This is what you need to do if you want your dog to live longer

Nobody wants their dog to pass away before their time is up but there is a very easy way to ensure your fluffy friend lives for as long as possible. All you need to do is get them a friend for a little social interaction research indicates.

Researchers have long known social interaction can make people healthier as they age and it appears as if this phenomenon is also true for your pet dog according to a study from May 2023 . 

Dogs can gain huge health benefits from having a social support network based on data from what was the largest study of its kind looking into the variety of social determinants that can affect our pets. 

“Where we live and who we interact with has a really strong effect on our health,” study lead author Noah Snyder-Mackler explained to The Washington Post’s Marlene Cimons.  

Synder-Mackler went on to explain that the link between health and social environments didn’t just apply to humans but also to the social animals we surround ourselves with. 

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“Animals with stronger social relationships live longer, healthier lives,” the Arizona State University professor continued, and the results from her research certainly proved it. 

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Synder-Mackler and her fellow researchers discovered that the effect of social support on dogs was five times more powerful than any of the other factors that they examined.

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These factors included things like a family’s finances, how many children they had in the house, the age of the owners, and the stability of the neighborhood in which they lived.

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It was these five factors researchers believed could be used to identify the type of social environments that could affect a dog's overall health and wellness Cimons reported. 

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The researchers wrote in their study that it was the dogs who lived with other pets that had “higher reported health scores” than dogs who had fewer household companions. 

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“This suggests that similar to humans, increased social enrichment in companion dogs is associated with health benefits, and also provides an example of an easily modifiable environmental intervention to improve dog welfare,” the researchers concluded. 

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Surprisingly, the researchers found households with children had a detrimental effect on dog health while dogs in richer households had more diseases, according to a press release from the University of Arizona on the research. 

Study co-author Layla Brassignton explained the reason why households with children were detrimental to dogs was likely because people would spend more time with their offspring than they would socialize with their dogs. 

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Moreover, the researchers noted in their study that wealthier households probably had a lot more diseases among their dogs because they were more likely to bring their pets to the veterinary, where they would get properly diagnosed. 

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“Dogs who live in households with wealthier owners might seek veterinary care more frequently and have the funds to pay for additional tests, resulting in more disease diagnoses, the researchers wrote.

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Unfortunately, the study was only observational and researchers weren’t able to quantify the number of years adding a few furry friends to your home could add to your dog’s life.

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The study surveyed roughly 21,000 pet owners and was part of the Dog Aging Project, a research project aimed at how genes, lifestyle, and environmental factors affect the aging process of dogs according to The Washington Post.

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