People living with pet dogs show stable blood pressures

An 8th grader boy surnamed A (living in Paju City, Gyeonggi Province) had received psychotherapy for six months to treat emotional instability in 2010 when he was an elementary student in fifth grade. Taking a piece of advice from a psychotherapist, his family adopted a Maltese dog and has been raising the dog for over four years. The boy has now overcome the emotional insecurity and enjoys joyful and happy school life, being popular among his peers.

What would be benefits of keeping a dog? In the U.K., statistics say more than 50 percent of the households keep a pet. In Korea, attentions are growing to having pets, especially dogs. Many scientific studies have proven that people raising dogs rarely visit doctors for health issues. It is essential to walk a dog on a regular basis, those living with pet dogs show drastically low rate of cardiovascular diseases.

Moreover, keeping a dog gives emotional stability to a person. In a study, researchers measured children’s blood pressures and heartbeats while they were reading books out loud and taking a break. And the scientists compared the results when the kids were around with a familiar dog to when they were not. The study shows that blood pressure dropped significantly when children were with a dog. When a person feels upset or uneasy, the body shows "flee or fight response." This mechanism activates sympathetic nerve to increase blood pressure, heartbeats and breathing rates, also changing secretion of hormones. That means that if a person is with a familiar animal, the person will be under less pressure or stress.

Dogs can help children grow social skills and emotional expressions. Dogs show unconditional love to people. Especially when a child gets discouraged or loses favor of parents, or when he or she has a problem in school, the role of a dog comes into play. When children feel that they cannot communicate with others, they talk their problems to pets. A dog is regarded as a family member, facilitating social interactions in a family. When a child is left home alone as both parents are at work, a dog can give sense of security to the child.

American child psychologist Boris Levinson founded an animal-assisted therapy as he happened to see that emotionally injured children responded in favor to his pet dog. In his study, a child who was extremely introvert, anti-social and quiet changed after spending some time in playing with a dog. A pet gave social contacts, which was not threatening to the child, and through such interactions, the kid started expressing worries and concerns. A pet dog became a neutral medium between the child and the world.

Keeping a pet is also beneficial to treat seniors who experience sense of loss. Losing a job or a spouse puts the elderly under great stress, which may cause depression. Research on impact of bereavement to the aged shows that seniors keeping pets had lower levels of depression compared to others without pets.

Lee Tae-yeong, chief veterinarian of Banditbul veterinary clinic, said, “Veterinarians, who usually focus on treatment, do not know much about social relations between people and animals. However, people who bring their pet dogs to our animal hospital worry about their pets, as if one of the family members is sick. It is probably because they think the dog is their own family.”