
The benefits of pets & why we love our pooches
We love to celebrate how wonderful our pooches are every day, but especially over the last year. For those who live alone or have been working from home, it’s been a wonderful time to truly cherish our amazing four-legged pals and appreciate the many ways they bring joy to our lives.
Dogs are not only able to understand many of the words we use but are even able to interpret our tone of voice and body language. From this, our loyal pooches will try to gauge our emotional states making them the perfect companion always ready to provide unconditional love and affection when we need it most.
How pets positively impact our health
Dogs can benefit our mental health in many ways and have been proven to reduce anxiety and depression.
Some of the way that dogs can positively impact our mental health are:
Keeping fit and healthy:
Getting out of the house to go for regular walks helps to improve cardiovascular fitness. You can also incorporate hikes or runs with your pooch into your daily routine to mix up it up and to ensure that you and your pooch alike are getting the right amount of exercise.
Reduced anxiety:
Studies have shown that pet owners are less likely to suffer from depression than those without pets. Some of the reasons for this could include the fact that playing with your dog or stroking your dog can increase levels of serotonin and dopamine which calm and relax us. Having a pooch can certainly help us to enjoy each day and cherish the special moments with our canine companions.
Reduced depression and loneliness:
Our pooches are a great source of company and are always happy to spend their time with us.
After a long, tiring day at work, there is no greater joy than opening the door to our big bundles of love with their wagging tails waiting at the door. Guaranteed to put you in a good mood!
Pooches also love to show their affection all day long! Whether that’s a morning snuggle in bed or slobbery pup kisses throughout the day, they’re always there to show you some pooch love.
Adding structure to our daily routines:
No matter how you are feeling, our four-legged friends need to stick to their exercise and feeding routine which can lead to us having a more consistent routine in our own lives too.
What are therapy dogs and how can they boost your health?
Therapy dogs are pets that improve your health by giving emotional support. Therapy dogs can be trained to give support to yourself and/or to others.
Therapy dogs can visit a wide range of places in order to comfort people. These places can include retirement homes, schools and hospitals.
These wonderful pooches are trained to be gentle and friendly in order to best comfort those who need it.
Service dogs are a little different to therapy dogs in that they are trained to assist an individual with a disability. A great example of this is of course, guide dogs.
Some mental health challenges such as depression, ADHD and PTSD among many others, have been known to respond well to therapy dogs. Patients can massively benefit from interactions with a therapy dog and studies have shown that these interactions can increase the mood-boosting hormone oxytocin and decrease the stress hormone cortisol.
How to train your therapy dog
Therapy dogs can be any size and breed of dog as long as they are in suitable health and have the correct temperament for all dog therapy activities.
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