STUDY: DOGS MAKE US HAPPIER

Do dogs make us happier? Heck, yes, according to science. In 2019, a study led by Lauren Powell, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, looked at whether getting a dog improved the owner’s activity level, cardiovascular health and psychological state. The researchers looked at 71 people living in Sydney, Australia, and separated them by inclination: People who planned to get a dog within a month, people who wanted a dog but agreed to wait until after the study was complete, and people who had no interest in ever acquiring a dog. All participants were evaluated at three junctures: at baseline; three months later, after those in the first group got a dog; and again after eight months.
– The results showed that after three months, people with dogs walked 2,589 more steps a day than the control groups, although at eight months there was a drop-off, which means that “people were really excited at first, but maybe the novelty wore off.”
– Psychologically, loneliness in the group that got a dog decreased by 40% and stayed at that lower level at eight months.
– The study also found that owning a dog promotes the flow of oxytocin, a hormone that decreases the heart rate and fosters feelings of well-being and relaxation. Plus, dogs “encourage their owners to get out in nature, maintain a sense of routine, and stay in touch with their neighbors. All the things that benefit our mental health in normal times are just more important during Covid.”
* And you don’t have to worry about a dog refusing to wear a mask.
* Dogs make me happy, but hot dogs make me really happy.
* Finding out if a dog makes us happy is easy. They should do a study to find out if a dog makes us indignant, or disdainful, or some other more complicated emotion.
* If you don’t want all the fuss, don’t forget: You can have some temporary canine companionship with someone else’s dog with apps like “Bark-N-Borrow”, and leave the full-time dog ownership to the chumps.
* There’s a joke about a guy who goes to a psychic, and she tells him he’s going to suffer incredible heartbreak in about 12 years. The guy leaves kind of depressed, so he goes out and buys a puppy to cheer himself up.