{"id":13499,"date":"2019-06-11T15:25:07","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T05:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/?p=13499"},"modified":"2019-07-19T17:49:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-19T07:49:34","slug":"how-your-mental-health-can-affect-your-dog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/how-your-mental-health-can-affect-your-dog\/","title":{"rendered":"How your mental health can affect your dog"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Conversation<\/a><\/div>\n

By Bronwyn Orr<\/p>\n

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Photo source ABC NEWS<\/p><\/div>\n

PHOTO:<\/strong>\u00a0Dogs can experience positive and negative emotions.\u00a0(Unsplash: Mathew Henry)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

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If you think your dog looks stressed out, it might be your own stress levels that are affecting your pet pooch.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

A study\u00a0published on Thursday in Nature’s Scientific Reports<\/a>\u00a0shows pet dogs may synchronise their stress levels with those of their owners.<\/p>\n

More than just being man’s best friend, it appears our pet dogs may be mirroring our mental state too, and that can be bad for their health.<\/p>\n

It’s all in the hair<\/h2>\n

Swedish researchers studied 58 dogs \u2014 33 Shetland Sheepdogs and 25 Border Collies \u2014 as well as their owners. The dogs selected were balanced for sex, breed and activity level.<\/p>\n

Both dog and owner personality was assessed through standardised personality questionnaires, with owners filling out the\u00a0Dog Personality Questionnaire<\/a>\u00a0on behalf of their pet.<\/p>\n

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Photo source ABC NEWS<\/p><\/div>\n

PHOTO:<\/strong>\u00a0Researchers measured the hormone cortisol, which can be raised during mental distress, in the hair of dogs.\u00a0(Unsplash.com)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

The researchers also measured the hormone\u00a0cortisol<\/a>\u00a0in the hair of dogs and their owners over a year-long period.<\/p>\n

Cortisol is a measure of physiological stress, which can be raised during mental distress. But it’s also elevated for short periods such as during exercise and illness.<\/p>\n

Cortisol found in hair<\/a>\u00a0is a good way of measuring long-term trends in stress levels, as hair grows slowly (about one centimetre per month) and absorbs circulating substances from the blood.<\/p>\n

Impact on dogs<\/h2>\n

The results showed a significant correlation between human and dog cortisol levels across the year.<\/p>\n

In 57 of the dogs in summer and 55 in winter, cortisol levels matched those of their owners. This means that for these dogs, their cortisol levels rose and fell in unison with their owner’s.<\/p>\n

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Signs your dog is anxious<\/h2>\n
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Photo source ABC NEWS<\/p><\/div>\n


\nOne of the hard things about our relationships with dogs is that when something is up, they can’t easily communicate that to us. That’s why, with issues such as anxiety, we need to know what to look for and how to treat it.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This correlation was not influenced by dog activity levels or dog personality. It was, however, influenced by the personality of the dog’s owner.<\/p>\n

Owners with higher stress levels tended to have dogs with higher stress levels too.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Female dogs had a stronger connection with their owner’s stress levels compared with male dogs. Previous studies have shown that female dogs (as well as\u00a0rats<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0chimpanzees<\/a>) are more emotionally responsive than males.<\/p>\n

There’s also evidence that increased oxytocin (the love and bonding hormone) in female dogs results in\u00a0increased interactions with their owner<\/a>, causing a corresponding increase in the owner’s oxytocin levels. This effect wasn’t seen in male dogs.<\/p>\n

A limiting factor to the new study was that it did not identify any causes of elevated stress in the dog owners. But what it does show is that regardless of the cause of the stress, our reaction to it impacts our dogs.<\/p>\n

Our relationship with dogs<\/h2>\n

Researchers have long discussed the concept of what is called the “human-dog dyad”, a close bond between humans and dogs. This relationship,\u00a0developed over 15,000 years<\/a>, is unique in the animal world.<\/p>\n

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Photo source ABC NEWS<\/p><\/div>\n

PHOTO:<\/strong>\u00a0Dogs and humans have a close bond\u00a0(ABC Open contributor Chad Westbury)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

There is evidence to suggest\u00a0dogs evolved alongside us<\/a>\u00a0and consequently are\u00a0in tune with our emotions<\/a>and\u00a0bond with us through eye contact<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although many aspects of this inter-species relationship are positive (particularly for us), it’s likely there are some drawbacks to this close relationship with dogs.<\/p>\n

Like many animals, we can\u00a0share diseases with our dogs<\/a>\u00a0such as the superbug\u00a0MRSA<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Q Fever<\/a>. What’s more,\u00a0dog bites are an issue of increasing importance<\/a>\u00a0to society.<\/p>\n

We know that failing to providing basic care like food and shelter is cruel, but we often overlook how disregarding the mental lives of our pets can also negatively impact their welfare.<\/p>\n

Helping our dogs cope<\/h2>\n

Dogs are\u00a0sentient animals<\/a>. This means they can experience both positive and negative emotions, such as pleasure, comfort, fear, and anxiety.<\/p>\n

A poor mental state, where a dog is regularly experiencing negative emotions such as anxiety,\u00a0can lead to poor animal welfare<\/a>. If owners have an impact on the stress levels of their dogs, it means we also play a role in protecting their welfare.<\/p>\n

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Photo source ABC NEWS<\/p><\/div>\n

PHOTO:<\/strong>\u00a0A walk on the beach is a great way to reduce stress \u2014 for dogs as well as humans.\u00a0(Supplied: Kate Esser)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n

The impact we have on our dog’s stress levels goes both ways – positive and negative. If we reduce our own stress levels, it’s likely we will also reduce our dog’s stress levels.<\/p>\n

We know chronic stress is bad for both\u00a0humans<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0dogs<\/a>, increasing the likelihood we will get sick as well as decreasing our quality of life.<\/p>\n

If you don’t work on decreasing your stress levels for your own sake, perhaps you will do it for your dog. There are\u00a0great resources available\u00a0<\/a>for decreasing stress levels, and the good news is that some of them, such as\u00a0getting out in nature<\/a>, can be done with your dog right by your side.<\/p>\n

For Original source please click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more industry news please check out our website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Find us on Social Media –\u00a0Facebook, <\/a>Instagram<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and Twitter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Conversation By Bronwyn Orr PHOTO:\u00a0Dogs can experience positive and negative emotions.\u00a0(Unsplash: Mathew Henry) If you think your dog looks stressed out, it might be your own stress levels that are affecting your pet pooch. A study\u00a0published on Thursday in Nature’s Scientific Reports\u00a0shows pet dogs may synchronise their stress levels with those of their owners. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6794,"featured_media":13504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2000],"tags":[4640,4639],"class_list":["post-13499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","tag-dogstresslevels","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13499"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15384,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13499\/revisions\/15384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veterinarycareers.com.au\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}