Both people who've had pets for a while and those new to pet ownership agree on at least one thing—most pets love attention and affection. And that can be difficult to provide if you're busy working from home or have many home and out-of-home tasks to do during the day.

Sometimes if you have more than one pet, your pets can keep each other entertained, so you're not as needed. But even that's not a given. So, how do you keep your pets entertained while you're away? Let's explore some streaming services that offer potential solutions.

Going the Extra Mile for Your Pet: Folly or Canny?

Rabbits, birds, cats (okay, some cats), and especially dogs tend to live off the love of their caregivers. They bond and always want to be by your side. And that's great on a non-busy day. But when you have tasks, being followed around by your dog, or having your bird be on your shoulder non-stop, can be distracting and hinder your ability to do what needs doing.

Worse yet, some pets react poorly to not receiving attention and affection. They get noisy and disruptive and may even resort to destructive behaviors. And that can happen with you at home or when you're out. So, how do you cope? Well, you can use a streaming service to help, so you play something for your pet and distract them.

That may seem silly, but if you keep your pets busy, they may not even notice that you're not there. Of course, you don't have to pay for additional subscriptions for streaming services for pets and add unnecessarily to your budget. There are many free streaming services you can try.

That way, if you determine your pet isn't engaging with the content you chose, you won't lose any money. But if it proves engaging for them, and they seem to do better by themselves, then it's a problem solved.

1. DOGTV

DOGTV centers around dogs and helps you improve your dog's life. It's a dedicated streaming service aiming to ‘‘alleviate [your dog's] stress and anxiety throughout the day.’’

You can watch DOGTV through a streaming device or cable/satellite provider. The platform states its content is ‘‘based on more than 60 scientific studies,’’ and the programs are designed to match the expected daily cycle of dogs and fit their needs.

You can find stimulating animated programs, videos with serene images and sounds, and a slew of plain fun programs like The Dog Chef, The Adoption Show, and Meet The Breed.

The annual subscription costs $83.88, which is $6.99/month. If you want to stick to a monthly subscription, it's $9.99/month. There are no contracts to sign, and you can cancel anytime. If you want to see if the streaming service is the right fit, take advantage of the three-day free trial.

2. Amazon Prime Video

There are many reasons to subscribe to Prime video, including helping your pets. Amazon Prime Video is among the top streaming services with the most subscribers worldwide. It's the perfect place to look for something to play for your pet without spending extra money for subscriptions—odds are, you're already a Prime member.

It may surprise you, but Amazon Prime Video offers various pet-focused shows. However, of note is that they tend to focus on the relationship between pets and their humans rather than showcasing images and sounds designed to engage your pets' attention, like DOGTV, for example.

Browsing Amazon Prime Video, you can find Puppy Party and The Pack. Puppy Party, as suggested, displays 25 breeds get together and party, while The Pack is a reality show with a competition aspect where the teams competing for the prize are comprised of a human and their pet. Both shows are still bound to offer entertaining imaging and sounds, and they're hardly the only ones Amazon Prime Video has to offer.

3. Spotify for Pets

Spotify is an awesome music streaming service, and one little corner focuses on pets. Spotify for pets is a feature you can use to find the best tunes for you and your pet and compile them into a playlist you can enjoy, together or separate.

If you want to use Spotify for pets and make a playlist for your animals, it's a super simple process. You answer some questions to determine your pet's ‘vibe,’ and Spotify then uses an algorithm to find the best songs for you and your pet.

Spotify for pets even lets you upload an image for your pet and name the playlist after them, which means if you have multiple pets, they can each have a separate playlist. The best part is, that you don't need a subscription to enjoy the feature. It's available to both Spotify Free and Premium users.

4. YouTube

YouTube is an awesome resource with many channels your pets can enjoy while you're away. A lot of the available content is pet-specific, so apart from the videos for cats and dogs, you can also find videos for hedgehogs, ferrets, rabbits and so on.

If you don't have a YouTube Premium subscription, don't worry since you don't really need one. It's doubtful your pet will mind the ad breaks. Just do some digging, and you're bound to find some gems.

For example, you can turn to the Relax Your Dog, Calm Your Cat, or PetTunes channels that offer more video variations for all kinds of pets.

5. Audible for Dogs

Audible's initiative Audible for Dogs posits that some dogs don't care so much for music or imaging but do care about hearing people's voices. So, listening to audiobooks makes pretty good sense.

Audible for Dogs came to be thanks to the collaborative efforts between Audible and famed dog behaviorist Cesar Millan. By having an audiobook playing for your dog while you're away, the dog won't feel alone. Sure, it won't see anyone there, but it will hear them, and even if there's a slight chance that'll alleviate stress, why not try it?

You can even find a tab that showcases some of Cesar Millan's audiobook recommendations. Once you pick your audiobook, you can set it up to play from a device that's in a location your dogs can hear and, hopefully, is comfortable for them.

It suggests that the best way to go about it is to start playing the audiobook a few minutes before you leave and avoid distracting your dog from listening by going and saying goodbye.

If you don't already have an Audible subscription, you can choose between Audible Plus and Premium Plus. Audible Plus costs $7.95/month, and Premium Plus is $14.95/month. Both subscriptions offer a 30-day free trial.

It Doesn’t Have to Cost You an Arm and a Leg

Of course, if you can help your pet to be less anxious and remain calm when you're away, that'd be grand. However, that doesn't mean you should attempt that at the expense of your wallet.

With how many streaming services are available now, subscriptions seem to add up. So, don't go breaking the budget for pet-specific services on top of the ones you're already using.

If you're a current Amazon Prime member or Spotify user, take advantage of their pet-focused content. But if you're not, try using the free services first and see if they're worth it. Take advantage of free trials, use YouTube, and see how your pet likes the different streaming services before adding several new subscriptions to your existing bills.