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How Dogs Help Us Heal: The Tremendous Healing Power of Dogs
Dogs are an incredible blessing in our lives. That simply cannot be denied. They are always happy to see us and spend time with us. Their love is truly unconditional.
But have you ever considered the tremendous healing power dogs bring us? They are very intuitive when it comes to our emotional needs and are packaged up in an adorable furry package that is just made for making things better.
Whether you’re sick, injured a little down or dealing with the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder, dogs have a way to make healing a little bit easier.
A few ways dogs can help us heal:
• Touch: The power of touch cannot be underestimated. Pets and cuddles are all good for our emotional and even our physical wellbeing. So if you have a dog, take advantage of that opportunity to use touch to heal. Your dog will love it too!
• Emotional Support: Of course, there are dogs who are trained to be emotional support animals…but your dog doesn’t need special training to provide that support. If you’ve ever been sick or sad, your dog simply knows he needs to be by your side and just be there for you.
• Someone Who Listens: Now it’s true that dogs may not understand our words, but they understand our tone and sometimes, we just need to vent or share our problems with someone who doesn’t judge, but just listens.
• Sense Impending Health Threats: Dogs have been trained to alert of coming seizures and studies have shown dogs can alert their diabetic humans of hypoglycemic episodes. There is also research in many other areas where dogs can detect health issues and threats in humans.
• Helping with PTSD and Other Psychological Injuries: Consider the story of the amazing organization called Shelter to Soldier, that trains rescue dogs to be healing companions for 9/11/ combat veterans.
Those are just a few ways because the ways dogs help us heal are just a numerous as the number of people who have dogs…each story is unique.
Dog owners report being able to recover from broken relationships, curb anxiety, stay sober and more. And it doesn’t matter how old you are. Dogs help children and adults of all ages.
There’s a reason dogs are used in care homes for the elderly and in hospitals with sick children. They do create a happy distraction for every day pain or preoccupation with health issues and they’re really good at it.
According to Medical News Today, owning a dog can reduce your risk of premature death by one third. And Harvard Medical School says that owning a dog can reduce your risk of heart disease. These are all incredible insights.
Now it’s true that sometimes these health benefits come from our dogs forcing us to be more active…and that’s a good thing, but we think there is much more to the healing power of dogs.
What do you think?
