Should you leave music or the TV on for your dog?

If you leave something on, calm music is the choice with the most evidence behind it, and even that evidence is modest. Shelter dogs watched very little TV and lost interest over time. An audiobook calmed dogs in one shelter study but not pet dogs left without their owners. Talk radio and TV also bring sudden noises like doorbells and barking, which can set a dog off.

Here's what the studies tested, what they found, and how to choose.

Does leaving the TV on help a dog?

Probably less than you'd think. In the main TV study, researchers showed 50 shelter dogs four kinds of screen: a blank screen, and moving footage of dogs, other animals and people. Each condition ran for four hours a day for five days.

• The dogs hardly watched. They spent 10.8% of their time looking at the screen.
• Interest faded. They looked at moving images more than a blank screen, but less and less over the days.
• Something still changed. In every TV condition, even the blank screen, dogs barked less and moved around less than with no TV.¹

The authors' conclusion was that TV influenced the dogs' behaviour, but dogs may not get as much from it as animals that rely more on sight. They suggested other kinds of enrichment for shelter dogs.

Two things to keep in mind. These were shelter dogs in kennels, not pet dogs at home. And the study didn't test what matters most when you go out: whether dogs settled and rested.

What's on the screen matters too

TV isn't only pictures. It's doorbells, sirens, barking dogs and cars. In a 2025 survey of 453 dog owners, dogs their owners rated as more fearful were more likely to react to non-animal things on TV, such as cars and doorbells.²

It was an owner survey, and owners of dogs that engage with TV were more likely to take part. It also couldn't say whether a reaction was excited or worried. But if your dog already barks at the doorbell, a TV showing a doorbell scene while you're out isn't a calm backdrop.

Is talk radio or an audiobook better?

The research on the human voice is split.

In a shelter, an audiobook did well. At a rehoming centre, 31 dogs heard five conditions: an audiobook, classical music, pop, music designed for dogs, and no added sound. With the audiobook, dogs spent more time resting and less time sitting or standing alert than in every other condition.³

With pet dogs left alone, it didn't. In a later study, 60 pet dogs spent an hour without their owners in a university research room, with classical music, an audiobook (the first Harry Potter book) or no added sound. The audiobook showed no apparent benefit. Dogs spent more time looking at the speaker, as if waiting for the person to appear.⁴

Plain conversation didn't stand out either. In an earlier shelter study, a recording of human conversation was one of five sound conditions. Classical music led to more resting and more time quiet than any of the others, conversation included.⁵

Nobody has studied live talk radio with dogs. What we can say is that it changes constantly: adverts, jingles, phone-in callers, news alerts. That's the opposite of the steady, predictable sound the music studies used. If you like leaving a voice on, an audiobook is at least steady, but don't expect it to settle a dog that misses you.

Does leaving music on help?

A little, in the right conditions. In the pet-dog study above, dogs that heard classical music lay down sooner than dogs with the audiobook, and settled sooner than both the audiobook and silence. The authors called it "only a moderately calming effect", and said sound seems to have little value when dogs are under short, sharp stress.⁴

In shelters and kennels, calm classical music has been linked to dogs resting more and barking less. A review of nine studies found classical music appears calming in stressful settings, with no extra benefit from music designed for dogs.⁶

Two details from the research are worth knowing before you press play:

• Variety may matter. When kennelled dogs heard the same classical playlist every day, the effect was gone by day 7. A different genre each day held up across five days.
• Silence after music may be different from silence before. In the five-genre study, dogs were more likely to bark once the music stopped.⁷⁸

For which genres were tested and what each did, see our classical music post. For whether dogs prefer music at all, see do dogs like music?. For the full body of research, see does music calm dogs?.

TV, radio, audiobook or music: a quick comparison

What none of these can do

Every study above measured dogs without separation problems, and most used room speakers in shelters. None tested a dog with separation anxiety. If your dog barks, destroys things or has accidents soon after you leave, sound won't fix that. Film a few absences, and talk to your vet about a plan.

Background sound also works best as one part of a routine: exercise and a toilet break before you go, something to chew, a calm exit, and absences built up slowly. We cover that routine, and how long is too long, in how long can a dog be left alone?

How to leave sound on well

1. Pick steady, calm music. Soft classical is where the evidence points. Skip anything loud or jarring.
2. Play it when you're home too. Make it part of ordinary calm time, not something that only happens when you go out.
3. Rotate the playlist. The habituation finding suggests changing what you play rather than looping one album for months.
4. Avoid ad-supported streams. A free video or streaming playlist on an old phone can break into an advert at full volume, or stop when the Wi-Fi drops.
5. Check what happens. A camera for the first few absences tells you whether your dog settles.

Is there a radio for dogs?

If you want a calm soundtrack without leaving a phone or TV on, the Barkwoo Music Box is a radio for dogs that sits on the collar. One button plays hours of preloaded music, with no phone, WiFi or app, so there are no adverts and nothing to buffer. It runs for almost a full day on one charge, and you can add your own MP3s over USB. It's the only calming-music player made to be worn on your dog's collar, so it stays with your dog while you're out.

You can listen to the home-alone playlist or the calming playlist first. The studies above used speakers, not our device, and none tested dogs with separation anxiety, so we don't claim more for it than they found.

Quick answers

Should I leave the TV on for my dog? It's unlikely to do much. Shelter dogs looked at a TV about 11% of the time and lost interest, though they barked less with it on. TV sound can also include doorbells and barking.

Should I leave music on for my dog when I leave? Calm classical music may help your dog settle a little faster. In pet dogs left without their owners, the effect was moderate.

Do audiobooks help dogs? In one shelter study, dogs rested more with an audiobook. In pet dogs left without their owners, an audiobook showed no apparent benefit.

Is talk radio good for dogs? It hasn't been studied directly. Recorded conversation didn't calm shelter dogs the way classical music did, and live radio adds adverts and sudden sounds.

Is silence better? For some dogs, a quiet house is fine. In the studies, calm music did a little better than silence, but only a little.

References

1. Graham, L., Wells, D.L. & Hepper, P.G. (2005). The influence of visual stimulation on the behaviour of dogs housed in a rescue shelter. Animal Welfare, 14, 143–148. doi:10.1017/S0962728600029146 ↩︎
2. Montgomery, L.I., Krichbaum, S. & Katz, J.S. (2025). Characterizing TV viewing habits in companion dogs. Scientific Reports, 15, 20274. doi:10.1038/s41598-025-06580-y ↩︎
3. Brayley, C. & Montrose, V.T. (2016). The effects of audiobooks on the behaviour of dogs at a rehoming kennels. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 174, 111–115. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2015.11.008 ↩︎
4. Kinnaird, R.F. & Wells, D.L. (2022). The effect of auditory stimulation on pet dogs' reactions to owner separation. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 254, 105688. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105688 ↩︎
5. Wells, D.L., Graham, L. & Hepper, P.G. (2002). The influence of auditory stimulation on the behaviour of dogs housed in a rescue shelter. Animal Welfare, 11, 385–393. doi:10.1017/S0962728600025112 ↩︎
6. Lindig, A.M., McGreevy, P.D. & Crean, A.J. (2020). Musical dogs: a review of the influence of auditory enrichment on canine health and behavior. Animals, 10(1), 127. doi:10.3390/ani10010127 ↩︎
7. Bowman, A., Scottish SPCA, Dowell, F.J. & Evans, N.P. (2015). 'Four Seasons' in an animal rescue centre; classical music reduces environmental stress in kennelled dogs. Physiology & Behavior, 143, 70–82. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2015.02.035 ↩︎
8. Bowman, A., Dowell, F.J. & Evans, N.P. (2017). The effect of different genres of music on the stress levels of kennelled dogs. Physiology & Behavior, 171, 207–215. doi:10.1016/j.physbeh.2017.01.024 ↩︎