Want your dog to be less stressed when home alone? Then stick on a Mozart Sonata

According to a just-published research paper from academics at the Animal Behaviour Centre at Queen’s University Belfast’s School of Psychology, a dose of classical music - Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Puccini, take your pick - can help dogs settle when they are home alone, but strangely audiobooks, also known to be soothing, have no effect.

Researchers found that playing a Mozart Sonata had a “moderately-calming effect” when dogs are separated from their owners.

But when they played an audiobook of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone to a control group of 82 canines of different breeds who all participated in the study with the consent of their owners, instead they did not see the same signs of relaxation; Mozart was more likely to make the varied pooches to lie down, suggesting a becalming impact, whereas the aural rendition of the JK Rowling classic simply left some of the dogs separated from their owners gazing at the speaker playing it instead.

But the study ultimately found that music and audiobooks have “little value to dogs in situations of short-term acute stress”.

Previous research from Scottish psychologists also affirmed that classical music had a tranquilizing effect on dogs in rescue kennels.

Further research suggested interestingly indicated that dogs particularly preferred listening to reggae and soft rock - so a bit of Bob Marley or Bon Jovi may also be said to produce a sophorific effect on dogs separated from their beloved owners for significant periods of time.

The dogs who were left separated from their owners without the distraction of Mozart or the audio version of Harry Potter were also observed in the control condition for comparison.

The QUB academics have found that separation from their owner was “a known short-term stressor” for dogs.

Each dog’s behaviour was observed and recorded on video while they were played the classical music, the audiobook and nothing.

“Dogs exposed to classical music were significantly faster to lie down than animals in the audiobook condition and quicker to settle than animals in the audiobook and control conditions,” the research concluded.

“Overall, findings point to only a moderately calming effect of classical music, and no apparent welfare benefits of an audiobook, on dogs separated from their owners.

“There was nothing to suggest that human conversation in the form of an audiobook led to any welfare advantages.”

The research paper, entitled “The effect of auditory stimulation on pet dogs’ reactions to owner separation” has just been published in a journal named Applied Animal Behaviour Science and the project was led by QUB’s Dr Deborah Wells at the university’s School of Psychology.