New studies confirm dogs are more awesome than we thought: Wednesday Wag

As if we didn’t have enough reasons to be obsessed with our canine family members, science went ahead and found more evidence that dogs are keeping us healthy and happy. This is your Wednesday Wag.

Full disclosure: Years ago, as a member of my high school’s competitive speech team, I once devoted an entire season to trying to convince judges of the myriad benefits of dog ownership. I don’t remember much about what all I included in my carefully-structured persuasive piece, but I know it was peppered with stats about all the ways our furry friends can boost our mental, physical, and emotional health. (The judges also really dug all my pawsome dog puns. Dug? Pawsome? Get it?)

In the decade since, science has fetched (sorry, not sorry) even more proof that dogs are good for our health, including two new studies Time reported on this week. One study, published last month in BMC Public Health, showed that older dog owners were more active than their non-dog-owning peers and took about 2,760 more steps per day.

Another study, this one out in the latest Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, suggests that during colder months, dog owners were far more likely to stay active. In fact, those with a pup were more active on the gloomiest of days than non-dog-parents were when it was beautiful out. Dog owners, the research found, were inactive for an average of 632 minutes a day. For non-dog owners? That number went up to 661 minutes.

From a release quoting project lead Andy Jones Time included in their story:

"“Physical activity interventions typically try and support people to be active by focussing on the benefits to themselves, but dog walking is also driven by the needs of the animal,” Jones said in the release. “Being driven by something other than our own needs might be a really potent motivator and we need to find ways of tapping into it when designing exercise interventions in the future.”"

I haven’t been keeping official track, but I can guarantee I’ve spent a lot less time on the couch since I rescued my Australian shepherd mix Pam Beesly three years ago than I did before she joined the family. And all those stats I included in my speech team speech have been confirmed again and again. Having a dog really does make me more social (I wouldn’t know any of my neighbors if it weren’t for our dogs sniffing each other good morning every day). It calms me down when I’m stressed. It cheers me up when I’m down.

Then there are dozens of other ways dogs can be health-boosting for specific segments of the population. They can help prevent allergies. They can detect illnesses and oncoming seizures. They can help victims of domestic violence and other trauma heal.

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I’m certainly biased but maybe the more studies that come out highlighting dogs’ general awesomeness, the more people will want to add a dog to their families. And if not, I can try to find that high school speech and start convincing them.