One of the most favorite times of my day is when I get to see other students walking to class with service dogs. I mean really, how can you look at this face and not become instantly happier? 
I have always been intrigued as to how dogs can make us feel so much better. Click here to learn more on how you can bring one of these guys into your life!
As I said in my initial blog post, when I was in high school I did an internship/class at the local hospital. Although I can not disclose specific information, a patient was in the ER with her dog. At first I was confused because the patient did not seem to have sort of physical handicap so why would a service dog be with her? My instructor told me that service dogs can be placed in homes of people who also suffer from mental disease such as depression or anxiety. I have grown up with dogs always in my household. My whole family loves golden retrievers and my heart swells just thinking about my dog Lucy. I feel so much empathy and compassion toward her, and even though we can’t talk to each other, I feel as if I know her like I know a person. Ever since I moved into my new apartment, Lucy gets so excited to see me when I come home and it brightens my whole day, erasing any bad things that had happened.
In a scientific manner, dogs have many health benefits. As I’m sure many of you with dogs at home have experienced, dogs make you happier in general. This is because of the rise in oxytocin levels in your brain when you see or touch your dog. This hormone is basically a happy hormone because it causes you to feel good the higher your levels are. So, therefore; the more interaction with your dog, the happier you become! This reminded me of the worm studies in kids because they both have a correlation. The more time spend with your dog, the more oxytocin is released, the happier you are. Not only can they help you feel happier just by looking at them or playing with them, they also encourage a healthy lifestyle without even knowing. Having a dog can increase your likelihood of exercising because you know your dog needs it, so going along with them benefits you both. Dogs can also help you find meaning in your life by making you happy to have a connection with them. They also provide constant companionship and in doing this, reduce your stress. Just petting your dog lowers blood pressure which in return, can lower your stress levels. It is also reported that dogs have a much better sense of smell than we do. In an amazing case, Marine, a black lab, detected cancer just by using smell. This amazed me. The more I read about how helpful our dogs our to our lives, the more I began to understand that I found most of this to be true to my relationship with Lucy.
Dogs are no doubt amazing creatures. From a personal standpoint, Lucy not only makes me happy but she has taught me empathy. How on earth could she have done this without talking to me? I don’t entirely know the answer to that but I know that if I am feeling down, she knows because she brings me one of her toys because she knows it makes her happy, so she thinks it will make me happy too. Of course, this is all just speculation, but it is something I firmly believe in.
Dogs make the world happier. Dogs make humans happier. Dogs make other dogs happier. Dogs make everything happier. 🙂
Photo: https://3blmedia.com/News/Puppy-Raisers-Needed-Susquehanna-Service-Dogs
Hi Abigail!
I love this post and could not agree with it more! I too grew up with dogs constantly around me. For as long as I can remember, my family has had a labrador retriever, one of the most friendly and loving dogs I have ever met, and I know that this has had an impact on my life. My chocolate lab, Zoey, is my best friend, and I strongly believe that she is a huge source of happiness in my house! Since moving into college, I miss my puppy so much!! So many points in this article reminded me of her. Dogs do seem to have a very good sense of our moods and always know how to brighten our days! I always thought there must be a correlation between owning a dog and happiness but never knew there were scientific studies to prove it!
I recently came across an article on 13 reasons why a dog makes life better and think it is really interesting!! Not only can dogs make you happier and healthier, but this article shows that it can also improve your social life! It puts a whole new twist on things. Not only can dogs help you overcome loneliness, they can also help you make new friends to help you better your life too!
Hope you get to go home and visit Lucy soon! I know I can’t wait to get home to visit my dog!!
I thoroughly support your post. I myself was thinking about my dog, Abby, just now as I’m doing my best to complete my homework. It always seems to help. I’m not sure how to set a link in a comment but the following article talks of seven healthy benefits to owning a dog- http://www.livescience.com/35463-seven-surprising-health-benefits-dog-ownership-110209.html-. I find the last one very interesting. Physically a dog won’t mend illness, however they have the awesome capability of motivation. I really enjoyed your post I hope you like the attached link.
I’m really glad that multiple people have done blogs about dogs because the power of even mentioning dogs brings joy to so many. I am really happy you found a blog topic you have passion for and I think a general feedback would be to continue to blog about things you enjoy. It makes writing a lot easier and research much more enjoyable. Also, readers won’t be complaining if you keep putting up pictures of dogs.
Hi Abigail!
I totally agree your statement, since dogs are an important part of my life. They are like my friends and really share the feeling with me sometimes. Now that I’m away from home, I really missed my pal. It is interesting to see that dogs really brought up the level of hormones to make people feel happier. I used to have that thought before, but never did research on it. So thanking for sharing this blog 🙂
I guess there are also other reasons, such as human can analysis dog’s expression, in order to predict their mood, and vice versa. I remembered that only a few kinds of animal could easily sense the mood of human and the same way with us.
Hey Abigail!
I completely agree with you – dogs truly are man’s best friend (and are far better than any cat I have ever met)! I have had the great privilege of living with two different dogs throughout my life so far, while also having the opportunity of meeting many more canine friends as well! Personally, I am looking to expand that number of ownership once I get out of college and have some more time to focus on properly taking care of a dog or pet.
I find dogs interesting from a historical perspective as well, since for thousands of years dogs and humans have had a co-dependent relationship with one another. Some evidence even suggests that dogs were properly buried by mankind all the way back some 14,000 years ago around our Paleolithic age (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2251326/). Although I cannot attest to how well they may have been taken care of compared to today’s standards, dogs throughout our history undoubtedly played a key role in developing societies and helping to keep them taken care of, well fed, and even happy as you suggested!
We can clearly see a correlation between dog-human relationships and how strong they have been, since they have been apart of our lives for so long. They still are apart of our lives today, and will most likely continue to play an important role in the family structure well into the foreseeable future.
Great job with your post though! I learned that if I wanted to, I could even try my hand at raising a well-off service dog. I think I would never be able to bring myself to, however, since that would mean eventually parting with him or her.