Can dogs be good for our health and wellbeing? - CrowdScience podcast, BBC World Service

CrowdScience listeners Jason and Finn in Guernsey want to know if there’s any real evidence that dogs can benefit our health and wellbeing.

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Dogs have been our best animal buddy for thousands of years. They’ve helped us out in countless ways, from hunting alongside us to guiding us as service dogs. Talk to any pet owner and they’ll tell you how much joy their dog brings them. But you’ll also probably hear about vets bills, muddy footprints or chewed up slippers. There are plenty of claims about the ways in which dogs might benefit our physical and mental health, but how strong is the evidence?

Join Anand Jagatia as he enlists the help of his own pup, Stella, to explore the evidence. He uncovers the profound effects that service dogs can have on the mental health of military veterans in the US. Anand ponders the strangely unique relationship between humans and dogs and we learn about the surprising ways that growing up with a pet dog can impact your health.

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0:00 Meet Maddie the school reading dog
3:24 Are dogs good for us?
6:38 Kerri Rodriguez from the University of Arizona is studying the effects dogs have on humans
8:50 What we know about dogs and our physical and mental health
10:00 Human evolution and dogs
10:45 Psychiatric service dogs for military vets with PTSD
13:37 Dogs and our immune system and their effects on allergies/asthma
17:31 The hygiene hypothesis
19:40 How CrowdScience listeners feel about dogs
21:24 How many dogs are on the planet?
22:28 Do dog owners have a blind spot when it come to negative pet behaviour?
24:06 So, overall is having a dog better for you?

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