Dogs Are Good For You

Two British guys named Mugford and Comisky performed an experiment back in 1974. They divided up a group of elderly patients and gave half of them their own bird. The other half got their own plant. I’ll leave it to you to decide which one got the better end of the deal.

Looking at the results, it’s pretty hard not to side with the bird people. Those with pets now had a new subject of conversation to share with visitors. Consequently, they became more engaged in discussions about Polly wanting a cracker instead of their aches and pains. They also demonstrated a significant increase of visitors to their nursing facilities, because they were more anxious to engage with other people as a result. Plants, apparently, can brighten up a room, but they don’t make for very good company.

Similar studies with dogs tell an even more powerful story. (that makes sense to me - nobody has ever accused a bird of being Man’s Best Friend, even if their vocabulary exceeds that of the average dachshund.)

According to a 1990 study, dog owners were far less likely to have minor illnesses then cat owners or those with no pets at all. They showed marked improvement in psychological well-being, in confidence and security, and were far less concerned about being victims of crime.

They also exercised more as a result of walking the dog on a regular basis. The study came to the conclusion that “pet ownership can have a positive impact on human health and behaviour, and that in some cases these effects are relatively long lasting.”

More recent studies confirm what we already knew – dogs are good for you. They help you stay strong physically; they provide unconditional emotional support, and they can even provide a sense of purpose to those who think that life has passed them by.

So, if you’re feeling down, you can spend an awful lot of money and pay some psychiatric guy to talk to you for hundreds of dollars an hour about your childhood, or you can run around the block with your dog.

Psychiatrists slobber less, but dogs have the advantage everywhere else.