All fur the best
long in moderate exercise each week than those without. Dog owners are also more likely to socialise with neighbours and strangers while walking their dog.
Research has shown that dog and cat owners tend to make fewer visits to the doctor in the six months following stressful life events. They may adjust better after bereavement.
They are less likely to be on medication for cardiac problems. Following a diagnosis of heart disease, those with dogs and cats are somewhat less prone to heart attack and have lower mortality rates following hospitalisation.
Those with pets may tend to make more healthy choices, such as choosing not to smoke.
Having a family pet can help children further develop compassion and add to their sense of safety in the home. Residents in nursing homes have shown improved mental functioning and reduced agitation after repeated visits from assistance dogs.
The potential healing role of pets was recognised by Florence Nightingale who believed that wounded soldiers recovered better if they had a pet bird in the room. She often attended patients with her little pet owl, Athena, and believed that Athena’s antics provided patients with distraction and pain relief.
Later in his career, Sigmund Freud often saw patients with his pet chow, Jofi, in his consulting room. He initially preferred to have Jofi with him for his own comfort, but noticed that his patients seemed more ready to talk about painful emotions with a dog present. Jofi proved to be an unexpec- tedly helpful therapy assistant in other ways, helping reveal a patient’s relative calm or anxiety by choosing to lie closer to the patient or further away.
Freud’s preference to have his canine companion in sessions was a forerunner to animal assisted therapy pioneered by the psychologist, Dr Boris Levinson, in the early 1960s. He found that the presence of a dog in therapy sessions with children helped them open up about their worries and fears.
There is now so much evidence for the potential health benefits of having a pet that the US National Institutes of Health have suggested that future studies should consider the presence or absence of a pet in the home, and the nature of the relationship with the owner, as a potentially significant variable that should be considered in all future health research.
Since becoming further sensitised to this issue, I have been sur- prised by the potential wealth of information that can arise from asking clients about their pets and learning more about how they interact with them.
When one client explained how she had only recently been able to be more actively involved in the care of her family pets, it became clear that inquiring about a person’s interaction with their pets could be a useful indicator of their ongoing level of functioning.
How people relate to pets in a family setting can provide a window into their relationship and engagement with other family members.
Pets can be an important part of our connection with others. Chris Mackey is the principal psychologist at Chris Mackey and Associates and a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society