Dogs have been part of human societies across Eurasia for at least 20,000 years, accompanying us through many social and cultural upheavals. A new study by an international team, published in the journal Science, and led by Laurent Frantz, paleogeneticist at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) shows that the spread of new cultures across Eurasia, with different lifeways, was often associated with the spread of specific dog populations.
Scientists from LMU, QMUL, the Kunming Institute of Zoology and Lanzhou University in China, and the University of Oxford, sequenced and analyzed the genomes of 17 ancient dogs from Siberia, East Asia, and the Central Asian Steppe – including, for the first time, specimens from China. Important cultural changes occurred in these regions over the past 10,000 years, driven by the dispersal of hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists. The specimens came from archaeological sites between 9,700 and 870 years old. In addition, the researchers included publicly available genomes from 57 ancient and 160 modern dogs in their analyses.
Dogs followed metalworkers across the Eurasian Steppe over 4,000 years ago
A comparison of ancient dog and human genomes reveals a striking concordance between genetic shifts in both species across time and space, most notably during periods of population turnover. This link is especially evident during China’s transformative Early Bronze Age (~4,000 years ago), which saw the introduction of metalworking. The research shows that the expansion of people from the Eurasian Steppe, who first introduced this transformative technology to Western China, also brought their dogs with them.
This pattern of human-dog co-movement extends back far beyond the Bronze Age. The research traces signals of co-disperal back at least 11,000 years, when hunter-gatherers in northern Eurasia were exchanging dogs closely related to today’s Siberian Huskies.
“Traces of these major cultural shifts can be teased out of the genomes of ancient dogs,” says Dr. Lachie Scarsbrook (LMU/Oxford), one of the lead authors of the study. “Our results highlight the deeply rooted cultural importance of dogs. Instead of just adopting local populations, people have maintained a distinct sense of ownership towards their own dogs for at least the past 11,000 years.”
“This tight link between human and dog genetics shows that dogs were an integral part of society, whether you were a hunter-gatherer in the Arctic Circle 10,000 years ago or a metalworker in an early Chinese city,” says Prof. Laurent Frantz. “It’s an amazing, enduring partnership and shows the sheer flexibility of the role dogs can play in our societies, far more than with any other domestic species.”
A new study has found that having a pet dog or cat can slow down cognitive decline.
Stock image of a puppy looking at its owner. Credit : Getty
NEED TO KNOW
A new study has found that having a cat or a dog may have a “protective factor” over cognitive abilities as you age, helping to “slow down” mental decline
The study looked at 18 years of data in adults over 50 and found a “slower decline in multiple cognitive domains” for dog and cat owners
Having a fish or a bird didn’t have an impact on cognitive abilities, the study found
The type of pet you have can impact how your brain ages — and dogs and cats have a “protective factor” that can “slow down cognitive decline.”
Dog and cat owners saw improved brain health — more than those who had birds or fish, or no pets — according to a new study, published in Scientific Reports, that used 18 years of data on cognitive decline in adults over 50.
“Both cat and dog owners experienced slower decline in multiple cognitive domains — dog owners in immediate and delayed recall, cat owners in verbal fluency and delayed recall,” the study found. “Fish and bird ownership had no significant association with cognitive decline.”
“Several explanations may help explain the absence of this association in fish and bird owners, despite the reports of their ownership’ positive influence on wellbeing in ways that are usually associated with cognitive benefits,” study author Adriana Rostekova, from the University of Geneva’s lifespan developmental psychology research group said, per The Guardian.
The study theorized that the shorter lifespan of a bird or fish impacts “the level of emotional connection,” due to “frequently having to deal with the pet’s death.” The study also pointed out that birds can be incredibly loud: “Bird ownership may negatively affect the owner’s sleep quality due to the increased noise levels, which has been shown to be associated with cognitive decline.”
But the very nature of owning a cat or a dog may help the brain stay healthy, Rostekova explained: “There is also a possibility of increased social stimulation facilitated by cats and dogs, which may be linked to the slower cognitive decline experienced by their owners: an increased frequency of social interactions when accompanied by a dog – or for cats, a substitute for a social network.”
The study says that, since “dog and cat ownership might act as a protective factor aiding to slow down cognitive decline, thus contributing to healthy cognitive [aging],” these findings could help inform policies on healthy aging, specifically to make veterinary care or pet insurance “more accessible to older adults” — as well as advocate for “animal-friendly senior housing options, such as assisted living facilities or nursing homes.”
A new UK survey conducted on behalf of Purina has revealed what previous studies have shown, that the human-animal bond is important and that society benefits from our supportive relationship with animals.
Over two-thirds of pet owners feel a stronger bond with their pets than their family and friends.
Top ten ways the human-pet bond helps people feel better
10. Coping with Break-Ups For 32% of pet owners, the bond with their pets has been instrumental in helping them navigate the emotional turmoil of a break-up.
9. Support Through Health Conditions Approximately 42% of pet owners have found emotional support through their pets while dealing with health challenges.
8. Navigating Interpersonal Conflicts Pets serve as a source of comfort during interpersonal conflicts, helping 44% of owners cope with emotional stress.
7. Snuggling for Comfort 46% find comfort in snuggling with their pets, providing emotional warmth and support.
6. Bringing Smiles 49% reported that their pets bring joy into their lives and make them smile.
5. Alleviating Loneliness For 52% of pet owners, the presence of their pets significantly reduces feelings of loneliness, providing companionship and love.
4. Joyful Greetings A warm greeting at the door from a pet can bring joy, as experienced by 52% of pet owners.
3. Distraction from Worries Pets help their owners take their minds off things, with 54% of pet owners benefiting from this comforting distraction.
2. Uplifting Spirits When Feeling Low The companionship of pets provides comfort for 59% of owners when they are feeling low, helping to brighten their mood.
1. Support During Sadness and Life Changes 61% of pet owners asked find solace in their pets during moments of sadness or significant life changes, including after a tough day at work.
Chances are you either have a dog, know someone with a dog, or spend too much time on the internet watching dog videos. Dogs. Are. Great. Maybe it’s from uniquely coevolving with humans, or maybe it’s because they’re so darn smart, agile, comforting, and cute—but there’s definitely a connection. Whenever we’re on the move, they’re on the move too—and excited about it. Even if it’s just to the kitchen, it is still a fun adventure together.
Any one of us living with a dog (a whopping 60 million—or 45.5%—nationally) has anecdotal evidence to back it up. But how can we measure the ways dogs impact our movement habits and thereby our health and wellness? Katie Potter, Behavioral Medicine Lab director and associate professor of kinesiology, decided to find out.
It all started with a little floppy-eared canine named Chloe. Potter, a slight, brown-haired woman with an athletic frame and a life-long affinity for dogs, adopted the short-haired pup in grad school, and they became inseparable. As someone studying kinesiology and behavioral health, Potter was more aware than most just how much her connection with Chloe improved her wellbeing. Time spent walking and playing with the sweet-tempered Chloe was also time that Potter spent being active and meeting new people in her neighborhood. On bad weather days, people without dogs can be tempted to stay inside in a cozy cocoon of home. But one look at Chloe’s innocent, black-and-white-splotched face had Potter pulling on her boots and reaching for a leash. Chloe also actively helped Potter once she started working in the Behavioral Medicine Lab at UMass, modeling new activity trackers, quality testing the lab treats, and reminding the team to stay in the moment and that, sometimes, you really just need to go for a walk. Potter was a doting pet parent but a scientist through and through.
When Chloe passed away in 2021, Potter had already been inspired by her to research the ways pet ownership might help people become healthier and more active. Motivated by the understanding of how activity levels contribute to or mitigate health conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and osteoporosis, Potter was convinced that the addition of multiple, small physical activities to a person’s life could lead to big beneficial outcomes. But now, she was even more driven to find out how specifically and find a way to engage a community around a shared love of pet care. Currently, less than 25% of adults in the United States meet the federal guidelines for physical activity. And children aren’t doing any better.
Professor Katie Potter clasps a new activity tracking collar around Percy’s neck while wearing her own for monitoring how close they are to each other.
Dog ownership was a potential avenue to inspire people to move on a grand scale and it excited her. “People are already convinced that animals are good for their health, so we’re trying to determine the evidence base for that,” Potter explains. As she better understands what the impact is from our dog-human bond, she can glean which small actions can be recreated as programs and introduced to the population at large.
Studies show that, to get people to make healthy, lasting changes to their daily routines, those changes need to be ones they actually enjoy. Luckily, a lot of people enjoy canine companionship. So, over the past five years, Potter and doctoral candidate Colleen Sands ’25 have designed observational studies to show how dog ownership affects/impacts physical activity levels, and the effects on specific health issues.
The big question
Does getting a dog make you more active? This is one of the biggest questions Potter is trying to answer. It is equally likely that physically active people get dogs because dogs fit within their already active lifestyle. But how do you test for that?
One of the most difficult parts of this type of experimentation is obtaining data on how active people are before they get a dog. “There’s currently a lack of studies that look at how getting a dog changes the owners’ activity and health—because they’re so logistically challenging,” says Potter. “You have to get data on folks before they bring the dog home and then follow them over time.”
Fortunately, a Massachusetts-based organization called Last Hope K9 Rescue agreed to work with Potter on a 12-week “BuddyStudy.” The study monitored 11 participants for six weeks as they experienced fostering a new dog. Starting out with baseline measurements—their average daily steps and their perceived stress levels or signs of depression (via questionnaires)—Potter was then able to see any noticeable changes at their mid-point check in.
It should be noted that many of the program participants actually ended up adopting their foster dogs through Last Hope K9 Rescue, making the measurements taken at the end of the study all the more interesting. Though it was a small study, the results were promising. Nearly half of the participants saw large increases in physical activity and nearly three-quarters had improvements in mood after fostering their pups. More than half of the participants met someone new in their neighborhood on a dog walk. Most participants adopted their foster dog after the six-week foster period, and some maintained improvements in physical activity and well-being at the end of the study.
With the promising data from that study, Potter was able to see which metrics and methods were the best for helping find answers to her original question—and many others that popped up throughout this experiment. She hopes to do more studies with foster dogs and cats in the future.
An interest in healthy aging
Armed with questions and hypotheses that occurred to her during one of her earliest studies, Project Rover,Potter decided to double down on her interest in how dogs impact physical activity and health in the older population. In Project Rover, Potter had worked with people over the age of 60, but now she wanted to push the age up a bit higher to see how an older generation would be impacted. She recruited 70- to 84-year-olds to be part of a new observational study called the Lifestyle, Brain, and Cognitive Health Study. The participant pool was divided into dog owners and those who were dog-free. Then, for one week, they were asked to go about their normal lives while activity monitors tracked their activity levels. At the end of the week, participants returned to UMass to have a brain scan and take the NIH Toolbox Cognition Battery to test their cognitive function and fluid cognition abilities like problem solving, response time, and ability to adapt to new situations. Ideally, at the end of this type of study, Potter would see improvements across the board with faster response times, more creative problem-solving ideas, and faster transitions to situations.
Though the group size for this study was too small to make generalizations about the results, Potter is excited about the social connection aspect of the study, since most participants said they had met people through their dog and that those people had become friends. The benefit of having the small sample size is that Potter was able to test her methodology, as she plans to conduct wider studies.
What about the kids?
Did you know that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends kids exercise for at least 60 minutes a day? Unfortunately, roughly 40% of children in the United States fall well below that, contributing to a wave of preventable health issues, including mental health impacts. Sands, working on her dissertation under Potter’s tutelage, thought, if we want to create interventions for people, why not start them young? She set out to design the Kids Interacting with Dogs (KID) study, a child-friendly pilot to establish a baseline—starting with children who already had a family dog.
To start, Sands met with participating families over Zoom for orientation. “While the dogs were certainly not required to join the remote study orientation calls,” Sands explains, “most of the kids were really excited to introduce me to their dogs.” Even though it was a remote study, she did get to witness the strong family-dog bond firsthand.
Over a one-week period, the study tracked how frequently kids played with the family dog through data received from Actigraphs—Bluetooth accelerometers that also monitor proximity. Every member of the family wore them (Fido included). And, to Sands’s delight, many of the children immediately decorated the monitors for both them and their dogs. By processing the data coming in, Sands was able to see how many cumulative minutes the kids spent with the dogs, how much they walked, and how actively they played.
Surprisingly, only one-third of the time kids were active with their dog was spent walking and (maybe less surprising to anyone who spends time near children or once was one), the other two-thirds were spent playing. That is notable because adult-focused studies show that owners spend the majority of their active time walking their dog and very little time engaged in play. This kid-specific study opens up new ways to explore the development of future physical activity interventions based on play.
Down the leash
Both Potter and Sands are passionate about finding enjoyable interventions that can improve wellness on a large scale. Potter’s dream is to set up an assistance program that pairs students with older or disabled members of the community who need a little help caring for their dogs. Both the community members and the students would reap the benefits of having a dog in their orbit, as well as experiencing a new, intergenerational human connection.
“One of the cool things about this line of research is that even though physical activity is our primary focus, there are social, emotional, and even academic benefits in human-animal interaction,” Potter shares. “So, there’s the potential for this much more holistic impact.” She says, “This can open up opportunities to areas where we can potentially collaborate with the researchers that are more focused on the animal side of it.” On a grander scale, Potter and Sands hope their research can create a viable, reproducible, scalable public health intervention program based on Potter’s idea. They also hope their research can inform changes around rental properties so people who want to be pet parents can find more housing options.
For now, we can all use these findings to inspire our own interventions. “When the bond is there, people will go to the end of the earth for their pet,” says Potter. It’s heartening to learn that bettering our pets’ lives can improve our own health and wellness too. And they don’t need you to go to the end of the earth for them—just to the end of the block.
Coming through the door from a hard day’s work to be greeted by the irrepressible joy of a dog bounding towards you, like they haven’t seen you in years, can be as satisfying as returning to an actual human partner, according to a new study.
Raising a furry companion like a cat or dog can bring you the same psychological benefits as getting married or earning an extra £70,000 a year, researchers at Kent University have found.
Using the “life satisfaction” approach, economists can translate intangible assets like friendship and family into a hypothetical income.
The research conducted on 2,500 British families found that owning a pet was linked to an increase in life satisfaction of 3-4 points on a scale of 1-7, similar to values obtained for meeting with friends and relatives regularly.
The study’s authors say they suspect that many people don’t actually realise how important their pets are for them (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Economists have shown that marriage, compared to being single, is worth around £70,000 a year. Separation, on the other hand, is equivalent to around minus £170,000 a year.
Dr Adelina Gschwandtner of the University of Kent, the lead author of the new study, toldThe Timesshe was inspired by a paper that put a price tag on human friendship.
“I thought, ‘well, if it’s possible for friends, why not for pets?’”
“I understand why some people might be sceptical [about the £70,000 value],” she said.
“Given that pets are considered by many as best friends and family members, these values appear to be plausible … I also suspect that many people don’t actually realise how important their pets are for them.”
Simply stroking our pets can lower the levels of the stress hormone cortisol in our bodies, leading to a calmer approach to life and thus positively impacting our blood pressure and make you less likely to suffer from clinical depression.
Dr Gschwandtner added: “This research answers the question whether overall pet companions are good for us with a resounding ‘Yes’.
“Pets care for us and there is a significant monetary value associated with their companionship. This information can be used for health care practice and policy aiming to increase well-being and life satisfaction of humans involving pets.”
The research follows a 2022 Pets at Home study that found more than one-quarter of people asked preferred to see their pet over their partner after a day at work.
Loneliness has become an increased concern nationally since the pandemic. However, studies have shown companionship with dogs can greatly reduce the effects. (VCU Center of Human-Animal Interaction)
Long known as man’s best friend, dogs are being embraced even more now as a means of combatting loneliness. In one study, frequent interactions with dogs, either through ownerships or through long-term interventions, have been associated with positive psychological outcomes across the human lifespan.
“They are skilled at socializing with humans, sensitive to our emotional states and gestures – they can communicate using complex cues and form complex attachment relationships with humans,” said Nancy Gee, Ph.D., C-AISS, professor of psychiatry and the director of Virginia Commonwealth University’s Center for Human-Animal Interaction and Bill Balaban Chair in Human-Animal Interaction. “Their attachment to their human owners mirrors that of human babies to their mothers.”
Gee, whose been studying the relationship between therapy dogs and humans for more than two decades, spoke with VCU Health News about how interactions with dogs can relieve loneliness and increase connection with others.
How can dogs combat human loneliness?
Dogs are thought to fulfill the four roles of an attachment figure: They are enjoyable, comforting, missed when absent and sought in times of distress. Adults and children alike confide in their pets because they relieve us from the worry of confidentiality, judgments, or meeting expectations.
When humans interact with a dog in a calm way – where they are stroking the dog and making eye contact, or even talking to the dog – we see that both species release oxytocin (bonding/feel-good hormone), and their cortisol (stress hormone) levels drop. Additionally, their blood pressure and muscle tension lower, and their mood elevates.
When you combine these responses together, it indicates the interactions are relaxing and enjoyable, which helps to reduce a person’s overall experience of loneliness.
Is there a difference from other animals?
Probably, yes, but there is not enough research on the subject to know for certain. We do know that dogs are unique in the animal kingdom. Through domestication and selection, dogs emerged from the grey wolf over a period of at least 35,000 years, and there is probably no other species on the planet as well-matched to human social needs as dogs.
What are common types of service dogs, and do they differ in addressing human loneliness?
There are three prominent classifications:
A Service Dog (also called an Assistance Dog) has one handler who has a medically recognized disability. The dog is specially trained to assist that one person (their handler) with some aspect of that disability. For example, some dogs are trained to alert a person with a seizure disorder that a seizure is about to occur. This will allow the person to take medicine, call for assistance and/or get into a safe place/position so that they are not harmed during the actual seizure. Service Dogs are covered under the American’s with Disabilities Act and are granted access to public facilities and housing that otherwise excludes pets.
An Emotional Support Animal can be any animal species and requires no specific training. An ESA supports one person with a mental disability by comforting that person in a way that reduces symptoms. ESA status is determined by a mental health professional who writes a letter attesting to the animal’s role and housing status if pets are otherwise not allowed. However, ESAs are not permitted any other public access.
A Therapy Dog is handled by one person, but the dog’s job is to interact with many people who may benefit from the interaction. Therapy dogs, like those in our center’s Dogs on Call program, are granted access to facilities and transportation based on the permission of the administration of the facility or transportation provider, and the requirements of the program in which the dogs participate.
Currently, there is very little research that compares the three classifications of animals and the effects of SDs or ESAs in reducing loneliness. However, Dogs on Call specifically, and other therapy dogs in general, have been found to significantly reduce loneliness in the people they visit.
Does human age matter in regard to loneliness and the benefits of interacting with dogs?
We have results back from our own randomized clinical trials showing that for older adults and for adults with mental illness, interacting with Dogs on Call dogs and handlers is effective at reducing loneliness.
We’ve just completed data collection on our pediatric study, so we don’t know the answer just yet, but we have reason to believe that across the human lifespan, interacting with a therapy dog can reduce loneliness. Additionally, one study showed that adolescents derive more satisfaction from, and engage in less conflict with, their pets than with their human siblings.
Source: VCU Health (Virginia Commonwealth University)
Researchers have uncovered new insights into the relationship between dogs and their owners. A study published in Scientific Reports has found that a dog’s heart rate variability adapts to its owner’s heart rate variability during interaction. This physiological “co-modulation” suggests that emotional states are shared between dogs and their owners, offering new understanding of the deep bond shared between the two species.
The relationship between dogs and humans has evolved over thousands of years, creating bonds akin to those between human caregivers and children. Researchers sought to explore whether these bonds are reflected in shared physiological states, such as heart rate variability, which indicates the balance between relaxation and arousal in the autonomic nervous system.
While prior studies examined behavioral and hormonal synchronization between dogs and humans, little was known about their physiological synchrony. By investigating this co-modulation, the researchers hoped to provide a clearer picture of the emotional and physiological connections that underpin the human-dog bond.
“I have always been fascinated by human-animal relationships and the close attachment bonds we can form with non-human animals, both from personal experience and from a scientific perspective. The dog-human relationship is particularly intriguing because the domestication of dogs has resulted in their remarkable sensitivity and ability to interpret human gestures and emotions,” said study author Aija Koskela, a researcher at the University of Helsinki and University of Jyväskylä
The study included 25 dog-owner pairs, focusing on cooperative dog breeds such as retrievers and herding dogs, which are known for their sensitivity to human cues. Dogs and their owners were recruited through social media and a cognitive testing company. Exclusion criteria for participants ensured that neither dogs nor owners had health conditions or behaviors that could interfere with the study’s measures. The owners, mostly women aged 40.8 years on average, lived with their dogs as indoor pets, and most of the dogs had been trained in dog sports like agility or obedience.
In a controlled environment, researchers attached heart rate monitors to both dogs and owners to measure heart rate variability. The pairs participated in six different tasks designed to mimic natural interactions, such as playing, stroking, training, and sniffing. These activities varied in physical intensity to distinguish the effects of emotional arousal from physical activity. Heart rate variability data was collected and analyzed alongside measures of physical activity using synchronized monitors.
Owners also completed questionnaires to assess their temperament and the quality of their relationship with their dogs. These tools allowed researchers to investigate how individual differences in personality and emotional closeness influenced the physiological responses of both dogs and owners.
The researchers found that dogs’ heart rate variability and activity levels were closely linked to their owners’. During periods of rest and calm interaction, such as before and after structured tasks, dogs and owners showed significant co-modulation in heart rate variability. This suggests a shared emotional arousal, likely influenced by the strong bond between the pairs. During more physically demanding activities like playing, the correlation between the pairs’ physical activity was stronger, but heart rate variability remained influenced by the shared emotional context.
“I believe this study confirms that the emotional mechanisms underlying dog-human interactions are similar to those in human attachment relationships, where emotions are shared and transmitted between attachment figures,” Koskela told PsyPost. “From a practical standpoint, I think it’s helpful for dog owners to remember that their emotions can greatly influence their dog’s behavior. We often focus so much on the dog’s actions that we overlook the emotional state driving them, or how our own feelings influence our dog.”
“For example, trying to calm a child while feeling upset yourself often doesn’t work—whereas calming yourself first helps the child feel secure. Likewise, dogs are highly attuned to human emotions. Being mindful of your emotional state can make challenging situations easier for both you and your dog.”
Interestingly, several factors shaped these physiological connections. For example, the dog’s heart rate variability was influenced by its size, the duration of its relationship with its owner, and the level of shared activities reported by the owner. Larger dogs and those living with their owners for a longer time tended to have lower heart rate variability, suggesting greater arousal or excitement during the tasks. Owners who scored higher on measures of negative affectivity (a tendency toward experiencing negative emotions) had dogs with higher heart rate variability.
Notably, the physiological synchronization between dogs and owners occurred only within the established pairs. When researchers randomly matched dogs with non-owners, this connection disappeared, confirming that the bond between a dog and its owner uniquely facilitates this co-modulation.
“Quite a few things surprised us,” Koskela said. “First, it was fascinating to observe that the emotional connection between dogs and their owners could be detected at physiological level over a relatively short time—the study lasted just an hour. Previously, emotional synchronization between dogs and owners has been studied at hormonal level over much longer time periods. Our study shows that this emotional connection can be detected in a very short time period and I think it’s amazing.”
“Second, it was surprising that the dog’s physiological state measured as heart rate variability explained the owner’s heart rate variability more than the other factors generally affecting the heart rate variability like age or weight. Lastly, I find it interesting that dogs belonging to owners with higher levels of negative affectivity, one of the four temperament traits, were more relaxed throughout the study. This could be because such owners often form very close emotional bonds with their dogs, offering also emotional support for the dog.”
The study highlights the physiological connection between dogs and their owners, suggesting that emotional and autonomic states are interlinked during interaction. However, there are some limitations to consider.
“The current study was limited by its relatively small sample size,” Koskela noted. “However, statistical analysis confirmed the reliability of the findings. Our sample also primarily consisted of female dog owners, which is noteworthy since an owner’s gender may influence both dog behavior and physiology. Furthermore, the sample likely reflects a bias toward active and committed dog owners, as most of the participants practiced dog sports and volunteered for the study in their free time without monetary compensation. Therefore, it is plausible that dog-owner dyads with more functional relationships than average are overrepresented in this study.”
Looking forward, Koskela said that she is “interested in studying emotional synchrony between dogs and their owners in greater detail, particularly on a moment-to-moment level and the factors that modulate it (e.g., personality traits or time lived together). More broadly, I aim to identify the factors associated with functional dog-owner relationships.”
“It’s noteworthy that we studied only cooperative breeds, which are known to be especially sensitive to human behavior and emotions. It would be fascinating to study more ancient breeds to determine whether their emotional states are similarly modulated by their owners.”
What if reducing your dementia risk could be as simple as owning a dog? Several observational studies published last year suggest pet ownership could meaningfully reduce your risk among proving other emotional and physical benefits. Sixty-six percent of households in the United States own a pet, with dogs being the most popular companion. Pets can bring us joy, help alleviate stress, offer companionship, and even help us lead a more active lifestyle.
Researchers have now found an added benefit of being a pet owner — pets could stave off brain aging in humans. People who own pets are less lonely — a major risk factor for dementia. Now, scientists are interested in seeing whether people who owned cats or dogs had a lower risk of cognitive decline or dementia.
Owning a dog or cat could meaningfully reduce your risk of developing dementia, several observational studies published last year found, especially if you’re over the age of 50.
What does the science say about dementia, dogs and cats?
In 2023, Japanese researchers published a study that looked at 11,194 older adults to see whether owning dogs or cats provided a protective effect against dementia.
Compared to those without pets, dog owners were 40 percent less likely to develop dementia over a four year period. Additionally, dog owners who were social or exercised regularly experienced an extra 20 percent decrease in dementia risk. The study didn’t find evidence that owning cats had a similar effect.
Chinese researchers published a similar study last year, also looking at the link between pet ownership and cognitive decline. The study’s participants received psychological tests to assess their memory, verbal fluency, and thinking eight years apart. The cohort was composed of 7,495 adults over the age of 50 living in the UK.
Among individuals who were living alone, owning a cat or dog was associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline. However, older adults living with other people saw no significant benefit, which suggests that companionship from dogs or cats could offset some of the negative effects of living alone.
This field of research is still very new, and for people who have already developed Alzheimer’s or dementia, there isn’t a lot of research yet on how interactions with pets or trained therapy animals affect further cognitive decline.
Despite the lack of concrete research on cognitive decline, many long-term care facilities have also started implementing animal-assisted therapy for their residents facilitated by certified handlers and trained dogs. Dogs can still improve their quality of life and have been shown to offer stress-reducing benefits. Spending time with a furry friend could ease agitation, aggression, depression, and even help residents cope with sundowning, emotional and behavioral issues that worsen as daytime fades.
While more research is needed to determine whether adopting pets can have a protective effect on the brains of isolated older adults, pet ownership can offer many benefits to your emotional and physical health.
How many of us would love to write a book about our dogs, but lack the skill, time, resources or dedication to do so? Douglas Green has not only written about his dog, Shirelle, but has introduced a second edition of his book that was originally published in 2015.
The Teachings of Shirelle (Life Lessons from a Divine Knucklehead) is a memoir of a special dog.
The book is a series of chapters, all constituted of short passages, some only a paragraph in length and others 1-2 pages. It is written in the style of thoughts and, if you’re anything like me, you don’t think in lengthy chapters and so the pace is consistent with how I live my life.
It’s as if thoughts have popped into Douglas’ head as he remembers his life with Shirelle and he had to write quickly to capture the moment – the wisdom she shared in that moment.
As a bonus, the writing style makes this book uncomplicated – you can easily bookmark your place on your commute to work, or whenever you are too tired to keep reading.
“She wasn’t the smartest dog who ever lived, says Green in his Introduction. “She was fast and strong but not an award winner. She was beautiful but not a model for calendars. She was bright, except when she was an uncontrollable idiot.”
How many of us can relate?
As their lives together extend into years, Green develops a deep appreciation for Shirelle’s approach to life; a mirror through which he channels deeper wisdom. Shirelle is there through various relationships with women, and through career highlights such as directing a stage play called Sylvia which stars a dog as a central character that brings a husband and wife together and saves their marriage (you’ll have to read the book for more info on the play).
The worst part of the book is, understandably, the ending when Shirelle loses her battle with hemangiosarcoma and Green succumbs to that intense grief we feel when we lose a loved pet. But, then again, dog people know that our dogs lives are short. The ending isn’t a surprise, but inevitable when the main character is a dog.
Add to your reading list now and perhaps the Christmas shopping list for the dog lover in your life. And I will close with a passage from Green’s last Christmas card which featured Shirelle:
Love Thoughtlessly.
Relish the day.
If you’re not in awe,
You’re just not paying attention.
The publicist for the book, MindBuck Media, kindly sent me an advance review copy to enable me to read the book which went on sale on 9 July 2024. The views expressed in this review are entirely my own.
Kathleen Crisley, Fear-Free certified professional and specialist in dog massage, rehabilitation and canine fitness, The Balanced Dog, Christchurch, New Zealand.
DoggyMom.com 