Restorative Contribution of Dogs
This is National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week. In honor of the shelter dog we lost this year, Buddy, this newsletter is longer because it is an entire section from my book. While dogs have been studied more, cats likely make similar contributions to their owners, and along with my two dogs, I also have a shelter cat, Layla. Busy readers can jump to the bulleted list at the bottom for the short story.
The benefits of interactions between humans and animals have captured the interest of researchers for years. Animal-assisted interventions involve the use of animals to help people in settings such as schools, libraries, hospitals, assisted living facilities, courts, prisons, offices, and trauma scenes.
Interaction with dogs can reduce stress.
Research shows that interacting with therapy dogs reduces stress hormones, lowers heart rate and blood pressure, and causes the release of the bonding neurotransmitter oxytocin, assisting in the downregulation of the fight-or-flight stress response system.
The presence of a dog while college students took the Trier Social Stress test reduced heart rate and stress hormone levels. The company of a pet reduced the stress response during mental math testing more effectively than the presence of a spouse or friend.
Supporting the mental health of college students is important to learning, academic success, and intellectual and personal development. Stress can erode resilience and therapy dog visits are a low-cost stress reduction intervention.
Interacting with dogs can improve negative mood and enhance happiness.
Although therapy dogs have been coming to college campuses for many years as one way to support student mental health, researchers wanted to explore the impact on student well-being of being able to touch a therapy dog versus only seeing a therapy dog with no contact.
Researchers randomly assigned 284 self-selected Canadian undergraduate students (77% female, 22% male, 2% non-binary) to one of three groups: 1) a touch therapy dog intervention; 2) a no-touch therapy dog intervention; or 3) a handler-only with no therapy dog group. Data was collected on participant perception of well-being (happiness, life satisfaction, and positive affect and ill-being (stress, loneliness, and negative affect).
Participants in all 3 conditions experienced an improvement on some well-being measures, but only those students who experienced direct contact with the therapy dogs reported significant improvements on all well-being measures. The greatest benefits of direct contact with a therapy dog were improvements in happiness, stress, loneliness, and negative emotions.
Interactions with dogs can enhance cognitive capacity.
A study examined the impact of interacting with therapy dogs on the executive skills of 309 college students. Executive function (EF) describes three brain functions: working memory, mental flexibility, and inhibitory control. EF empowers cognitive skills that are necessary for success in school and work including motivation, concentration, planning, prioritizing, emotion regulation, and the capacity to understand different points of view.
Students were randomly assigned to the therapy dog interaction group or the stress management instruction group. The results showed that at-risk students who interacted with therapy dogs demonstrated greater EF and metacognitive skills (understanding your own thinking) than the stress management content students, and that these dog interaction benefits were still present 6 weeks later.
Interacting with therapy dogs outperformed stress management instruction. The researchers believe that one explanation for the strong and enduring impact on cognitive skills is due to the downregulation of the stress response in these students after therapy dog interactions.
Interacting with dogs can increase human brain activation.
Researchers investigated the impact of different forms of interaction with a dog on the prefrontal cortex of healthy study participants. The prefrontal cortex is involved in social cognitive processing and understanding yourself and others.
The study was conducted at the University of Basel in Switzerland. The researchers used functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure brain activity of 19 adults (9 women, average age 32 years) with no dog phobias or allergies, during 3 interactions with a dog and 3 interactions with a plush lion stuffed with a hot water bottle. The therapy dogs, who all worked in hospital settings and were with their handlers, were a female Jack Russel (6 years), a female Golden Retriever (4 years), and a female Goldendoodle (4 years). The fNIRS technology uses 2 sensors placed on the participant’s forehead, which allows researchers to mimic a clinic setting.
Researchers measured oxygen saturation in the prefrontal cortex of participants during five 2-minute phases, with short breaks in between phases, while they sat on a couch and:
1. Looked at a white wall and relaxed (Neutral phase 1)
2. Watched a dog or a plush from a distance (Watching)
3. Had a dog lying next to them or the plush placed on their thigh (Feeling)
4. Pet the dog or the plush (Petting)
5. Looked at a white wall and relaxed (Neutral phase 2).
Researchers analyzed data from 53 dog conditions and 55 plush animal conditions. They found:
Prefrontal activity in the brain increased with greater intensity of contact with both the dog and the plush.
Interaction with the dog resulted in significantly greater brain activation than interaction with the plush.
Each phase of interaction with the dog, which increasingly engaged more senses from Watching to Feeling to Petting, led to an increase in brain activation.
The Petting condition resulted in the highest level of brain activation.
During the Neutral phase 2, after the dog interaction phases, the brain activation did not calm to the level of the Neutral phase 1.
The prefrontal cortex is involved in executive functions, such as attention, working memory, and problem-solving, as well as social and emotional processing. Prior research has shown that interactions with animals are highly emotionally relevant for a majority of people. Emotional salience, coupled with the gradual developing of a relationship with the therapy dog, may help to explain the greater brain activation with dog contact in this study. This research indicates that interacting with therapy dogs may promote social attention, motivation, and emotional arousal in people, which could improve performance on learning and therapeutic goals.
Interacting with dogs:
Reduces stress hormones;
Lowers heart rate and blood pressure;
Increases the bonding and attachment neurotransmitter oxytocin;
Improves stress, happiness, loneliness, and negative emotions;
Enhances executive function, responsible for motivation, concentration, planning, prioritizing, emotion regulation, and the capacity to understand different points of view;
Improves metacognition, the ability to understand your own thinking; and
Increases brain activation in the prefrontal cortex, dedicated to executive functions, such as attention, working memory, and problem-solving, as well as social and emotional processing.
Takeaway: If you are a dog owner, you might want to add your dog to the list of things you are grateful for. Go hug your dog and fire up your brain.
Well-being is a journey, not a quick fix.
The Legal Brain: A Lawyer’s Guide to Well-being and Better Job Performance is available on Amazon.
Sources
NATIONAL ANIMAL SHELTER APPRECIATION WEEK - November 3-9, 2024 - National Today
Changwon Son, et al., Effects of COVID-19 on College Students’ Mental Health in the United States: Interview Survey Study, J. Med. Internet Res., Sept. 3, 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7473764/; Nancy R. Gee, Aubrey H. Fine, and Peggy McCardle, How Animals Help Students Learn: Research and Practice for Educators and Mental-Health Professionals 48, 102, and 107 (2017); Patricia Pendry, Alexa M. Carr, Jaymie L. Vandagriff, and Nancy R.j Gee, Incorporating Human–Animal Interaction Into Academic Stress Management Programs: Effects on Typical and At-Risk College Students’ Executive Function, American Educational Research Association (AERA) Open, May 11, 2021, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/23328584211011612; Binfet, J.T., Green, F.L.L., and Draper, Z.A., The Importance of Client-Canine Impact in Canine-Assisted Interventions: A Randomized Controlled Trial, 35 Anthrozoӧs 1-22, July 6, 2021, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08927936.2021.1944558?journalCode=rfan20; Changwon Son, et al., Effects of COVID-19 on College Students’ Mental Health in the United States: Interview Survey Study, J. Med. Internet Res., Sept. 3, 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7473764/; Nancy R. Gee, Aubrey H. Fine, And Peggy Mccardle, How Animals Help Students Learn: Research And Practice For Educators And Mental-Health Professionals 48, 102, and 107 (2017); Rahel Marti, et al., Effects of Contact with a Dog on Prefrontal Brain Activity: A Controlled Trial, PLOS One, Oct 5, 2022, Effects of contact with a dog on prefrontal brain activity: A controlled trial | PLOS ONE.
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