The "man’s best friend" adage has been bolstered by new research showing walking a dog can make people feel more relaxed.
"Interactions with dogs can decrease human stress and induce positive emotional responses," according to South Korean scientists, who scanned brain activity in 30 adults while they walked, brushed and played with a poodle.
Interacting with a dog has a "positive effect on both relaxation and concentration," the Konkuk University team reported, in a paper published by the science journal PLOS One.
But it's best to bring a ball or find a stick to throw while out that walk, as the researchers found evidence that playing with a dog makes people not only more relaxed but also more focused.
And better again, getting out a brush and teasing out any dirt or debris from the animal's fur gives yet another concentration boost, the team found.
The researchers were helped and advised by a professional dog handler during the tests, which were done by putting headsets on participants while they spent around 25 minutes with the dog, a poodle named Aro.
The Korean study followed recent research suggesting interacting with dogs increases oxytocin, the so-called "love hormone," and work published in 2021 showing university students who keep a pet dog as less stressed than peers who don’t.
The effect is two-way, according to work published last year in the journal Evolution, Medicine & Public Health, which found dogs remained healthier for longer when walked and given attention by their owners.
The latest South Korean study was published around the same time North Korea denounced keeping pet dogs as "non-socialist behaviour" that should be "strictly eliminated." Instead, dogs are to be seen as "basically meat" and should be "eaten when they die," the Socialist Women’s Union of Korea announced.
"The purpose of raising dogs is to collect more furs," the union added, according to Daily NK, a South Korea-based online news publication which reports on the dictatorship.
