Music experts have revealed the 5 best radio stations to help keep pets calm as animal lovers across the country hunker down for firework displays set to take place tonight.
One of the most popular ways to help keep dogs calm during Bonfire Night is to drown out the crackles and bangs with music.
However, the type of music played is important with some types of music (such as those with a high BPM) potentially increasing a dog's anxiety while other types can leave them feeling unengaged and bored.
The experts over at Startle, a music curation platform, assessed 25 of the UK's most popular radio stations, looking at genre diversity, tempo, and energy, before giving each station an overall score.
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What Radio stations do dogs like the most?
Startle found 5 radio stations that they say are the best to keep a dog calm and engaged during that dreaded Guy Fawkes Night.
Using studies suggesting dogs prefer a variety of genres to stimulate them, songs with low dynamic range to avoid startling them, and a tempo (BPM) like their own heartbeats to relax them, Startle found some of the best stations for our furry friends to listen to.
Of the 5 named, Smooth FM came first with an overall score of 7.3.
Startle found that Smooth FM offered good genre diversity, the best tempo score, and the highest level of energy to keep dogs engaged.
Smooth FM was followed by BBC Radio 1, which scored an overall score of 6.7. The station, which specialises in modern pop music, had a high genre diversity score of 10 but was lower on the list when it came to its tempo score, meaning the tempo was less calming for dogs.
In 3rd place was Heart 80s which, as the name suggests, focuses on popular music from the 1980s.
Kiss FM and Magic Soul followed in at 4th and 5th.
The top 5 best radio stations to calm dogs during Bonfire Night
Here is the full list of stations named in Startle's top 5 best to keep dogs calm this Bonfire Night:
Smooth Radio
Genre diversity: 8.3
Tempo: 9.6
Energy: 3.9
Overall: 7.3
Radio 1
Genre diversity: 10
Tempo: 7.3
Energy: 2.9
Overall: 6.7
Heart 80s
Genre diversity: 8.3
Tempo: 8.1
Energy: 2.1
Overall: 6.2
Kiss FM
Genre diversity: 8.3
Tempo: 7.3
Energy: 1.8
Overall: 5.8
Magic Soul
Genre diversity: 5
Tempo: 9.2
Energy: 2.8
Overall: 5.7
To find out more about Startle, please visit the Startle website.
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