bombarded with noises that

are triggering them.

If you're using music for masking, it's not just for separation anxiety training time,

it's for other times too.

Number five, don't worry about music being a tip-off or being a pre-departure cue.

As long as you've only ever used music or put the TV on when you're doing safe departures,

it's all good.

So, will playing music cure your dog's separation anxiety?

No, it won't, but it definitely won't harm, and it may help, even if just a little.

Thanks so much for listening.

I'll catch you on the next one.

Bye for now.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Be Right Back Separation Anxiety Podcast.

If you want to find out more about how I can help you further, head over to julienaysmith.com.

Meanwhile, if you enjoyed listening today, I would love it if you would head over to

wherever you listen to your podcasts and consider rating my show.

Thanks so much, good luck with that training, and bye for now.