Can You Help Your Pet Beat The Blues?
“Oh, Mama, can this really be the end/ to be stuck inside of my house with the Covid blues again?”, a 21st century Bob Dylan might have sung. If you have found lockdown a challenge, spare a thought for your pet. It has had to get used to you being around the house more, to reduced contact with its fellow creatures and to other significant changes in its routine. No wonder some pet owners are concerned about the impact of a prolonged lockdown on the mental wellbeing of their pooches and moggies.
For a non-pet owner this may seem to be, at worst, anthropomorphism gone mad or, at best, the epitome of a 21st century problem. Pet lovers, though, will stop at nothing to help their anxious furry friends through lockdown. One innovative Manchester-based company, MusicForPets, has since 2012 being making music and TV content aimed at pets, principally cats and dogs, and claim in 2020 alone to have attracted some 42 million cat and dog subscribers, who between them “consumed” 13.5 years’ worth of content. Their mission, according to CEO Amman Ahmed, is to double their subscription base as well as striving to improve the mental health of our burgeoning pet population.
Likening themselves to a Netflix for Pets, Petflix you might say, they have two brands Relaxmydog and Relaxmycat and create their own content. Apparently cats like fast images while dogs go for differential colour gradients, virtual walks and watching other animals.
Does it really work? They claim so and point to their growing stock of testimonials from happy (human) customers. And that is the rub. Do pets really like it or is it wishful thinking on the part of their owners?
If you want to see what it is all about, follow the links below
