It’s no doubt pets have a huge influence on our lives – whether it’s the positive impact they have on our mental health or the bite marks they’ve left on the furniture, we love them regardless!
All the research that’s gone into human mental health over recent years has shown how significantly pets can benefit people – including all the great reasons why we should utilise them in therapies. The more we grow to love and value our pets, the more research gets invested into them and now we have a comprehensive understanding of intrinsic behaviours in pets to help care for them.
The proof is undeniable that pets can improve our mental health. Sometimes all a pet has to do is walk by to spark a smile. However, it’s a symbiotic relationship and often not acknowledged enough just how much of an impact humans can have on pets’ mental health.
We know that our actions, training and daily routine can majorly impact our pet’s mental health – a simple example is how severe the repercussions of punishment training can be. Because our pets become so bonded to us and depend on us, our mood, behaviour and body language often impacts theirs. This is referred to as ‘synchronised emotions’, where our pets sense our emotions and mirror them. They’re able to do this by picking up on a change in scent coming from body odour, hormone changes, or physical attributes like; increased heart rate, heavy breathing, tone of voice or yawning. They do this because they trust us. If they sense we’re stressed, they assume there’s something to be stressed about. Or, if we’re calm, they’ll feel at ease in their environment. This isn’t always the case though. Some cats and dogs are more confident or less reliant and therefore our emotions won’t have such a significant impact.
Our impact can go beyond synchronised emotions, because pets mirror us often without understanding the root of the emotion. A consistent sad, stressful or overwhelming environment can cause long-lasting issues like anxiety, depression and even OCD in pets. With that said, however, environment and people are not the only factors that can cause mental health issues in pets.
How our actions can impact a pet
As their carers, it’s our responsibility to manage our pet’s mental health (or those in our care). Whilst our mood and emotions have a huge impact, our actions and treatment of animals can also have a huge impact. Creating a sense of fear in our pets can be detrimental to their mental health and dangerous. Fear can create unpredictable, dangerous and undesirable behaviour such as biting, stress urination and reactivity. This is why it’s crucial to only use positive training techniques and manage our emotions to ensure we don’t take out anger, stress or emotions on our pets.
Pets have developed well past the point of simply providing companionship for humans. They’re capable of providing therapy, assistance, medical assistance, security and much more. It’s hard to ignore the impact when you see how well equine therapy works for inmates, the sniffer dogs at airports, feline therapy or guide dogs. Various studies have proven pets’ ability to improve our mental health. Johns Hopkins Medicine speaks to one study where 84% of patients with PTSD paired with a service dog reported a significant reduction in symptoms and 40% were able to decrease their medications.
The relationship between people and pets is good for our health!
How pets have such a significant impact is no mystery. It’s primarily linked to oxytocin, the hormone known for the feelings of love and trust. Many studies over the years have revealed that something as simple as looking into a pet’s eyes or petting them can increase the release of oxytocin. And, it goes both ways, interacting with humans can have the same hormonal impact for pets. Similarly, interacting with a pet can reduce cortisol levels, the stress hormone. The benefits of lower cortisol levels can also lead to improvements in physical health, such as lower blood pressure and increased cardiovascular health. The long-term impacts of lower cortisol levels and increased oxytocin are what help combat conditions such as; anxiety and/or depression, or manage symptoms for disorders like PTSD and OCD.
The medical world has taken advantage of this knowledge and implemented it in the following ways: resident therapy dogs, visiting therapy pets, and out-patient programs at hospitals. Organisations like Delta Therapy Dogs are instrumental in aiding these opportunities and making them accessible to as many people as possible.
Mental health extends beyond labelled issues; social skills, confidence, management of emotions and much more can benefit from pets. A great example is therapy or assistance pets sitting with children while they read, helping them build confidence and feel comfortable reading out loud. Some progressive shelters have even implemented reading programs where children come and read to the pets, helping the children build confidence while providing enrichment time for the pets. Prisons all over the world have pet rehabilitation programs. Some programs help the inmates learn skills and benefit from spending time with pets, while others rehabilitate them both – pairing rescue or retired animals like dogs and horses with inmates.
Understanding how people impact pets’ mental health, and vice versa
Understanding this symbiotic relationship is key to managing peoples’ and pets’ mental health. Understanding the impact one another can have means your actions and emotions should be managed accordingly.
