How Owning and Petting a Dog Can Improve Your Health

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Recommended: The effect of pet ownership

Introduction: Pet ownership in America has more than tripled since the 1970s, when around 67 million households had pets. In the year 2012, approximately 164 million families owned pets. (The Humane Society, 1/30/14) So why do so many people enjoy having a pet, or specifically, a dog? Research shows that having a dog around has shown to people’s physical, emotional, cognitive and social wellness. (Rider, 5/22/12) Blood pressure is one way to measure a person’s wellness, and studies show that dogs can help lower blood pressures. There are two different measurements, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. When your heart beats, it contracts and pushes blood through the arteries to the rest of the body. This creates pressure on the arteries through force. This type of blood pressure is systolic and should be below 120. When the heart rests between beats the blood pressure measured is called diastolic, the bottom number, and should be less than 80 (WebMD, 2005-2014). In the lab it is testing to determine whether petting a dog could reduce stress levels. (Scott, 11/18/13) How to measure the stress on someone’s body would be by taking their blood pressure. So, the goal throughout the lab would be to be able to show that when a test subject pets one dog for a certain amount of time that their blood pressure will go down. To show these results, measure the person’s blood pressure before and after petting the dog. The hypothesis in this lab is that when a test subject pets a dog for a time limit of three minutes, a relatively short amount of time, their blood pressure will still decrease. The second part of the hypothesis is that the persons pulse will decrease as well. This hypothesis is believable because research shows that people... ... middle of paper ... ...-friend-dog-ownership-proven-to-reduce-blood-pressure-other-health-risks.htmlhttp://lbbusinessjournal.com/long-beach-business-journal-newswatch/119-lof-scroller-articles-12-05-22/590-mans-best-friend-dog-ownership-proven-to-reduce-blood-pressure-other-health-risks.html>. Scott, Elizabeth . "Health Benefits of Pets: How Owning a Dog or Cat Can Reduce Stress." About.com Stress Management. About.com, 18 Nov. 2013. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. . "Blood Pressure Numbers and Readings." WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2014. . "Pets by the Numbers." RSS. The Humane Society , 30 Jan. 2014. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. .

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