57.A New Study Says You Can Spread to Your Dog
Research shows that most dog owner's find their pets to be great stress busters.Curling up on the couch with your pug on playing eatch with your Labradoodle is a great way to unwind and letthe cares of the dlay slip away . New science has some bud news for dog owners. Dog might ease your stress. but they can also catch it,
I's an old joke that dogs resemble their owners, but according to this new study out of linkoping universily in sweden . Its actually true in one lecus funny way: stressed out owners have stressedout dog .
To figure this out the researchers took hair samples from 25 border collies and 33 shetland sheepdogs. AS well as their female owners. For both humans and dogs . Hair records the level of the stress bormone cortisol in the body over time s0 by analy zing these hairs, the team could figure out just now much stress both the owners and their pets were under long_ ferm.
The studly found the stress level of the dogs and their owners matched up : higher levels of sitress among owners showed up as higher levels of stress in their dogs. The efct was even more pronounced if the dogs was female or if it took part in agility copettions with is owner.
Previous research has found that cortisol in humans and their dogs can rise together in the short term especially when competing. But this finding was someting new. " This is the first time we've seen a long term synchroniation in stress levels between members of two diferent species。
We haven't scen this between humans and dogs before." lead research lina r oth told the guardian.And what about a pooch's lifestyle?did limited opportunitics for play or more time spent alone stress out the dogs? nearly as much as belonging to a human with high cortisol levels. The personality of the owner seemed to play a role to. Although that varied with the sex of the dog.
Female dogs whose owners had higher scores in the Big five traits of neurotic ism openness, and conscientiousness had higher cortisol levels, while the same was true of male dogs whose owners scored high in agreeableness.
This will not come as a huge surprise to many observant folks who have noticed that highly stung people offen have a highly strung dogs. But should scientifie confrmation of this conection between owners and their dogs put pet if you're arcciety prone? Or if you're under a lot of stress and already a pet owner, should you feel guilty?
Roth replies" 1 don't think you should be anxious that , if you're sressed,, you might harm your dog" instead, your dog is a 8ocial support for you, and you are a social support for the dog.
Your sressede out than made up for by exstra pats , belly rubs, and tennis ball throws.
Though if you do lean towards the anxious side, you might want to think carefully about choosing a resilient type of dog. Just which breeds are best is still an open question.one Roth andher collaborators hope.
It may be possible to match dog and owner in a way that is better for both, from a stress- management says" It may be that certain breeds are not so deeply afected if their owner hasa high sres leve!""
What makes this study different from previous research which also saw oortisol synchronization in dogs?()