Can Your Pet Actually Enjoy the Music You Play?

Music is defined as a combination of sounds to show beauty, form, harmony, and/or rhythm. People use music to share feelings or create emotion. With varied tones, tempos, and patterns, music can move past language barriers and distances—even species—affecting people in ways that we do not always grasp. Rhythmic sounds can calm, excite, motivate, and even soothe people. These sounds are so much more than background noise. It is mood-shaping, memory-anchoring, and deeply spiritual. To me, music stays with me like a second skin, helping me manage my emotions and process the world around me. Over time, however, I began to wonder: do the animals I spend most of my time with feel the same way about music?

The Science of Animal Musicality

As a person who spends much of my time with animals, I wondered how they felt about the music I frequently played. Did they notice it? Could they notice it? And did they care? When the tempo changed or the bass dropped, did they simply tolerate it, or did they actually enjoy it? My dog perks up at certain sounds, and other times my cat seems to visibly relax when I play meditation tunes. Could I be onto something?

Well, researchers have long felt drawn to the idea that animals might respond to music like humans. Studies show that various species can change their behavior and physiology when they hear music, suggesting that they can sense and react to musical sounds. For instance, this review suggests that music can provide auditory enrichment for animals. This means that sounds can modify animal behavior and potentially ease their stress. Since music has been shown to reduce stress and anxiety in humans, it is exciting to learn that it may do the same for animals.

Different Beats for Different Beasts

Different species react to music in various ways, often depending on the type of music and the animal’s own hearing preferences. Let’s take a closer look:

Chimpanzees

These primates were shown to behave differently when in the presence of classical music. In laboratory housed chimpanzees, this research supported that classical music encouraged more social behaviors and team work. In another study, induced rhythmic swaying was observed in chimpanzees (mostly males).

Cats

Cats mostly ignore human music, but they can respond positively to music composed specifically for them. This type of music contains tempos and frequencies that mimic purring and suckling sounds. When this music is played, cats are more responsive.

Dogs

Recent research consistently indicates that classical music can have a calming effect on dogs, encouraging relaxed behaviors such as lying down, resting, and reduced agitation.

Birds

Some birds, like parrots, not only enjoy music but can be seen moving to it as well. Research has shown that certain birds, when exposed to music, can engage in rhythmic behaviors that mimic the beat.

Nature’s Orchestra

The study of how animals perceive music in their brains is relatively new. Some research indicates that animals process music using brain regions similar to those in humans. In one specific study, sea lions were shown to keep a beat . This suggests that animals can not only sense rhythm but also match it. In addition, some chimpanzees can even beat drums rhythmically, potentially shedding light on the origins of human music.

Beyond entertainment, music can offer practical uses to improve animal welfare. For example, in zoos and shelters, music can reduce stress and calm animals. In farms, music has helped improve output. Recent studies indicate that playing calming music, especially classical music, can increase milk production in dairy cows. However, with dairy cows, the effect depends on the genre, and not all types of music are beneficial. These studies highlight the potential of music to improve animal well-being.

The Animal Response to Music

Animals may respond to music, but they do not perceive it in the way people do. Music is deeply connected to the human experience because it relates to feelings and culture. For animals, the connection to music is more about sound signals, rhythmic movements, and familiar sounds.

When people hear music, it acts as a sense, connecting specific tunes with memories, words with stories, and beats with movement. The brain searches for patterns, so when a person hears a song or quick beat, the limbic system (part of the brain linked to emotion) becomes active. People can feel chills, cry, or become energized. That emotional depth seems to exist only in humans, or at least manifests in ways that are difficult to measure in animals.

In contrast, animal responses to music tend to be behavioral, not emotional in the human way. Some animals may calm down with slow, peaceful music or become uneasy with fast, jarring sounds. These responses, however, are often linked to instinctual reactions, not personal experiences or memories. For example, a sound that mimics a purr may calm a cat but might not remind the cat of its early life.

In one 2004 study by McDermott and Hauser, cotton-top tamarin monkeys showed no preference for consonant music (pleasant) over dissonant music (unstable). When researchers made music for tamarins that copied their calls, the monkeys had a more distinct reaction. Research by Snowdon and Teie (2009) found these results where custom compositions got more reactions from tamarins than any human music. Researchers did this by using tamarin vocalizations, including threat sounds, and incorporating them into music. This shows how context and familiarity can change what animals do when they hear sound.

Animals experience music in some way—physically, through their behavior, or by instinct. People may be the only animals that truly hear music in an emotional and artistic way. This difference highlights why the connection between humans and animal music is so interesting.

What is the verdict?

Even though animals clearly react to music, the question remains: Do they feel emotions like humans when listening to music? Until we are in their shoes, we cannot answer this for sure. Observing their behavior only suggests that animals are reacting in some way to music; we are just not sure which emotional states, if any, are affected.

Studies showing that animals can alter their behavior based on music are only a starting point for understanding the depth of these reactions and how they affect animals’ emotional states. This field of research, referred to as bioacoustics, also includes how insects produce sounds. These studies of how animals react to music can reveal interesting overlaps between the human and animal experience. Although they might not perceive music as we do, their reactions suggest there is some similarity in how both humans and animals experience sound and rhythm.

Understanding these reactions not only broadens our knowledge of animal behavior, but also creates ways to improve animal welfare.For example, if music can calm a stressed shelter dog, enrich a zoo animal’s environment, and improve farm animal welfare, it could potentially be more than just a tune for animals as well.

The science of animal reactions to music gives us insight into their feelings, allowing us to see them as active listeners and responders, and even, at times, rhythm enjoyers. The more we examine and value the details of how animals react to music, the more we connect human and non-human experiences. This shows us that although we may differ biologically, the common thread of sound may be one of the few truly shared experiences on this planet.