Petting your pooch can make you feel good.
Now that may sound obvious, but a new study just confirmed how cuddling with your four-legged friend can boost your health.
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To come to the shocking conclusion, researchers at the University of British Columbia Okanagan looked at 284 undergraduate students before and after interacting with a service dog, reported People.
"There have been a number of studies that have found canine-assisted interventions significantly improve participants' wellbeing, but there has been little research into what interactions provide the greatest benefits," the study's lead author Dr. John-Tyler Binfet said in a statement. "We know that spending time with therapy dogs is beneficial, but we didn't know why."
The students were broken into 3 groups which had different levels of interaction with the dogs. One group was allowed to touch the pups, while another interacted without touch. The third group was only exposed to the dog’s handler but no animal was present.
Before and after the interactions, participants were asked to measure their self-perceptions on things like social connectedness, happiness, loneliness, stress, homesickness, and campus life.
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The results appeared to corroborate what many pet owners already knew.
"Results indicate that participants across all conditions experienced enhanced wellbeing on several measures; however, only those in the direct contact condition reported significant improvements on all measures of wellbeing," the study said.
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"Additionally, direct interactions with therapy dogs through touch elicited greater wellbeing benefits than did no touch/indirect interactions or interactions with only a dog handler."
So play with your dog as much as possible, because your life, or at the least your mood, depends on it.
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