A New Research Proves Cuddling A Dog Is Good For Health

Vancouver, Canada:  A new research from the University of British Columbia Okanagan has studied the effects of dog therapy for students. Their research shows that physical contact with dogs is key to human well-being. The type of contact includes cuddling a dog, giving tummy rubs behind the ear, and head scratches.

The research was conducted via the school’s education program and UBCO’s dog therapy program for students. It was published in the Anthrozoös journal.

In this study, the team of researchers assessed the well-being of 284 undergraduate students. They were given a survey before and after a visit with a dog via UBCO’s Building Academic Retention through the k-9s program.

The lead author and UBC associate professor John-Tyler Binfet says,

“There have been several studies that have found canine-assisted interventions significantly improve participants’ well-being, but there has been little research into what interactions provide the greatest benefits. We knew that spending time with therapy dogs is beneficial, but we didn’t know why.”

A monitoring group was set up to analyze the impact of a dog’s handler, which means some students only met with the handler for a support session while others got to touch and cuddle the dogs. In addition, some students were only allowed to watch the dogs play and not interact with them.

Before the session began, all the participants were surveyed on their well-being and feelings. The researchers recorded their self-perceptions, positive and negative emotions, social connectivity, happiness, stress, loneliness, and many more parameters.

The results were amazing to notice for the participants who got to touch the dogs. They showed the most improvements as compared to other participants.

UBCO news statement on the study says,

“Participants across all conditions experienced increased well-being on several of the measures, with more benefit when a dog was present, (and) with the most benefit coming from physical contact with the dog. Notably, the touch contact with a therapy dog group was the only one that saw a significant enhancement across all measures.

The results of this research could provide some imperative guidance for educators and school administrators to help students adjust to the return to the school this fall.

Source: CTV News