Question: Awww I have a dog too! Do you know if its true if a dog benefitially increases your mental health?

Courtney Povey answered on 17 Mar 2023:

I personally find that if I am having a stressful day coming home to my dog and getting cuddles and then taking him for a nice walk improves my mood and there are studies to show that spending time with an animal is beneficial particularly for stress levels. Now, some universities offer students time with puppies or kittens to try and improve their mental health and stress levels. Obviously if you don’t like animals this won’t benefit you, but for most people I think it has a positive impact on mental health 🙂