Dr Dougal Sutherland: Are pets as good for our wellbeing as we like to think?

There’s a common belief that having a pet is good for one’s wellbeing. You often hear stories about how looking into a dog’s eyes gives you an emotional boost or that using real and fake animals in rest homes boosts residents’ moods, but it turns out it’s not a guaranteed path to better mental health – reality is more nuanced.  

Some studies do find that pet owners report lower anxiety and loneliness, and greater life satisfaction. However, other studies show no significant difference, and some have even found that pet owners actually reported lower wellbeing, including higher loneliness, than non-owners.  

The type of bond between owner and pet plays a crucial role.  

Owners with insecure attachments (e.g. anxiety about separation or doubts about their pet’s affection) tend to report higher depression and anxiety – this likely to be worse if your pet also has insecure attachment and worries when you’re not there!  

Feeling a shared identity with a pet (e.g. similar traits or habits) is linked to better wellbeing, so if you look like your pet, you feel better – not sure what that says about me as I’ve got two miniature schnauzers!  

Mindful interaction with pets —appreciating their present-focused nature— can help owners stay grounded. This is the idea behind support animals for people with various types of disability  

Pets require time, energy, and financial resources, which can be stressful, and it’s sometimes the reason people give up pets early. 

During the pandemic, pet ownership was linked to lower wellbeing among women, parents, and those with unstable employment – probably because it was yet another thing to think of/worry about. 

Caring for sick pets or dealing with behavioural issues and grief after loss can be emotionally taxing.  

So, think carefully if you’re thinking about getting a pet! It’s not necessarily all it’s cracked up to be – but we wouldn’t give up ours for anything! 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
That'd be time to catch up with clinical psychologist Google Sutherland,
who is all with us this morning, held of doogal
curleder Jack.

Speaker 3 (00:18):
And I'm trying to think of a segue between that
little section about the snail and the topic for today.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Well, I mean your topic for today is whether or
not pets are good for us? And I suppose that
need technically counts, doesn't he?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
I guess you, yep, yep, I'm sure somebody.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'm more convinced.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
I'm sure somebody get yeah, yeah, you know, different strokes
for different folks on the job.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
They'll be able to argue that the average snail the
right the right spiral snail probably doesn't count as a
as a pet, but given needs spirals on his left
hand side, maybe maybe he didn't count.

Speaker 3 (00:56):
Maybe something special absolutely.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
But it's funny because the sort of the general common thought,
like the mainstream kind of theory would I would have been,
I thought that pets are good for your mental health.
Having a pet means having a companion, it means getting outside,
it means all sorts of good things. But you're looking
at new research this morning that suggests the reality is

(01:19):
a little more nuanced than that.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah, and I think nuanced is a good word. There
certainly is evidence to show that having a pet is
good for your well being. There's a one of my
favorite studies to quote, they were looking at levels of oxytocin.
So oxytocin is the thing that makes you feel good,
you know, if you have a positive interaction with somebody,
and they measured it in dogs and in owners, and

(01:42):
if you looked into your dog's eyes for a minute,
then both the dog and the human got a hit
of oxytocin. And interestingly, the comparison group for that study
was dogs, dogs in their owners and wolves and their
owners and people that owned wolves looked in their wolve's
eyes for a minute and nobody got a hit of
oxytocin out of that one.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
But so you know, there's certainly evidence to show that
having a dog, or not just a dog, any sort
of pet can be can be good for your well being.
But for some people it's actually not. And you know,
you often hear these terrible stories on the radio or
on the news around you know, animals being abandoned, and
it was a particular thing, you know, post COVID people.

(02:24):
A lot of people got pets during COVID and for
some people it actually makes them feel worse. And so
it's a really I think important thing to think about,
particularly before you're getting an animal. Actually is this going
to help us as a family or is this actually
going to be something that in the long term isn't
actually all that helpful for us.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Yeah, that's intriguing area. So so to talk to us
a little bit more about some of those downsides and
what and what people perhaps hadn't anticipated, because obviously it's
a huge commitment.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
Yeah, and so that's one of them, is that sort
of level of commitment and the financial kind of stress.
It's another it's another mouth to feed, literally, it's another
thing to do. You have to take them for a
walk or excersize them if they're a dog. And obviously
the bigger the pet, the more of this can be
a bit of a burden. You've got to think about
what they're going to do during the day and who's

(03:15):
going to look after them, So that that's a bit
of a that's that can be a bit of a burden. Also,
are those people who have what we call insecure attachments.
So an attachment is sort of describes the quality of
relationship that you have with with somebody, and we typically
think about attachments as infants and the appearance that that's

(03:35):
the that's the sort of standard that we think about
with attachments, but you can obviously have attachments with your
pets as well, and there's a thing called insecure attachment
where the insecurity is around you know, leaving them, departing
from them is filled with anxiety and you're not quite
sure what's going to happen and will they be there
when you come back. And for those people actually loneliness

(03:57):
in a poorer sense of well being because you spend
a lot of time thinking and worrying about it. Are
they going to be okay? And it becomes a burden
and and that be matched by animals too. Animals can
also have that sort of attachment. And you know, you
hear about particularly dogs that wine and yelp during the
day because they're lonely essentially, So those are useful things

(04:18):
to think about, sort of on the downside, at least
for getting a pet.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Yeah, so what about the upsides? What about the things
that will know the things you can do the things
you can be mindful of the kind of dynamics that
make pet ownership a really beneficial thing for both parties.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Yeah, look, I think certainly. Well, there are a couple
of things. So one is being sort of mindfully interacting
with your pets. So that's sort of taking time to
actually spend time with them and be with them and
you know, just lay some attention on them really and

(04:56):
whether that's active playing with them or patting them, petting them,
or taking them for a walk, that that can be
really helpful. And that's the theory behind you know, you hear,
we know about support animals for people with various forms
of disabilities, and that's the idea about behind those is
that it makes you feel there's a it's a sense
of companionship and you're paying attention to that. The other

(05:19):
interesting feature is that if you if you feel like
you have sort of some sort of shared identity with
your with your pets, then you often feel a closer
relationship with them. And you know, we have that old
old adage around if you know, owners look like their pets,
and so if you you know, if you look like
your pet and you identify with them, you're probably going

(05:40):
to get along a lot better with them.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
That's amazing saying if you look like your pet you
get along better.

Speaker 3 (05:47):
Well that well you could do that, yeah, because you
identify more with them. It's like, oh, they're a bit
like me, and I kind of identify it. And which
is sort of interesting because I was pulling this together
and actually one of our dogs is right at my
feet at the moment, and we've got little miniature snauss,
you know, the black and white ones with the big
eyebrows and the big and I don't know quite what
they says about me, but we certainly love our dogs.

(06:10):
But maybe perhaps I do look like them a little bit.
I'm not sure.

Speaker 2 (06:14):
I think you go a miniature Schnauzer over like a
like a bulldog or a pug or something like that.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
I think so, yeah, yeah, I think that's I think
Schnauzers more me than something like that.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
Lutely, Oh that is fascinating, Thank you so much. Doogle
great like you say, But a nuance in there, which
is interesting and just like kind of underscores the importance
of thinking very carefully before making an investment in a
pete because yeah, some people don't find it's all cracked
out to be thank you so much, really appreciate it.
That is Google Sutherland from Umbrella Wellbeing with us this morning.

Speaker 1 (06:48):
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