Now your pets can have book club too! Audible announced the launch of Audible for Dogs, a new offering aiming to “foster calm, relaxed behavior” in dogs while their owners are away, on Monday, August 7.
The new service was developed in collaboration with Dog Whisperer Cesar Millan so pets could listen to a human voice, even when their owner isn’t home. Audible was inspired to create audiobooks for dogs after a 2015 study that showed audiobooks to be more effective at reducing stress in canines than playing music.
In the company’s own study with 100 dogs, in partnership with the Cesar Millan Dog Psychology Center, 76% of owners who played audiobooks over a four-week period saw an increase in calm, relaxed behavior for their canines.
“Dogs are social animals, so they need to engage with someone and the purpose of Audible for Dogs is to make dogs feel there is someone with them. The person performing the audiobook is actually keeping your dog calm and taking the dog to a resting state, acting as an extension of you,” Millan said in a statement.
If you’re wondering which book to get, the study found pets responded best to audiobooks narrated by the same gender as their owner. Each curated title by Millan features a video introduction from the pet guru, as well as celebrity narrators. Current titles include Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood read by Trevor Noah, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice read by Rosamund Pike and more.
