Dog ownership is believed to benefit owner wellbeing but, contrary to popular
belief, there is limited evidence to suggest that simply owning a dog is associated
with improved mental health. This mixed-methods study investigates whether dog
owners with stronger relationships with their dogs experience better mental health.
Participants (n = 1,693, adult United Kingdom dog owners) completed an online
survey. Owners’ health was measured using the validated PROMIS questions regarding
depression, anxiety, emotional support, and companionship. The dog–owner
relationship was measured using the validated MDORS scale, which has three
subscales: interaction, emotional closeness, and perceived costs. Univariable and
multivariable linear regression analyses were conducted, adjusting for confounding
factors. Additionally, positive and negative impacts of dog ownership on mental
wellbeing were coded from open questions using thematic analysis. A stronger dog–
owner relationship was associated with greater feelings of emotional support and
companionship but poorer mental health in terms of anxiety or depression. However,
the perceived costs (burden) subscale was consistently associated with better
mental health outcomes. Direction of causality cannot be inferred as people with
poor mental health may acquire dogs to help relieve symptoms, which qualitative
analysis supported. Key themes included positive impacts on owner wellbeing and
happiness through providing purpose, companionship and self-acceptance, pleasure
and distraction, as well as lessening emotional pain and suffering and reducing
risk behaviors. However, negative impacts of a strong relationship include
anticipatory grief over loss of the dog, and concerns regarding the burden of
responsibility and ability to meet dog’s needs. Perceived ability to adequately
meet dog’s needs promoted personal growth and positive relationships with others,
whereas perceived inability led to feelings of guilt, or anger/frustration, and
reduced autonomy and sense of environmental mastery. Dog ownership contributes to
both hedonic and eudaimonic wellbeing in multiple ways, including supporting owners
through periods of poor mental health and providing purpose. However, the burden of
responsibility and owner and dog characteristics can create challenges, and owners
may benefit from support in caring for their dogs and reducing problematic
behaviors.
Keywords: dogs, ownership, pets, human–animal bond, depression, mental health,
anxiety, qualitative
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Introduction
Mental health is “a state of wellbeing in which the individual realizes his or her
own abilities, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can work productively and
fruitfully, and is able to make a contribution to his or her community, “according
to the World Health Organization (WHO, 2018b). At any time, 1 in 10 people
worldwide are affected by a mental health disorder, bringing the absolute number to
792 million (Ritchie and Roser, 2018). Mental health conditions include depression,
anxiety, obsessive–compulsive disorder and schizophrenia. Globally, in 2016,
depressive symptoms are in the 16th place for Disability-Adjusted Life Year(s)
(DALYs), and are in the top 20 DALYs for all regions and continents other than
Africa (WHO, 2018a). Self-harm is included in the top 20 DALYs for all regions
other than Africa and Eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, anxiety disorders are
included in the top 20 DALYs list for the American continent (WHO, 2018a). In
England, 1 in 4 adults encounters a mental health condition in any given year
(Nice, 2019). From a financial point of view, the consequences of poor mental
health were responsible for the decrease of the United Kingdom GDP by £25 billion
in 2015 (Oxford Economics, 2016).
Many studies have suggested a positive association between interacting with an
animal and psychological wellbeing (Barker and Wolen, 2008; Gilbey and Tani, 2015;
Rodriguez et al., 2021). Studies of the impact of actual pet ownership, in contrast
to interacting with a trained therapy or assistance animal, are less clear.
Contrary to popular belief, most studies conducted comparing dog owners and non-dog
owners found no association between dog ownership and improved mental wellbeing, as
a result of inconsistent methodology, complexity of the human–animal interaction
(HAI) relationship (Rodriguez et al., 2021), and demographical heterogeneity of pet
owners (Fraser et al., 2020). In some cases, pet owners have reported more
depressive symptoms than non-pet owners (Parslow et al., 2005; Enmarker et al.,
2015; Fraser et al., 2020; Sharpley et al., 2020), and in particular owners with
less friendly and less obedient pets experience higher depressive and anxiety
symptoms, respectively, (Bradley and Bennett, 2015). Similarly, no evidence of
change in depressive symptoms or positive/negative affect has been seen in
longitudinal analyses of pet acquisition (Powell et al., 2019; Sharpley et al.,
2020). Contrarily, in a study of treatment-resistant depression, it was found that
an intervention group who adopted a pet improved compared to a control (Mota
Pereira and Fonte, 2018), and in a study conducted on US veterans suffering from
PTSD, it was reported that adopting a companion dog increased their wellbeing while
decreasing their mental health symptoms (Stern et al., 2013). Further, among people
with PTSD, owning a pet at the time of the traumatic event was associated with
higher levels of happiness (González-Ramírez et al., 2019). There is also some
evidence that dog owners may be less lonely (Gilbey and Tani, 2015; Powell et al.,
2019) and less likely to report a long-standing mental health illness (Liu et al.,
2019).
Studies of how the quality of the pet-owner relationship may moderate impacts on
the owner’s wellbeing are even less clear. Some research suggests that a stronger
attachment to a pet is associated with poorer mental health of the owner (Peacock
et al., 2012). On the other hand, in pet owners with long-term mental health
conditions, pets are considered to support their owner through encouraging social
contact (Zimolag and Krupa, 2009), and distraction from the owner’s problems, thus
pets are considered a main source of support (Brooks et al., 2016). Consequently,
even though pets do not cure mental health conditions, they may help prevent or
reduce symptoms (Hawkins et al., 2021). Most activities with a dog are perceived to
have a positive effect on the owner psychological wellbeing, e.g., meeting with
other people while outside with the dog increases owner’s positive relations with
others, even if negative impacts also exist, for example, dog’s aging/death, dog’s
unwanted behaviors or a perceived failure to meet dog’s needs (Barcelos et al.,
2020).
Overall, findings are contradictory and complex, which may be because pet owners
and non-pet owners also differ in many socio-demographic variables, which may
influence the psychological profile of the individual, regardless of pet ownership
(Saunders et al., 2017; Wong et al., 2019). The impact of dog ownership may also be
influenced by the activities performed with the dog, for instance variable
participation in dog walking (Westgarth et al., 2017), which is itself influenced
by socio-demographic factors (Westgarth et al., 2014, 2017). In addition, direction
of causality is difficult to infer from cross-sectional studies—for example, do
dogs make people more depressed, or are depressed people more likely to seek
comfort in dog ownership?
Furthermore, the study of human mental wellbeing is itself difficult to measure.
What does it mean to “live well” or to have a “good life”? A key interest in
psychology is answering these very questions through the lens of happiness, which
can be split into two broad concepts: hedonism and eudaimonism (Ryan and Deci,
2001). Hedonism is based on the presence of positive affect and the absence of
negative affect. Eudaimonism is focused on living life with meaning and purpose and
can be categorized further into 6 elements: (1) autonomy (self-determining and
independent), (2) personal growth (feeling of continued development), (3) self-
acceptance (positive attitude toward self), (4) life purpose (goals and sense of
direction), (5) environmental mastery (competence in managing the environment), and
(6) positive relations with others (satisfying and trusting relationships; Ryff,
1989). The theoretical construct of hedonic and eudaimonic happiness has been used
in qualitative research to explore how activities of dog ownership may impact on
owner wellbeing, claiming both types of happiness are at play (Barcelos et al.,
2020). However, the deductive approach used, by asking owners to view their
interactions with their dogs through this explanatory framework and to suggest
which activities fit into which concept, may not be an ideal method in comparison
to an inductive approach where themes and theory are developed from the owner’s
suggestions without supplying them with preconceived ideas (Pope et al., 2000).
In summary, the association between dog ownership and owners’ mental wellbeing
requires further investigation. Little emphasis has been placed on the strength of
the relationship between dogs and their owners and the impact this may have on
potential wellbeing effects; the strength of the pet-owner relationship is not just
about the amount of time spent together, but what is done during that time and the
feelings that are developed toward the animal. Therefore, the first aim of this
study was to investigate the association between the strength and dimensions of the
dog–owner relationship and the owner’s psychological health outcomes. The second
aim of the study was to inductively explore how aspects of the dog–owner
relationship impact positively and negatively on the owner’s mental wellbeing, to
complement the quantitative approach and so that the meanings and experiences
behind directions of causality can be better understood (Pope and Mays, 1995).
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Materials and Methods
Data Collection
An anonymous convenience sampling survey was conducted using Qualtrics online
survey software from December 21, 2017 to February 9, 2018. Participants (United
Kingdom resident dog owners aged 18 years or over) were recruited via social media
advertising on Facebook and Twitter. The study was ethically approved by the
University of Liverpool Veterinary Research Ethics Committee (Study VREC605) and
participants provided informed consent by completing the survey after reading an
information sheet.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire consisted of five blocks of questions which included both closed
and open-ended questions (see Supplementary Materials—Questionnaire). The first
block comprised the eligibility questions (i.e., United Kingdom citizens, aged 18
or over, who consider themselves dog owners). The second block went by the name of
“Dog-related questions,” including the dog’s demographics (see Table 1) and reasons
for acquiring the dog. Participants who owned more than one dog were asked to
complete the survey for the dog to which they were emotionally closest to, given
that we specifically wished to study the effects of the dog who was most likely to
be impacting the mental wellbeing of the owner through their relationship.
