Purr-fect playlist: Google Canada donates Google Nests to local humane society to help anxious animals

Using sounds to help animal anxiety From CTV Kitchener's Jessica Smith: A project with the Guelph Humane Society is using sounds and music to help animals deal with anxiety.

Guelph — Whether it is the soothing sounds of some smooth jazz to settle a shy bunny or a lighthearted piece on the piano to calm an anxious puppy, the Guelph Humane Society is now equipped with the perfect tools to make a playlist for any furry or feathered friend.

This is all thanks to a donation of a dozen Google Nest devices from Google Canada.

“So we knew of these devices that existed, we planned to get some anyways and thought we'd reach out to Google and let them know what we were doing and they were so interested in it that they donated 12,” said Melissa Stolz, an Intake and Behavior Coordinator with the Guelph Humane Society.

They are now able to curate specific playlists for each animal room and according to the humane society, those playlists are based on studies that show shelter animals benefit from music.

This partnership is a first for Google Canada.

“We see real-life examples here and that's really fulfilling from a tech perspective. We're just really grateful to be part of what we hope is a really great ending or a 'happy tail' for all of these animals waiting for adoption,” said Alexandra Klein with Google Canada.

The team at Google worked with the behavioural therapists at the humane society to pick the sounds that work the best to soothe animals.

“So we'll do an audiobook so they can listen to a calm human voice,” said Stolz. “Or we'll do nature sounds which the cats love hearing the birds chirp. Or we can do some classical music or jazz.”

According to the Guelph Humane Society, although they have only had the Google Nests in each of the rooms for a few weeks, they have already noticed a big difference in the anxiety levels of the animals.

“We do notice that they are more relaxed when they are not having to listen to all the doors slamming or the dogs barking when it is drowned out by the music,” said Stolz.

The humane society is looking to continue creating signature sounds for the animals that come through their doors, making their time there as sweet as possible.