DOGGY ASMR

THE THEORY

“We talk about turning the radio on for Bonfire Night, as we might be drowning out the noise of the fireworks, giving the dog something else to focus on,” says Dr Jessica May, a vet at FirstVet. “Maybe the calming human voice on the radio helps them to feel calm.”

The principle is the same with dog meditation. The animal listens to a soundtrack, anything from calming music to cats purring. Reggae is the most popular genre, according to dog ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) website and YouTube channel Relax My Dog (relaxmydog.com). The music distracts and relaxes them – a possible solution to help dogs cope when lockdown ends.

THE TESTER

Aenea Stewart, a 56-year-old retiree, and her 12-year-old Jack Russell, Roxy, from Dundee

“We moved house about three years ago and since then Roxy has been anxious. As time goes on, she’s been getting worse. She follows me around the house everywhere, whines at me, sits and stares at me, and it can get quite upsetting for me as well as her, because I don’t know what she wants. “In the first hour [of playing ASMR], she wasn’t paying any attention. She was still going mad. I thought it would be a load of nonsense, and I was looking forward to bashing it, but then it suddenly worked. Later that day, we put the tracks on the speaker in the kitchen and suddenly she just went to her bed and lay down. “I’ve taken her to the vets, she’s been on lots of different types of medication to try to calm her down; we thought she might have a touch of dementia. I’d never for one moment thought about it, I’d never even heard of it before, but it works like nothing else has up until now.”

i Aenea and David Stewart found that playing ASMR music calmed Roxy down