“I’ve witnessed these visits firsthand. And I can tell you, it gives me chills just talking about it. Because they are so powerful in what is happening in that moment,” said Nancy Gee, PhD, Director of the Human-Animal Interaction Center at Virginia Commonwealth University.

From offering comfort in times of distress to aiding individuals with disabilities in their daily tasks, animals can play a powerful role in treatment plans.

“Over this period of sort of, 35,000 years, dogs have become incredibly adept at socializing with humans, so they’re sensitive to our emotional state,” said Dr. Nancy Gee, who oversees the Center for Human-Animal Interaction at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Although research has shown that pets appear to provide certain types of social support to children, little is known about the physiological bases of these effects, especially in naturalistic contexts. In this study, we investigated the effect of free-form interactions between children (ages 8–10 years) and dogs on salivary cortisol concentrations in both species.

Many studies, such as the one conducted in 2021 at the Center for Human-Animal Interaction of the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, in the United States, had certified that walking or running with a four-legged friend benefits muscle and cardiovascular function, breathing and mental performance, not to mention the positive effects on stress, anxiety and ideal weight.