Dogs Helping with Grief
Go figure, the Science Behind Dogs Helping with Grief was an actual study published in the Animal Cognition journal states that wrote ‘dogs are more apt to walk up to a person who is crying than when that person is exhibiting "normal" happy behaviors. The researchers concluded that when we are crying, dogs seemed to empathize with us not from curiosity, but from pure concern. Dogs respond to the crying person's need, not their own. It is a very cool thing, doggies! It has also been proven that people that interact with dogs get an increased dose of oxytocin aka the love-feel-good-vibe hormone. Just by making eye contact with a dog, your oxytocin level will increase. We know, right? Dogs ARE amazing - as if we had to tell you that! Dogs are also responsible for a decrease in the stress hormone, cortisol. Who needs vitamins? Give us a lifetime supply of Vitamin Doggy!
Most of you probably already knew this, but it turns out that pets are kind of good for our emotional and physical wellbeing; you might even say they help us cope during times of hardship and struggle. Truthfully I’m kinda new to this idea, I’ve heard many people count petting, playing, or being around animals as a coping skill. Although I never knew the research supported this thought, I never quite got it until now.
People love animals in ways that are similar to how they love their children. From an evolutionary standpoint, this may prove puzzling to some, and at one time – to me. Now, I that we have three rescue pets; one from a freakish hoarding situation, another from Animal Control 'aka "Kill Shelter" and the other from 'the highway! Truly I don’t know how this happened, though we feel totally blessed that it did. We are looking so forward to what God has in store for all of us next.
