National Dog Day: How Dogs Benefit Mental Health

Today is national dog day. I was at a dog rescue event last weekend with Crafts 4 Rescues  and heard a lot of commentary about how dogs are benefiting their owners mental health.  Today I decided to dig around the internet and find some more information on the topic. As you know if you’ve been around my blog long, I want to bring awareness to mental health issues and break the stigma that a mental health diagnosis holds for so many. “But there is real science behind the benefits of owning pets. “ Did you know that  as well as promoting bonding,  eye contact with your dog can release a hormone that makes you feel happy?

Before I go on let me introduce you to our 3 resident rescued canines

Dodger is a 13 year old fox hound terrier mix, Mya is a 8 year old beagle, cattle dog mix. Charlie is a 9 month old Great Pyr with a trace of Rottie.               

“Pets can be especially helpful as we grow older. In a survey on healthy aging, adults over 50 reported these top 3 benefits:…” A qucick article on   5 ways owning pets helps with stress

This psychology today article shows that dogs not only have a mental benefit to your health but physical benefits as well. Your dog will enjoy being active with you on walks or playing fetch. Then snuggling with you when it is rest time. Just petting an animal alone is said to have benefits for mental health. 

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Prefer Videos instead of reading?  Here are a few videos supporting dogs benefiting mental health humans.:

This is the set we  have bought from Petals & Tails for our dogs and I can’t say enough about how good it smells.

Dogs~ ” Man’s best friend” can benefit our health according to Medical News Today.

I rounded up a few more links for your reading

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/mar/17/dogs-have-a-magic-effect-the-power-of-pets-on-our-mental-health

https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/how-dogs-can-benefit-your-mental-health

5 Mental Health Benefits Of Dogs, According To Science