Loneliness, they tell me, has become a serious health concern — more people are staying single, and the pandemic has been particularly hard on those living alone.
A group at the University of Toledo has shown how emotional support animals benefit owners with chronic mental illness as well as lesser emotional problems.
Other studies show how a workout with your dog amplifies the mood-boosting effect of exercise: people with dogs are four times more likely to get recommended levels of aerobic exercise every week.
I passed this on to The Boss because he grizzles about the drizzle on those wild winter mornings when the rain comes in at eye-level with a brisk southerly behind it — in other words, water off a dog’s back. Now I can tell him it’s for his own good.
One study showed how, after 10 months of dog ownership, people slept better; another concluded that having a pet meant people were less likely to go to the doctor.
It was disappointing to hear a further finding that these positive effects could be gained equally from having a cat or some other kind of pet.
Mind you, given The Boss pats me on the head most days and heads off to work, he’s not taking advantage of all the health benefits I have to offer anyway.
I have proof I could lower his stress levels: snuggling up with me would give him a shot of feel-good hormones and reduce his stress hormone, cortisol. I’d reduce his risk of dying by 31 per cent, according to another study, notwithstanding a flea or two. Or my “piquant breath”, as he calls it.
He’s even missing out at home. He spent most of the weekend setting up netting to stop the silvereyes from eating his strawberries, although it put him in such a bad mood I didn’t want to be near him anyway.
Then I remembered the study saying that people with dogs did better in times of crisis — and this was one of them. He needed me.
What brought him unstuck was catching a couple of the little birds inside the netting and, as he pounced, they executed a neat exit through the netting, shaking their wings with all the concern of departing hitmen.
“Get in the car,” he snapped. It was off to Bunnings to find a finer roll of bird netting. He was muttering threats all the way.
It was hardly a two-way process, with me crying out for a modest dose of oxytocin — the hormone that fills dogs with feelings of love and trust. Dogs light up at the scent of their favourite human, but he wouldn’t see that.
I reckon he’d be just as well off with a guinea pig. Or a goldfish. Woof!
