Dogs have been boosting human happiness for centuries, and now science is finally catching up to what we've always known. Photo / 123rf
New research proves that life really is improved with a canine friend – findings these families feel in their everyday lives.
The morning after a rare Saturday night with my cousins and a bottle of fancy tequila, I felt more awful than any time I can remember. My boyfriend was chiding and unsympathetic. Only the dogs were kind. Stroking and spooning my two forgiving podencos, Leica and Bufo, was infinitely more healing than any ibuprofen or paracetamol combination.
I’ve never needed to turn to the many studies that have theorised about the multiple ways in which dogs are good for us, I just feel it. I don’t need science to tell me life is improved with a dog at your side. Until now, studies that support what we have always known have tended to be weak and anecdotal. It’s hard to double blind a dog, and it’s expensive.
Professor Emeritus Aubrey Fine of Cal Poly University is a paediatric clinical psychologist known as one of the 20th century’s great pioneers in understanding the human-animal bond and how it can work in therapeutic settings. “Until a few years ago studies really lacked substance, now science is finally catching up with what humans have intuitively known for thousands of years.”
Last week Korean researchers published a study in the journal Plos One that used electroencephalogram (EEG) brain scanning technology to try to more scientifically map exactly how and why dogs are therapeutic. Researchers at Konkuk University in Seoul recorded the brain activity of 30 young, healthy people during specific activities with a four-year-old standard poodle called Aro.
OnYoo Yoo, the study’s author and Aro’s owner, and her colleagues at the Department of Bio and Healing Convergence, found different activities produce different effects in our brains. “The information received and processed by the body triggers diverse physiological responses, which are reflected in distinct brainwave patterns. An EEG records those changes, which can be divided into different frequency bands,” she says.
“High alpha power indicates relaxation and emotional stability, while beta power indicates brain attention and concentration. Our research found that participants’ alpha-band brain waves increased while playing and walking with dogs, while beta-band brain waves increased while grooming, massaging, or playing with Aro.”
So, to wind down at the end of the day, perhaps a dog walk is a sounder call for well-being than, say, a large gin. While buffing up my dogs’ coats and combing out their inevitable summer fleas might sharpen my focus and engage my mind. Regardless of the activities, Yoo says all left participants “less fatigued, depressed and stressed”.
Yoo says her scientific interest was not to create targeted therapies, but rather to see if canine therapy “has the potential to yield heightened advantages within the context of integrative medicine”. Does this mean next time you pop in for an aromatherapy massage they might hand you a friendly hound to cuddle to enhance the relaxation? This is already happening in hospitals, universities, schools and retirement homes.
Yoo had a personal interest too: “Having spent my entire life with dogs I am fascinated by the mechanisms behind their ability to bring us such a lot of joy and comfort.”
Research shows positive associations between contact with dogs and lessening human suffering including pain, depression and loneliness. Studies have repeatedly shown their positive impact on our blood pressure, blood glucose, blood fats, on reducing our weight and stress, and improving many important aspects of our lives – from the minuscule microbes in our gut diversity to every mood, creativity, fitness, and, of course, the very major matter of our lifespan. One meta-analysis in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, a heart health academic journal, found overall, dog owners had a 24 per cent decreased risk of all-cause mortality, and that percentage rose to 31 per cent for cardiovascular-related issues.
Dog ownership is good for us. They are “the ultimate biohack” according to Tommy Wood, assistant professor of paediatrics and neuroscience at the University of Washington School of Medicine. As co-host of the Better Brain Fitness podcast, Wood is a popular speaker on the wellness circuit. “I’m an avid dog lover so I say ‘biohack’ tongue-in-cheek. Yes, they support our health and wellbeing in many ways. Yes, positive long-term changes around our health and lifestyle arise from dog ownership. But we should never think of dogs as something we can leverage for our own personal gain.
“Dogs are a responsibility, and for some people, it’s worth it, for others it isn’t.”
As such Michelle Cox thought long and hard before buying Albert, a standard black and tan dachshund for her 13-year-old daughter, Olivia, who has complex epilepsy and mild autism. Albert turned out to be a bit of a naughty dog, but in myriad ways he compensates for this because of the role he plays in Olivia’s sometimes very difficult life.
“Olivia spends a lot of time at Alder Hay and Great Ormond Street, and when we go to appointments because of mental and physical health, for MRIs and all sorts of other nasty things she has to do for neurologists, all we and they talk about is Albert. He has become like a therapy dog.
“She talks to him about everything and tells him things she won’t tell me. She’ll say, ‘I don’t need to tell you, I’ve told Albert. He’s my best friend and he’s my brother. He understands.’”
Fine says this is far from anthropomorphism. “When you look back on our history with dogs, they read our behaviour and are extraordinarily highly attuned to human social language.”
Fine explains, “From a child’s perspective, a therapy animal provides children in hospital settings with comfort and normalcy. These interactions bring moments of joy (increase in serotonin) while fostering anxiety/stress reduction (reduction of cortisol) and relaxation.”
What Cox sees is how much Albert helps Olivia cope with sometimes excruciating pain, fear and extreme shyness. “When you have a very sick child like Olivia and people go, ‘Oh it’s just anthropomorphism’, I get frustrated. I’m a highly rational person, with degrees in both law and French and German. When you’ve seen this in real life it is impossible to diminish it.
“The children’s hospitals are wonderful but they are still brutal and alien places for kids. They do everything they can to help relax and comfort the kids – musicians at their bedside, ballerinas, books, balloons, it all comes in – but the dogs are what Olivia wants to see. Therapy dogs help those children.”
“Dogs are very conscious of human mood, and will comfort you if you’re upset.” Fine continues, “While 90 per cent of registered therapy animals are dogs, not all dogs can do this work. Many species of dogs (including mixed breeds) demonstrate affiliative natures, one of the most desirable traits among therapy animals. But traditionally, breeds that are known to have these important traits include golden retrievers, labradors, and cavalier King Charles spaniels.”
It’s this canine capacity to regulate a human’s nervous system that must have helped me through my Sunday of shame. My dogs might struggle (for example, cause havoc) at Great Ormond Street, though, as they can be jolly hard work with occasional episodes of escapology, cat and sheep chasing, the latter raising stress to what I doubt are healthy levels. They are far from model therapy dogs. However, running around behind them has, without visiting gyms, or even really thinking about it, given me a sort of accidental level of fitness that always takes me by surprise.
One doesn’t need a cuddly passive retriever or a perky, polite cockapoo to get a hit of vitamin DOG. Even pretty high-strung and independent canines, like my podencos, can help humans. In 2017 Sara Carey’s beloved dog died after 16 years, “at the same time I gave up my career to care for my mum with dementia,” she explains.
“It all showed up as this terrible compound grief. I was having constant emotional breakdowns. My GP diagnosed me with anxiety and stress. Regardless, my gut told me to emergency foster a podenco. Blimey that dog was messed up, even more so than me. Yet he gave me a project that I could throw myself into.
“I would walk 35km a week with him and in doing so got really fit and strong and made new friends in my rural community.”
Carey’s circumstance describes the broad spectrum of benefits a dog can offer us by just taking care of it. “My entire mental and physical health improved and I was much better able to take on the challenges of caring for Mum,” she says.
“Dogs do several things for us that are known to be important for long-term health,” says Wood. By encouraging us to go outside they increase our exposure to natural light, which is good for our circadian rhythms.
“I can see this in my own life, the dogs help me find time for activities that are hard to make time for, but which we empirically know are immensely beneficial, like being outside and walking,” says Wood. “I go outside first thing every morning and move throughout the day because the dogs need it. These small breaks, what’s known as ‘movement snacks’ are great for both our bodies and brains.
“Another big benefit is play, which is something most adults don’t do unless they have small children. Play has many known benefits to human health but I try not to over-analyse this because most importantly, it is just a lot of fun. There’s also benefit from the regularity and responsibility that dogs need – this helps us build a regular schedule and focus on something outside of ourselves rather than always being at work or thinking about our problems.”
The dogs get me out in the world and are the perfect antidote to the increasingly screen-based modern life that can feel isolated and all-consuming. Like Wood, I try not to think of them as some kind of wellness tool. In fact, this growing credibility of the science around the benefits of dogs just makes them an even greater thing of wonder to me. All these rewards and all I have to pay them is the odd scooby snack.
The average age of patients in the study was just 38, highlighting risks for younger adults.