Dogs and mental health - the science

A new member of our household arrived just before Christmas. Ever since, she has been a source of joy and anxiety, having a profound effect on my mental health, both positive and negative. This new arrival was a frightened rescue dog called Sophie who was delivered to our door after a three day journey from Romania and whose struggle to acclimatise to her new home has dominated our lives ever since.

Sad Sophie arrives, December 2022

I have been thinking about dogs and mental health and whether the idea that they have some unique bond with humans - man’s best friend and all that - has any science behind it or is just wishful thinking.

So I got in touch with the eminent psychologist Professor Gordon Harold of Cambridge University. Gordon is my favourite kind of academic, keen to stress that dog/human interactions are not his field - he specialises in the dynamics of family relationships - but with a broad knowledge of where the research is heading and able to point me towards the key experts.

He said that a decade ago most of what we were being told about how dogs relate with humans was low grade pop psychology but it was now a growing area of serious academic research. He pointed me towards some work on the role played by oxytocin in relations between humans and dogs.

After I admitted, rather shamefaced, that I didn’t know what oxytocin was, he explained that it is a hormone that makes you feel happy. “Oxytocin allows you to feel connected and warm and positive towards someone…..It's only activated through interpersonal interaction. So looking at somebody, speaking to somebody, having a hug, physical contact.”

But what is new is evidence that levels of oxytocin rise during interactions between dogs and their owners - and in both the human and the animal. Apparently, it’s when we gaze into each other’s eyes that the so-called love drug - or in Gordon Harold’s words “seratonin on amphetamines” - is released. It’s the same kind of effect that happens when mothers and babies gaze at each other and, sorry cat-lovers, it appears that dogs are the only pets to enjoy this connection with humans.

This research made me think of my interactions with Sophie, which in the early months were nervy and distant. Every time I approached her, she would shrink away in fear, and look away, avoiding my glance. My wife Diane had better luck, allowed the occasional stroke and even a ten second brush of her moulting coat.

But in the last couple of months, Sophie and I have become much closer. She is now happy to be stroked, have her tummy rubbed or ears scratched and sometimes we gaze into each other’s eyes as it happens. So I’m sure the oxytocin is flowing and we are both feeling more cheerful about life.

Soulful Sophie today

There have however been times over the past months where I have lain awake in the middle of the night worrying about Sophie and whether she will ever recover from her troubled start in life or her journey in a van across Europe. And I reflect on my hopes that a new dog would be good for me, making me stir myself for the early morning walk which should be a vital part of my exercise regime. That is yet to happen - Sophie has got as far as peering through the front door but no further.

Professor Harold points me to research which shows how intense the relationship between dog and owner can be and he explains how that can have negative effects on the human. A study looked at whether people were more disturbed by dog or human suffering. 256 students at an American university were given fictitious news stories about brutal beatings of adults and children, adult dogs and puppies.

They were then asked questions designed to measure their level of empathy for the victim. While it was high for both the child and the puppy, the empathy for the adult dog was substantially higher than for the human, who ranked lowest. I found this shocking if not particularly surprising - I love dogs but they rank below humans for me. But the study’s authors reckoned that many people regard their pet dogs as young members of the family. They use the term “fur-baby” however old the dog is and regard them as more vulnerable than adult humans.

Gordon talked to me about a concept in human psychology called empathic accuracy where if you can at least understand what your partner is feeling, a troubled relationship may have a chance of surviving. He speculated that many pet owners might feel greater empathic accuracy towards a dog than a human:

“We find it much easier to understand trauma affecting an animal, particularly a dog, and how unfair and sad and distressing that is, to a greater extent than the same level of trauma where a human is exposed.”

We think - mostly wrongly - that the human is more resilient and can just “pull themselves together” while the dog is defenceless. But that can have negative effects on us: “The empathy that we generate is actually higher and sharper,” he says. “You become more and more connected emotionally to that animal.”

And if the dog does not quickly recover from the trauma, the human can suffer too.

“That animal is not showing an improvement. You then begin to experience symptoms as a result of that, which can be anxiety, depression and behavioural difficulties.”

Well, hopefully Sophie is now on the road to recovery. I still worry about her but I am more confident that things will turn out ok. And the hundreds of messages I receive every day on social media and the people who stop me on the street or on the train to ask how she is doing tell me one thing - there are buckets of empathy out there for a dog with soulful eyes and a troubled past.