Research Shows that Owning a Dog has Incredible Benefits for Children

Studies have shown that owning a dog is beneficial for children's physical development and social interaction.

Regular physical activity has health and developmental benefits, especially for young children.

However, with parents' hectic schedules and increasing reliance on entertainment technology, it can be difficult for young children today to get enough outdoor physical activity for healthy development.

A study published in the journal Pediatric Research (Australia) found that owning, walking, and playing with a dog can boost a child's social and emotional development.

So authors from the University of Western Australia's School of Population and Global Health looked at whether playing and walking with the family dog was associated with emotional development and better social interaction in young children.

The authors surveyed 1,646 parents to learn about households with preschoolers who had dogs and how often their children walked or actively played with the dogs each week.

The results showed that children in dog-owning households were 30 percent less likely to experience increased behavioral problems, peer problems, and prosocial behavior compared to children in non-pet households.

Peer questions include how your child gets along with other children and whether they enjoy playing alone.

Prosocial behavior looks at the extent to which children care about the feelings of others and offer help when someone is hurt, sad or ill.

The survey also measured mood symptoms, hyperactivity, and overall difficulties.

Research also shows that toddlers can benefit from interacting with pets when they are safely supervised, even at a young age.

Walking the dog at least once a week and playing with the family dog three or more times a week increased to perform the likelihood of prosocial behavior.

Walking your dog at least once a week can also help reduce the likelihood of overall difficulties in your life.

Associate Professor Hayley Christian, the lead author of the study, said: "Regular physical activity plays an important role in childhood, helping early childhood development and reducing the risk of chronic diseases such as obesity."

However, less than a third of children aged 2-5 years get 3 hours of physical activity per day due to a variety of factors including individual children, families, and the environment – contrary to global recommendations that kindergarteners need to be active throughout the day.

In preschool children, the frontal lobes are still developing. This means that preschoolers have not yet fully developed the ability to regulate behavior or control strong emotions and impulses.

So people often assume that young children don't benefit from having a dog because they don't know how to interact with it. However, parents may consider getting a pet and supervising their child when they interact with it. Puppies can have a positive influence on shaping the behavior of young children.

Having a dog is about responsibility, a positive attitude, empathy, and confidence in your children. The study also concluded that pre-adolescent children (ages 10-20) would benefit the most from owning a pet.

According to Kramer, an associate professor of endocrinology and metabolism at the University of Toronto (Canada), owning a pet dog can reduce all-cause mortality by 24%.

For people with heart attacks and strokes, owning a dog can reduce the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease by 31%.