Effect of Music on Stress Parameters in Dogs during a Mock Veterinary Visit

SIMPLE SUMMARY: Visits to the vet are stressful for many pet dogs, but less is known about how measures of stress change over the course of a visit. Identifying appropriate measures of canine stress, along with successful interventions which alleviate stress in dogs during a veterinary visit, will be of great benefit to dogs and people. Music therapy has been successfully used to reduce stress and anxiety in people and other animals. Specifically, a process called entrainment, which involves playing music at a particular tempo aimed at synchronizing physiological responses, has been implemented with success in humans. The aim of this study was to examine a range of behavioral and physiological measures in dogs over the duration of a veterinary visit and to establish if bespoke music, which mimicked the tempo of their resting heart rate, could improve wellbeing. The results indicated that certain measures increased over time, indicating that dogs became increasingly stressed. Music was not shown to have a demonstrated effect across measures, suggesting that the stressor may be too extreme for this type of intervention to have a positive effect, or that music therapy requires modification before it can be successful in alleviating stress in dogs during a veterinary visit. ABSTRACT: Veterinary visits can be stressful for dogs, but how their wellbeing changes during a visit is not well understood. Music therapy has been successfully used in clinical practice to alleviate stress and anxiety in people. The present study aimed to understand how canine stress changes during a veterinary visit, establish the effect of music, and highlight measures which may be of practical use. In a randomized crossover design, dogs were exposed to no music and a bespoke piece of classical music at a tempo designed to match their resting heart rate during a mock veterinary visit. Dogs were scored as more “afraid” during the physical examination compared to when they were in the hospital kennel (p < 0.001). Salivary cortisol, IgA, and infrared temperature all increased significantly (p < 0.05) from baseline to post-kennel and post-examination, with no effect of music treatment. Core body temperature (p = 0.010) and the odds of ‘relaxed’ lips (p = 0.020) were lower when dogs were exposed to music compared to control visits. Overall, dogs experienced changes in physiology and behavior, indicative of increased stress, over the course of the visit. Additional research is required to further understand the effect that bespoke music may have in alleviating canine stress during veterinary visits.