How happy are you? How our pups help us cultivate more happiness in our lives.

Dreaming, meditating, and intentionally thinking thoughts about things that bring you joy will rewire your brain, change your thought patterns, and make you happier, according to research. Follow Huxley's lead and Dare to Dream.

For many humans, happiness is an elusive and fleeting experience.

However, for dog owners, happiness rates are significantly higher than for non-dog owners.

Dog owners also have lower blood pressure, manage stress better, and have decreased anxiety, compared to non-dog owners.

Why is this? And how do our pooches help us feel happy?

Exercise & Motivation

By having a creature who relies on you 100% for their entire experience, this can increase the human’s external motivation to do things like go out walking, socialize, learn new things, etc. all for the benefit of our pups.

While it is easy for many of us to ignore our own internal needs, having a furry little friend with sweet puppy dog eyes staring into your soul and begging to go for a walk can be a great motivator to keep us active, moving, motivated, and consistent.

Many dog owners get significantly more exercise than non- dog owners. This is beneficial not only physically but also mentally and emotionally as time outside in nature is extremely important to cultivating a sense of happiness and contentment.

Dogs help us get moving out in nature more, which is great for our mental, emotional, and physical health. Exercise effects our pooches similarly! Hiking and swimming with Bindi and Penny Grace got these pawrents out for a couple miles on an overcast and drizzly day where they may otherwise have not gone out if they didn't have the pups for motivation to get moving.

Mindfulness

Assuming you’re not one of those owners with their nose in their phone while they walk their pup (PLEASE don’t do this; for your sake and theirs,) spending time with our dogs can increase our mindfulness dramatically.

Slowing down to allow your dog to sniff can enable you to notice the butterflies and dragonflies flitting about the bushes they chose to investigate further. Petting your pups' fur can create a physical grounding sensation that allows you to be in the moment and feel soothed. Noticing the simple joys that your dog finds wonder in, like a chittering squirrel or a bee buzzing by, can increase your mindfulness and your sense of connection to your pup and the world at large.

Additionally, when you are actively training your dog utilizing positive reinforcement and force free techniques, you are always looking for behaviors you like and want to see repeated in order to Mark and Reward these behaviors. By looking for the good in our pups, this changes our thought patterns.

Humans are pre-wired to look for and give attention to negative or scary things. This is a survival mechanism that serves us well in some areas, and not so well in other areas. In order to be able to look for and to appreciate the positive things in life, including what our dog is doing well, this takes intention, and eventually changes the neural pathways in your brain, making it easier to look for an appreciate the positive things in other areas of your life. By continuing this practice, you will find it easier and easier to see the good things your pup, and the world at large, are offering for you to appreciate and find joy in.

In former careers I have worked as a teacher, a therapist, a yogi, and a dog trainer, and out of all of the personal and professional work I have done over the years, the thing I have found to have the most dramatic impact on my mental health was when I adopted positive reinforcement trainings techniques into my work with my personal dogs.

I noticed very quickly that my attention would more easily shift to look for the good things, and this has become increasingly more true the longer I have been training and the more dogs I have had the opportunity to work with and appreciate.

Many of my clients have joked that I am the eternal optimist over the years and I truly believe this is due to my work with dogs. Nothing feels better than slowing down with a pup to watch them roll in the grass, chase a butterfly, or stare bewildered at something new to them.

Mindfulness, connection, and exercise have all been shown through research to impact our levels of self-identified happiness.

Get out with your pup, slow down to enjoy a leisurely stroll through the neighborhood, and notice what makes you each feel joy from moment to moment.

By slowing down and noticing what our pups are interested in on our daily outings, we can become more mindful and appreciate the small joys, like stopping to smell the hydrangeas with Huxley.

Training & Socialization

When training and socializing our pups, we are often pushed outside of our comfort zones. This forces us to stretch our abilities, creates new opportunities to learn, to be very aware of how we impact our dogs, and to become very aware of how our dogs are impacted by their environment.

I often joke that dogs are the therapy I never knew I needed, simply because a dog will nearly always reflect right back to you what you are experiencing in the moment.

Anxious and on edge? Your pup can feel it and has no context for why.

You may notice them seeming hypervigilant in these moments, more on edge, looking for a cause of the anxious feeling.

Feeling content and loving while you snuggle up with your pup?

Notice how they give deep sighs, lean in, get comfortable.

If and when you find your pup beginning to struggle, it is an opportunity to look inward and ask yourself “What’s going on for me in this moment? How can I set them and myself up for success?”

Research shows that dogs and humans benefit from socialization and connection. By doing things like sitting outside with your pup and doing stationary work (watching the world go by,) you are able to be in the moment with them and notice their experience of the world. Additionally, if and when you choose to interact with other pup and pawrent teams, this is an opportunity for connection and socialization.

What could possibly make DC brunch better than having your furry best friend by your side?

Bebe practicing 'Cafe Manners' at the Colada Shop during her Engaged Walk, What's more fun than sitting on a patio with your pooch?

Sense of Purpose

Dogs give us something to channel our love, energy, and attention into, and to see the direct results of doing so. By engaging with them, learning alongside them, and doing fun activities, (in addition to the typical dog ownership requirements,) we have something outside of us relying on us. External motivation can be immensely powerful for many and we can use this in our relationship with our pups to help them and us be our happiest and healthiest selves, together.

All dogs can help give their owners a sense of purpose. A service dog can be specially trained to perform particular tasks which can help improve their owners' lives. Additionally, simply having a dog present enables many owners to be more present themselves and to be able to focus their attention externally to a being which they are able to care for. Check out Catira practicing her 'Public Access' skills at CVS. Catira is trained to apply Deep Pressure Therapy as a physical grounding skill to keep her human present in the moment. This can significantly decrease anxiety, stress, dissociation, flashbacks, and more.

I have never been happier or healthier than when I started working with dogs.

The ability to be outside every day for big portions of the day, in the sunshine, alongside a furry friend who is as eager to learn as I am, where I am able to see immediate results for my work and investment into them is a huge ego and happiness boost. Knowing you can make another creature’s life just a little better is a powerful and rewarding feeling and one we can take advantage of everyday in our lives alongside our pups.

Additionally, having a sense of control in how I raise my pup is immensely empowering. It is easy to ensure she eats well, sleeps well, exercises often, works her brain, because I know that if I do not provide these things to her, they do not happen, and so that external motivation is enough to keep me doing all these things. Often times I and others find internal motivation is much more challenging to muster.

One of the best pieces of advice I have ever gotten in all of my professional careers thus far was from a canine behaviorist friend, Nikki Ivey, host of the Dog Speak 101 podcast (who you should be following if you're not already!) who suggested:

“Talk to yourself like you talk to your dog.”

This has completely overhauled my internal self-talk into a compassionate, loving silly monologue, of which it has never been prior. When I find myself struggling or bashing myself, I am able to quickly catch this and challenge it by asking “Would I talk to ANY of my dogs this way? What would I say to them?” This puts me in a state of mind where I’m able to step back and consider the whole picture and how I can support me in the moment, similar to how I work with each pup in my care.

Penny Grace and I practicing a 'High Five' at the FDR memorial. Penny Grace and I get out for 1-2 hours of strolling, sniffing, training, and walking about SWDC every day. I am confident if I didn't have her in my life and she didn't have such significant exercise and enrichment needs, I would not be nearly as active as I am. I am grateful for her and our time together every day as I find that when I am with her, I am most present and engaged. Penny is also a task trained service dog who makes my life immeasurably better and enables me to do things I had never dreamed of previously. PG was/is the inspiration for Engaged Dogs.

In what ways does your pup helped you cultivate happiness?

Check out this excellent podcast and inspiration for this blog on the same topic. The podcast links lots of research to show exactly why dogs are human’s best friend and can be a huge factor in helping their humans cultivate more happiness in their life.

Let Slip the Dogs of More Happiness | The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos (pushkin.fm)

Want some help creating a happier and more cohesive relationship with your pup? Schedule a wellness consultation and let’s discuss how we can help!

Penny Grace and her best friend Ruby Fenway in Massachusetts during a play date. Socialization with safe, known friends is important to help dogs and their pawrents thrive and connect.

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