The Surprising Mental, Physical, and Social Benefits of Life with Pets, with Dr. Denise Dudley

Amy Castro (00:01.282)
Have you ever wondered just how much your pets really do for you? Most pet parents believe that their beloved pets bring positive benefits to their lives, but you might be surprised by the many physical, psychological, and social benefits you probably haven't even realized. Join us on this episode of Starlight Pet Talk as we uncover the surprising way pets boost our overall well -being. Stay tuned to discover the incredible power of the bond with your pet. You're listening to Starlight Pet

Podcasts for pet parents who want the best pet care advice from cat experts, dog trainers, veterinarians, and other top pet professionals who will help you live your very best life with your pets.

Amy Castro (00:44.814)
Welcome to another episode of Starlight Pet Talk. I'm your host, Amy Castro. And today I have the pleasure of speaking with Denise Dudley, PhD. Denise is a distinguished psychologist, a communication and relationship coach, which I can definitely relate to on a professional level, and a professional trainer. She's also founder and former CEO of Skill Path Seminars, which is a company that has trained over 12 million people worldwide. I kind of

It was interesting how we came to get connected on this because at first glance it's like, why would this lady want to talk to me about pets? But because she has so much background and experience in behavioral psychology, I think not only does she have a unique understanding of human behavior, but also of relationships in general. And we have relationship with our pets. Denise's experience is working as a hospital administrator. She's a certified aid educator.

a licensed field therapist for individuals with agoraphobia, and she's also authored the bestselling audio series, Making Relationships Last. And her latest book, Work It, Get In, Get Noticed, Get Promoted, is used as a career search textbook on numerous college campuses. So in this episode, we're gonna explore the benefits of pets for our wellbeing. And like I said, think Denise's expertise in building relationships will make her the perfect guest.

to help us understand how pets can improve our mental, emotional, and social health. So Denise, thank you so much for volunteering to be on the show today. Thank you so much for inviting me. I guess I asked and then you said yes. That's okay. Hey, I love it when people reach out and have ideas for a show. Yeah, I was very excited about this because I'm normally talking about things like how to ace a job interview on Zoom or whatever, which I love that topic as well.

I happen to love animals and I have many myself. And so it's exciting for me to get to talk about something that's a little bit different from my normal daily routine. Yeah, that's kind of the way I feel about this podcast because I too, I'm usually talking about leadership, communication, customer service, conflict, things like that. And so when I was thinking about podcasts, it's like, hmm, I could do a podcast on that, but this is really my passion. And I think the two things

Amy Castro (02:56.812)
definitely go hand in hand. So we're definitely kindred spirits on both fronts, I think. And we'll have some fun with this today. So when we were talking about all the many benefits that pets provide us in our lives, we kind of broke it down into three major categories. And the first one was mental health benefits. So Denise, what are some of the major mental health benefits that we get by having pets in our lives? Well, the list is long and I had a lot of fun researching it too, just to make sure that I knew

the most prevalent and recent studies. And they're coming out of Harvard, they're coming out of the CDC, the American Psychiatric Association, we call it the APA. So at any rate, to start, let's talk about stress reduction. So we know from research that pet interactions can lower the stress hormones. They're really adrenaline and cortisol. Most people have heard of those before. They're also called the fight or flight hormones. And they're great to have if you have to fight a tiger.

but they're not great to have if you don't see a tiger right now and you don't need to fight one. So pet interactions, and I want to make something clear, which is kind of a surprise that I learned, pet interactions, you could own a pet, you could pet a pet, you could interact with a pet, and you could also simply make direct and prolonged eye contact with a pet. It would confer the same benefit of lowering our adrenaline and cortisol levels, which is something that we

So we can lower the hormones that we really don't like, those fight or flight hormones, but also same thing, interacting with a pet, even making eye contact with a pet is going to raise, it's going to boost another hormone. These are all naturally occurring hormones, a hormone called oxytocin. Oxytocin we're gonna come to a few more times in our talk today because oxytocin confers many, many benefits to us. But one of them is that oxytocin has a very calming effect on us.

So the release of oxytocin can help with our stress levels. For those of you out there in the audience who love thinking about science and things, oxytocin is actually manufactured in the hypothalamus, but it's stored in our pituitary gland, which is right in the middle of your brain there. And it gets released in your bloodstream, into your bloodstream from your pituitary gland when nice things happen, such as bonding things. It's very calming. those are two reasons why we talk about stress reduction.

Amy Castro (05:17.728)
Along with that, think it's kind of the maybe two sides of the coin is the mood boost that we get from pets. So one of the things that I know I do when I go to my doctor and she wants to check my blood pressure is I think calming thoughts about petting a golden retriever puppy. That's kind of my way of calming down. But one of the things that pet parents say a lot is that they could have the worst day and when they come home and their pet is just so darn happy, it doesn't matter if it's

beta fish in the tank or the dog that's jumping and just so thrilled to see you. Absolutely true. That just leads to the to the second one, which is mood boosting. And so not only is it stress reducing, but it's mood boosting to be around a pet. So playing with pets, again, it could be playing with interacting with in any way. Owning one is great. But if you don't own one, I always say you can go borrow one from somewhere. I mean, there really are those of us who would say, please play with my dog, pet my pet. You know, we would love that for.

for pets and maybe even us if we need a break. So playing with pets is going to raise like the oxytocin I talked about, which I want to come back to at another point. Well, there are a couple of other feel good hormones. They're called feel good hormones because they feel good in your body. So playing with a pet is going to raise two things, serotonin and dopamine levels. And those are absolutely key to mood regulation and happiness. They're the things that actually, if we were clinically depressed,

we would actually be taking cyclotropic meds to modulate those. So naturally occurring dopamine and serotonin levels are gonna boost our mood. I mentioned the CDC already, the CDC has just put out an official report that says that having a pet is gonna help manage clinical depression, stress and anxiety, and PTSD, and that's coming right out of the CDC. So they're promoting pet ownership, pet interaction to manage all of those types of challenges.

And then I think I mentioned to you before we went on the air, the APA, American Psychiatric Association, did a study with, it was 2 ,200 adults. And this isn't gonna be a surprise to any pet owner. It's kind of a duh, but it was an 86%, a resounding 86 % of pet owners said that owning a pet impacts, positively impacts their mental health. Yeah, yeah. And for so many reasons. Well, you one of the things that we had talked about was just the basics of companionship. And I know that's on our,

Amy Castro (07:41.13)
list of things to discuss, know, just not being alone, not being isolated when you've got a pet to interact with and something that relies on you. Yes, companionship is a biggie because we know and we can move over from pet ownership and just talk about general well -being, mental health and longevity studies. If we move over to longevity studies, we know that

that having a sense of community, having a sense of not being isolated and alone is one of those things that we believe extends our lives. So pets can combat those feelings of loneliness and isolation, which is again, crucial to our mental health. And they also, and we'll probably come back to this later too, they do another good thing and they provide this sense of purpose and routine so that I get up every day. It's particularly beneficial for elderly people or retired people and...

All the studies that we're looking at in this arena, it even confers to fish. Even though that pet fish isn't somebody you pet, it actually creates that sense of not being lonely. There's something alive with me in my apartment or my home or even my room in some kind of assisted living facility. Having a pet fish makes you feel like you're not lonely. Well, and it's something that's relying on you. I sometimes that's the thing that keeps you going is that nothing's good in life,

I've still got to get up in the morning because my pet, whatever the pet is, needs care. And then you get up, you get moving and the day gets better from there. Absolutely. And that relates to an interesting study recently, Project Street Vet, where as the name implies, veterinarians who go out and help unhoused people's pets. So Project Street Vet figured out that pets, owning a pet can actually deter an unhoused person from substance abuse because of what

about that they know, okay, yeah, I, you know, I've got a lot of opportunity to, for substance abuse, but I also have a pet, a dog, a cat, whatever, who depends on me. Definitely. So the last couple of things that we had previously talked about were, you know, how we feel about ourselves just as human beings, our self -confidence and our self -esteem. Yes. And of course, increased self -esteem and confidence whenever I have a responsibility to care for a pet. And that even moves over to fish.

Amy Castro (09:57.878)
It also moves over to house plants, by the way, so that increased self -esteem and confidence happens because you're keeping something alive and it's depending on you. And boy, plants are the same. They depend on you to water them, to make sure they have enough sunshine and things. So moving from plants, moving up to live animals such as cats and dogs and birds and fish and whatever else you have. So yeah, your self -esteem is boosted when you know that you have succeeded in providing not just life for someone, but we hope.

a high quality of life for someone. They're loved, they're petted, they're groomed, they have clean water, they have food, they have a safe place to sleep, they get walks, get whatever it is that is good to keep them healthy. So yeah, it increases our self -esteem tremendously. Yeah. We've done a couple of episodes related to service animals and we did a guide dog episode specifically about raising guide dog puppies and...

On both of those episodes, my good friend Donna Mack really told a really compelling story about how much her life changed from before she got her guide dog to after. mean, that people, it's not just what Wella does for her in her independence and her mobility, but the way that people interact with her when she's got the dog versus being what she said, basically invisible. So what have you found as far as service animals or supporting people who are otherly

Yes, so beautifully said, by the way. Yes, so people who are otherly abled can definitely benefit. So the first thing that you mentioned that Donna said is super important. And that's that very often people who are otherly abled feel invisible, that no one is interacting with them or they don't know how to interact with them. That I don't know if I should walk up to you and start talking to you. I don't know if I should help you across the street if it looks like you're having a challenge with that. But having a dog, a service animal often breaks that ice.

is much more willing to come up to someone with a service animal and start chatting with them. you have a golden retriever. I had one once or I helped raise a service animal myself. So it sort of opens things up for people who are somewhat challenged sometimes to get social interactions going with other people. Also, mental health clinicians employ all kinds of animals, rabbits, birds.

Amy Castro (12:14.092)
Guinea pigs, there's a great study with Guinea pigs with substance abuse people who are basically incarcerated because of substance abuse, just interacting with Guinea pigs. There's something called the Lovelane Therapeutics, I believe, and they take developmentally disabled children and then have them interact with horses. And it helps them both mentally and physically because it helps them develop certain physical skills. And so there are all kinds of benefits to people with disabilities.

where support animals can definitely help them. And they don't have to be personally trained service animals. They can also be having a pet fish or a plant. It helps. Yeah. Well, it made me think about the many programs that are out there where, whether it's a trained service animals, another fellow speaker friend, Sandy Weaver, takes her dog Archie and goes to the library. Well, she does a lot of things with Archie, but she goes to the library and kids read books to Archie. And there are...

programs for kids to go to shelters and read to shelter dogs because there's there's no judgment when I Misspeak or if I have dyslexia or whatever the case may be so like you said it doesn't have to be your own personal pet It's the interaction with the animal that is so valuable for humans That's a beautiful story and that's one that I haven't heard yet and what a beautiful thing to be reading to Reading to animals at the shelter because they need that contact. So

It's beneficial for the animal and the person. Yes, yes. There's so many of these things that kind of overlap from the mental to the social, of the physical to the mental, because we're holistic human beings. One impacts the other, which creates the other, which creates the other. But definitely a lot of physical benefits, some that I think probably most people are pretty familiar with, but maybe some things that they're not of having that pet. So what kind of benefits would you like to share

For physical health benefits, let's start with our hearts. Again, we're looking at research here and I'd be glad to share after the show with the research, but if you really can find it, some of what I read up on for this episode was really from the world of clinical psychology. are different abstracts and things that I read that most of your audience would not feel like reading because they're mostly boring, but a lot of this be obtained by typing this in on the internet. So owning a pet is definitely linked to lower blood pressure, lower

Amy Castro (14:32.526)
cholesterol and lower triglyceride levels. So those are all three very, important for your heart health. And that of course contributes to your overall cardiovascular health. So the American Heart Association, we got to jump in with them right now. They did a big study and this was pretty interesting stuff. They figured out that owning a dog, now this is specific to a dog, but we'll get to cats too, dog ownership reduced all cause mortality by 24%.

There were two main reasons that it had to do with physical activity, that people who own dogs are more physically active. And then here comes the social connections again, physical activity and social connections were the two things that they believed were why this was this all -cause mortality drop. So it's really important stuff. So Heart Health and American Heart Association is right in on it. Then I mentioned fish already, I think. also another study showed that watching fish

lowers our blood pressure. And that makes sense because we see fish tanks in the offices of dentists and doctors and mental health facilities and things. And so just sitting there watching fish, if you own fish, have an aquarium, can actually lower your blood pressure, which is really nice. It's super relaxing to watch them just back and forth and interacting with each other. Yeah, it really is just such a nice thing to watch. My cat sure thinks so.

I wonder if it reduces stress in cats. wonder. actually backing up a little bit. So this is a cool thing I mentioned earlier about reducing cortisol levels and increasing the oxytocin when you even look in an animal's eyes or interact with it. So that particular research study way back there, it not only created oxytocin in the brain of the human that was released into the bloodstream, it did it in the animal as well. When you're interacting with your pet,

It makes them feel better as well. It reduces their stress. It increases their feel -good hormones as well. So yeah, I bet you probably cats get relaxed watching fish in a tank, I suppose. So, and then another study, if we talk about hearts that I think are important, this was a study out of Sweden. They discovered that the risk of death for a dog owning heart attack patient is reduced by 33 % after they're out of the hospital compared to a non -dog owner. They're less likely to experience

Amy Castro (16:53.686)
recurrent heart attacks if they own dogs. So they believe that's partially because of course the companionship and also because these are people who are living alone. The criteria were that they had had a heart attack, lived alone and they were getting out the hospital. And so living alone, of course it's gonna reduce your loneliness, but it's also gonna make you have to walk the dog because you're the only person who can do it. it actually will again get back to the exercise thing, which we're gonna talk about in a

Then also there was another study I came up with, Journal of Cardiovascular Health 2022, pretty recent, said that having any pet now, we're talking about any pet, is gonna reduce risk of high blood pressure and it's gonna improve the prognosis after you've had a heart attack or a stroke even. So improves your prognosis owning any kind of a pet after those events. Super important stuff. Yeah, I'd like to prevent all that stuff though. So I know physical fitness is definitely one of the physical benefits.

Exactly and fitness is the next thing I would want to talk about. So dog owners are much more likely to get in their recommended physical activity levels, which we all know is 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity. That's what we keep getting told all the time. So a dog owners are much more likely to get to those minimum activity levels and it can lead to lower blood pressure, improved heart health. All those things are beneficial of course. And then as it turns out that pet owners have improved nutrition.

So here's why that is, because I have to feed my dog or my cat. I'm thinking about food. I'm putting the food out at regular intervals. And it makes me have to think about my nutrition as well. And in the case of people who are retired elderly people, people who don't have necessarily a really regulated schedule, it helps them remember to eat and to eat healthily. And then also owning a pet can incentivize people.

to quit smoking. If you happen to be a smoker out there, I hope you're not, but if you know somebody who is a smoker, it actually can incentivize people to quit smoking because of that secondhand smoke. They don't want them to breathe secondhand smoke. And a lot of times studies have shown that people are more likely to quit smoking if they have a pet they're caring for.

Amy Castro (19:03.95)
we're going to actually do an episode coming up. And it doesn't involve smoking per se, but I know one of the things that we're to talk about is just the quality of the water that you're giving your pets. And so in the United States and in most developed countries, we have pretty good quality water in most places, but even something as simple as having a higher mineral level that, you know, it may not impact a 200 pound person, but it might significantly impact a dog. So now you take the same impact of secondhand smoke.

and think about what that's doing to your chihuahuas lungs or to your cat's lungs or whatever the case may be. It's kind of scary to think about how we pollute our homes with stuff like that. that is such a good point. know, their tiny little kidneys and their little livers and their systems, they probably, it's a much bigger impact on them than it would be for

Definitely. Well, and, and, know, speaking from a rescue standpoint, I'm tipping my hand here, but we ask on our adoption applications, whether anybody in the household smokes and where they do that. And even if it's not indoors, sometimes it can be, I hate to say I strike against you, but that's kind of how it works. I mean, you know, it's cause it's like, you're carrying that in on your clothes. It's like, are you really only doing it outdoors? What about when it's raining? Like, yeah, don't want that in the house. Don't want it on my pets for sure. By the way, me neither.

I hope that all the people listening today are either non -smokers or they've quit smoking, or at least they'll give it serious consideration. Right. Right. So what else as far as physical benefits? So immune system strengthening. So there's a lot of research on this and it's interesting stuff. Early exposure to pets. And this is from fetal development. So in the womb. wow. Yeah. Through about the first year of infancy, it can boost children's immune systems

It reduces the risk of allergies and asthma. And interestingly enough, in the allergy department, you would think it would be allergies to pets or allergies, we'll say, to pollen or something. It's food allergies related to food allergies. It can reduce the risk of food allergies and asthma in children if they have exposure to pets, either in the womb or for the first year of their lives. most of us listening to this podcast are not infants, I presume.

Amy Castro (21:17.43)
But there's quite a few people that do have young children. And I mean, we just did an episode a couple episodes back about preparing for a new baby. So we do have quite a few listeners that are in that phase of life. I'm well beyond that. So that's going to pertain to them for sure. Early exposure is actually a good thing. And it flies in the face, of course, of a lot of people, maybe your great grandma, who's going to walk in and go, get that dog away from that baby. Yeah, it actually isn't true.

And for adults, there is an interesting 2023 study that came out that said close interactions with pets are gonna confer protective effect against C. diff. Now, don't ask me to tell you the long bacteria's name, but it's actually a bacterium that causes colon infections. And so being around dogs in particular seems to confer some protective effect against C. diff.

that's actually good for adults as well. Again, just being around dogs. And so, yeah, it's not a bad thing at all. No, definitely. So a couple more things. One of the things that you had mentioned previously was pain management, which I mean, I could see that from the standpoint of moving and mobility and how that helps with pain, but how else do pets benefit our pain? There are a couple of studies on this. So one of the studies says that interaction with pets can help manage chronic pain because it provides a distraction. You're not really thinking about your pain because you're thinking about your pet.

and that it also provides comfort, comfort again, know, calms us down, makes us feel better, which then can reduce the perception of pain. I want to mention the perception of pain. I'm going to argue something else by the way, in a moment, but yes, I think that's legitimate in that we know that like if you had a slight headache, let's say, and you came home and then you started playing with your pet, it's very likely that you're going to forget about that headache if it's a slight one or you, you know, sprained your back or you did something in a minor kind of way. Well, we know

You could do anything. You could play with a pet. could also, I don't know, watch a movie or something, and it might actually reduce that pain because you are distracted. So yes, I think that's true. But I want to argue something else as well, which I didn't find as much in the literature. And it's this, we know, of course, from other studies that interacting with a pet reduces, and we go back to what we talked about earlier, it reduces cortisol and it increases oxytocin. That's one of the fight or flight hormones. Well, it's known also to sort of bunch up or tighten up your muscles.

Amy Castro (23:42.028)
In fact, if you had some kind of pain, you'd go what? You'd go get a massage from a massage therapist. Well, here she isn't trying to tighten your muscles. They're trying to relax your muscles, right? And so to reduce the pain. So I'm gonna say that the reduction of cortisol is going to actually physiologically reduce your pain and the upping of the oxytocin. So I said I would come back to oxytocin. Oxytocin, I mentioned, is a calming.

natural hormone, but it also does some other things. Women who've delivered babies know that oxytocin is present in your bloodstream when you're delivering because for one thing, it starts breast milk. And this is true in all mammals. They all have oxytocin. So this is in any mammal. When she first sees her baby, her kitten, her calf, her human baby, we're releasing.

mammalian milk, breast milk, but we also are bonding. It's a bonding thing so that we fall in love with the thing we're looking at, our baby, our kitten, whatever it is. So oxytocin does those things, but oxytocin also does another wonderful thing. Oxytocin relaxes us. And so again, if we think about oxytocin relaxing us during delivery, when we're delivering a baby, whether that baby's a cow or a horse or anything else, oxytocin helps reduce the pain that we might experience during

childbirth. I'm going to say that pain management is really not just a psychological distraction. It's two hormones. One is reduced. One is increased that I believe is definitely controlling our pain. Hmm. Yeah, that's, that's interesting. And that totally makes sense. And then the last one that, that you had mentioned was improved sleep, which I might want to argue with you on that one because it kind of depends on how good of a sleeper, you know, I have

completely blind cat and she's just laying down and sleeping, that's great. But what she likes to do is she likes to get up on my head and suck her toe. Like it's very loud. Or she'll decide, despite the fact that I could go off of this king side bed with only one human in it, I can go multiple different routes. I have to go across the pillow, across the crowded nightstand and knock everything off along the way.

Amy Castro (25:53.664)
And so very often she gets put like Fred Flintstones, not outside of the house, but outside the bedroom door. But I do also see how some people might benefit, especially if your pet's not like that crazy cat that I have. First of all, we'll go back to that regular physical activity that in this case in particular dogs, although my cat and I take walks a lot, but which is a really Zen kind of a walk. The mindfulness thing, like walking with a cat can really be a very mindful Zen kind of experience. But anyway, physical activity with dog owners.

Of course, if you want to sleep better at night, you do have to get out and move during the daytime and that will help you to sleep at night. So that's one of the reasons it's kind of obvious. Now, then we move over to sharing a bed with a dog or a cat. That is such a controversy and I think it is so individual. Like my last three rescue dogs have chosen and it may be because they came from another family. They've chosen to sleep on a little bed next to my bed. My dog before that slept with me. Some people will say,

my gosh, you I can't sleep with the dog and even professionals will say, well, you shouldn't sleep with the dog because it's going to keep you awake at night and whatever else. I think it depends because my dog, was way back, Rachel was her named, my dog and I slept together very well. We were, we did not disturb each other's sleep, I'm sure. And yet I have other dogs who would be turning and tossing and turning all night on the little bed next to my bed. And I think to myself, I'm so glad you're not doing that up here in my bed because I distracted. So I think it depends on the person and the dog.

But people will say that having a dog makes them feel safer. So we who live alone. So we feel like at night, even though the dog is friendly and the dog, you know, really wouldn't harm an intruder, that least they're like an early warning system that might tell us that something is amiss in our homes, which right report helps them to sleep longer and better. So, yeah, improved sleep is one of the things that

Yeah, I definitely would agree with that safety factor is when you are by yourself, whether you live alone or whether, you know, your significant other or whoever else lives in your household is out of town. For some reason, that's the time where, you know, you hear the bump in the night and it's like, and so it's like, now you're all paranoid about it and having the dog there. Like you said, even if it's, you know, not like the dog's going to attack a burglar, but you know, I mean, there is a lot of research that also backs up

Amy Castro (28:11.17)
people trying to break into a home, all they have to do is hear a dog barking, an advanced alert, and that's enough deterrent to keep somebody from breaking in. And then you add to that, okay, maybe my bulldog is, well, actually my bulldog probably would bite somebody given the right circumstances, but people are afraid of her because she's big and she's chunky and they see her come running and they think twice. So I know there's that deterrent factor and it does.

give me little bit of sense of security. I don't need an alarm because I've got six dogs in the dining room. I got six dogs between me and the front door. That's a good alarm. That is a very good alarm system. Yeah. Yeah. I think it helps me to sleep too, to have a dog. All right. And so last but not least, and again, this is where the of the crossover comes into place, but I threw it under the category of

you know, social or lifestyle benefits. And you mentioned before the idea of routine for people without a schedule. I don't know if there was anything else you wanted to mention on that, or if we kind of covered that one. Well, yeah, I think we've sort of talked about it that, you know, pets do require regular feeding and exercise and grooming and all those things. And it helps to establish and maintain a regular routine for their owners. And it's really helpful for people who are struggling with structure in their daily lives for whatever reason, be they've been let go of a

or they've recently retired and they haven't figured out how to write themselves and have things to do on a regular schedule. a lot of times their rhythms are similar to ours. Like they know when we wake up and go to sleep. And even if you didn't have an alarm clock, you as a mammal would figure out, I wake up about this time, I go to sleep about this time. Well, they're mammals just like us and they figure out those schedules. So it really does help to regulate things like sleep wake cycles, eating cycles. Yeah, they're amazing things about.

regulating schedules that are helping and definitely having an animal will help with that structure of your daily life. There's also an interesting, and I wasn't sure where to put this in here, but I will right now. So JAMA, that's the Journal of American Medical Association. They reported just recently on a Chinese study and the Chinese study was actually taking data that had come from a study in the UK, but it had to do with cognitive decline in people over 50 and discovered that pet ownership

Amy Castro (30:25.526)
slows the rate of cognitive decline greatly. It really is something that helps with our health and with our memory, with all kinds of things. yeah, the daily routine really helps. Yeah, just having moved from a suburban home to a place with acreage, it's a physical thing, but it ties to the idea of routine is that when you have horses that need to be led in or out

You know, it's going out to the barn and doing what needs to be done out there. It's going out to this other building for the chickens or whatever. Like you said, it's walking the dog, going outside, even pooper scooping the yard. You know, that's something that's part of that routine and it becomes part of your, part of your structure. And I think once you're up and going, then the whole human interaction thing becomes easier. It's like, now I'm up and about, I might as well go ahead and go do et cetera. Whereas I feel like sometimes people, like I know I can get really head down on the computer some days and.

my doctor's always shocked and appalled and my eye doctor especially is how much hours I can go and get zoned in on the computer. I mean, I could probably sit for 10 hours and not get up, but at least I'm forced to by getting into these other routines. So that's really more of the physical, but you know, does, like I said, there is crossover here, but what about the human connection aspect of pets? Yes, so absolutely. And what you were saying a second ago is also true too, that many of us could sit for 10 hours. Many of

kind of feel like we have to sit for 10 hours because of the jobs we have. I'm a writer. I do a lot of writing. I'm just sitting here. I also have clients and a lot of them are on zoom. So I'm sitting in front of my computer working with clients. And so if I don't take a break, I could end up sitting for way too long, but having a cat and a dog, both indoor animals, I have a lot of outdoor animals too, but I must get up and walk outside with them and take them on a little break and walk around and take it. It is really very beneficial.

our health to have to get up and move because sometimes we just don't do it. And so, yeah, just want to reinforce that. So socialization and community connections. That was something I wanted to talk about. So, and most anyone who has a dog or a cat or anything else that they're taking out into public, walking a dog can facilitate social interactions and build your community. So if you're out walking a dog, so many, if you're walking by yourself, it always bothers me by the way, because I, I can't, I go back to us being mammals. Like I'm somebody who speaks to people.

Amy Castro (32:51.156)
if I'm coming within a few feet of them, because to me, it seems like a natural thing. We're both humans. We're passing each other on the streets. So I say hello to strangers. And I also work, as you know, all around the country as a trainer and a speaker. So in certain cities where I am, people, they're all speaking. I can get on some streets in some cities. And if I say hi, people actually are just like, do I know you or.

you're doing speaking to me and I just saying hi because I'm a human speaking to a human. anyway, we can get varying degrees of responses if we just randomly say hello to people. However, with a dog, I'm walking with a dog, I can smile at someone, they can smile at me, they can look at my dog, they go, what a cute dog. And then I can say, my gosh, yeah, you want to pet him. And so it creates that impetus for interaction that seems a little bit more natural.

and more acceptable, I guess I'll say. So yeah, it can create those connections and that socialization and that reduces loneliness. It fosters a feeling of belonging. Here's a fun thing that I read in a study. So at Harvard University, tutors who have dogs have the most highly attended study breaks because the students aren't just coming to do their study break with their tutor, but they get to play with a dog. And so tutors who bring their dogs to those study breaks have better attended study breaks. And

I think that's a great funny little study that says, yeah, dogs are magnets. They just want people, they want people to come and interact with them. And dogs are, I speak to all dogs actually in restaurants. I always smile and wave at a dog, even if the owner doesn't want me to, because I look at them and they're just smiling at me. Why would I not want to speak and smile back? So yeah, that interaction gets started that way. yeah, yeah, that socialization stuff, really important stuff.

Also, when I'm traveling and I don't have my dog or my cat with me and I'm missing them, going to like a pet cafe, and some pet cafes are owners bringing their own pets, but some of them are pets are already there. they've got a, I went to a cat cafe recently when I was in England, because I was missing my cat and they had seven cats and you could have a cup of tea and play with seven cats. I'm immediately there. I was working and I just was missing my cat.

Amy Castro (35:04.974)
So many ways that then you start interacting with the other people in the pet cafe, because obviously they like pets as well. In psychology, we call that a self sort. And so people who are in there are the same as me. They're going to want to talk about their pets and interact with each other or they wouldn't be there. Yeah. It gives you that automatic kinship, but also something to talk about. And it just is easier maybe for people. Absolutely. I agree. 100%. It just, creates

a more natural environment and an impetus to visit and to have a chat and to make it feel natural and to not be searching for what to talk about. We already know we're gonna talk about our pets. Right. And last but not least, one of the things that we had talked about was learning. I struggle with this a little bit with people who want to get a pet because it's gonna be a learning opportunity for their child. I think you need to really look at that in a much broader sense as,

Is your five year old really gonna take on the 100 % responsibility for that border collie? Probably not, but there definitely are lots of opportunities for children and other people to learn when they have interactions with pets. Absolutely, and it's not just, we'll start with children and then we'll talk about adults. yeah, children, absolutely. We have to make sure because of course, first and foremost, we have to ensure the safety and the health of any pet we take in, any pet on any level, whether it's a fish,

or a dog or a cat or a plant, like we mentioned earlier, that yeah, that we are responsible and we really must make sure that we ensure their health and safety. So at any rate, yes, taking on a pet and knowing that my five -year -old is gonna help me, I have to make sure regardless of whether he or she remembers to fill the dog water that I will make sure the dog water is filled. We can't actually literally just resign and make them do it because that would jeopardize the pet. So, but it still

a good way to start teaching again, routine, regulation, responsibility, even schedule. Like we feed dog every morning at 8 a That's what we do. So we don't sleep in on Saturday because our dog needs to be fed. So there are lot of reasons why it does help to learning opportunities for children as they learn about pets and pet care. But I also want to talk about adults because we adults, we grownups, anybody who wants to talk

Amy Castro (37:25.314)
preventing cognitive decline, which we talked about a little bit earlier. So learning opportunities, learning new things, really important stuff for our brains to stay healthy. And there's no doubt that if you suddenly decided that you wanted to adopt, and I have personal experience with this, if you wanted to adopt a pet duck, well, you'd have to learn about a duck. So what does a duck need? It needs this kind of food. It needs this kind of shelter. It needs to be in water, or maybe it doesn't need to be in water. Do we know that? We better find

So definitely if I decided I wanted to take on a pet, I have a friend right now who just adopted her first dog. She'd never had a dog before. And so she's learning. She just didn't come from a family that had one. And so she's learning about dogs and about dog walks and dog treats and dog health and dog beds and all these things. And it's just delightful to listen to her enthusiasm about what she's learning. And my personal experience I want to mention because I live in the country, as you know, and

At first, I'm a city dweller. I came from the city, but I moved to the country and I love animals. So I decided, of course, as a responsible adult, that if I were going to have an animal, I'd better learn how to take good care of them. And it's amazing what you can learn if you just read books or now we have the internet to just go in there and read and learn. So I told myself, if I'm going to have guineas, I must know how guineas live, what they need, what they eat and how to care for them. I read about guineas. I learned about

I had guineas. I had to learn about, what about goats? I'm gonna take in rescue goats. Well, what do they need? So truly adults can benefit as well and our brains can expand by learning about how to care for pets. I think it's a great learning opportunity. Yeah, for sure. And I think that learning begins with, cause we've stressed this so much on this show is learning about the animal before you get it. And then in addition to learning more after you get it, but to really ensure

that you are picking a pet, assuming you're even gonna take in a pet permanently as your own, that you know what you're getting into and that you have the financial capacity, mental capacity, time capacity to give it what it needs to live a proper life. I think so many times people are, you they jump into something. It's like, my neighbor's got a puppy, I'm gonna get a puppy or.

Amy Castro (39:41.954)
you know, kids need to grow up with a dog and it's like, no, they don't necessarily, you know, it kind of depends on you, your lifestyle, the kind of dog that you're picking. And have you explored other possible pets that could provide those same benefits to you and your family? Because there are so many options when it comes to our pets. Absolutely, absolutely true. Yeah. And that's part of the educational process as well to go ahead and research donkeys, but it might turn out that you shouldn't have one because you can't provide what they require.

Yeah, definitely. So to kind of bring all this together, all of these benefits don't mean that we're saying you've got to go out and get yourself a pet. You're required to do that. That, you know, that these, these benefits can be reaped for not only you, but for the pets in so many different ways. So, you know, we talked about cat cafes and that's, you know, that's an option, but what else can people do without taking on the full -time 24 seven commitment of a

So if they're living in a place where a pet would just not work for one reason, a tiny apartment on the 15th floor and no elevator or whatever, where it's just going to work. So going to animal shelters and playing with pets, walking, every animal shelter needs volunteers. I've never heard of it doesn't. mean, literally every single one needs volunteers. going there and comforting those pets who don't have a home, who knows what's happening that placed them there, probably a surrender. And so

freaked out, they're missing their family there. So anything we can do to provide comfort to those pets and we need people to do that. so number one would be to go and interact and play with pets at a shelter. And that's just so important. And it confers all the benefits we talked about, lowering your blood pressure, doing all those things. Same thing, it doesn't have to be your pet. Going to dog parks.

You don't want to be the creepy person lurking at the dog park. lady in the trench coat at the dog park that doesn't have a dog. Yeah, I've been in that role and approach really in a friendly way saying, I love dogs. I'm just traveling right now. I miss dogs. But most dog owners in a dog park are really happy to talk to you. You end up talking to the person more than the dog because the dog's usually off playing with other dogs. But even watching dogs play for me, I know confers benefits. I know.

Amy Castro (41:59.682)
for a fact, I can just feel myself relaxing when I see dogs all smiling and playing with each other. So finding a dog park if you're traveling, or if you don't have a dog, go to the local dog park. Volunteering to walk neighbors' dogs or volunteering to pet sit for people who are out of town. Many people want that. And I know there are some actual Facebook groups and things in different communities that have created basically a circle of people who are willing to pet sit or need pet sitters. And so go online and see what

community because a lot of times pet sitters are needed. So there are all of opportunities to interact with other people's pets. Also, like if I'm at restaurant and I see a dog and the dog is smiling at me and it's, you know, under the table of my neighbor who's having dinner, a lot of times either before, during, or after my meal, I'll just, if the dog's smiling and wagging, I know they're friendly and I'll go over and ask if I can pet their dog. And I've never had anyone say no. They've always just

wanted to tell me about their dog and how old it is and where it came from and all those things. And then I'm playing with a dog. So many, many ways to do it. And I did want to emphasize that. Thanks for bringing it up because I want to make sure people feel included, even if they don't have a dog of their own or a cat of their own, or they don't even have a fish or a plant. They still can have one. Yeah. Or maybe just somebody's not ready to make that commitment because of where they are in life or they're traveling a lot for work. I want to mention two other things to kind of add to that list, kind of in the same vein.

Number one would be fostering. know, if you, we are, we are a foster based, Starlight Outreach and Rescue is a foster based rescue. Right now I have probably 25 cats living in our cat room that I'm quite sure would rather be not, not in, you know, they're out a good part of the day, but they also get put in a little kennel at night because I don't want fights breaking out in the night or, know, anyone getting into something they shouldn't, you know, I like it to be at least moderately supervised, but boy would I love it, especially with a long -term

I've been living in that room for the last year for somebody to take that cat home for a weekend and just play with it, let it see what it's like being in a regular house. So fostering, if you find the right organization to foster with, it can be completely on your terms. It could be two days, it could be two weeks, it could be, until I decide I've had enough or until I have my vacation in August.

Amy Castro (44:18.4)
And if you find the right rescue, like our rescue, you will not pay a dime out of your own pocket unless you sneak around behind my back and do things. Cause I have a lot of fosters like, I bought him this, but I didn't want you to have to pay for it. It's like, but I will pay for it. I mean, I love that you do that, but I mean, we provide all the food, all the toys. If you say, Hey, I think he would like this. will have it on your porch tomorrow. kid you not. So fostering is a, is a fantastic opportunity for people who, like I said, either you financially don't want to make that commitment or you travel a lot, you

to have the benefits of a pet without the responsibilities, the extensive responsibilities. And then I also wanted to mention there, and it's an organization in New York City called Paws New York. We did a whole episode on that. if you didn't listen to that, for those who were listening, go back and check that out. But that organization is set up to help people who are either disabled

older and can't get out and about, can't walk their dogs, that they literally have volunteers that will go to somebody's apartment, pick up their dog, take it for a walk, take it to a vet appointment. And basically they provide that service for their clients, for lack of a better term. It could be every single day that somebody comes and walks that dog. You might, like you mentioned before, helping neighbors. It could be helping your neighbor when they go on vacation, or could be helping a senior citizen who can't get out and get their dog for a

to take that little dog or big dog, whatever it might be, for a walk around the block, that would be greatly appreciated. And you get the benefit, your neighbor gets the benefit, the dog gets the benefit, everybody wins. those are beautiful suggestions. And thank you for thinking of them. Even though you asked me the question, you sure helped me out by coming close. Well, and also my current rescue dog, Blue.

I love him. He's off on a camping trip right now. I don't have him with me right now. And that's why that's why my cat Luna is trying to get in here right now. She's her playmate. But but Blue, I fostered for numbers of weekends, quite a while. And then finally, you know, I realized that first of all, he wasn't going to hurt Luna. That was one of the things because dogs like cats. And so once I knew that he was fine and also I don't have any fences here because I live in the country, I had to make sure he wasn't a runner.

Amy Castro (46:25.996)
but I fostered him until I could adopt him. And so yes, it's a good way to sort of test the dog and test your environment and see whether that's going to be a match. Yeah, it's a great option when you have it for sure. So I told you I have one surprise that you don't even know about. So this is even show and tell, so be excited. OK.

I have one more benefit to show. It might work for your audience. It might not, but we'll see. So I now have discovered as of last Saturday, that Saturday night that owning a pet might, here's my show and tell. Okay. So if you're watching, if you're, if you're listening to this only, you got to go to YouTube and at least watch the last minute or so of this podcast. Here's the reveal owning a pet might make you discover that you're an artist. look at that. That's awesome.

Can you see that? So for those who are just listening, Denise painted this fabulous painting of a longhorn, because she mentioned before she has longhorn cattle, but a really fabulous painting of a longhorn. See, and you find your artistic ability. And was that relaxing to paint that? Was actually. So a friend of mine wanted to do a paint your pet. You know, there are lots of them around, I guess, where you go into an art studio and you have a photo of your pet. And so

I had sent photos, you have to send photos ahead of time. And then the person who organizes it decides on the right photo for you to paint. And so I sent pictures of Luna, my cat, and Blue, my dog, and sort of several. And then I sent one of my Longhorns, that Longhorn's name is Tom. And he also goes by the name Tiger because he's a brindle and he is a pet. And we've had him since he was a baby and he's 20 years old now. So he's an old Longhorn. And so the organizer, I walked in, everyone had,

a cat or a dog, they're gonna paint. And then I had the long horn. thought, my gosh, well, I gave her the option. She chose it, the person who was organizing. And so yes, I got to, I'm not a painter. I'm not an artist. And so was great though. It was a two hour event and a benefit of course for animals. And so I started painting and it's super relaxing for me, super relaxing. I have no ego investment in being a painter. That might be part of it.

Amy Castro (48:39.598)
It could have turned out better or worse and it wouldn't have mattered to me. It was just fun to do. But yeah, so I just had to add that after, after Saturday night, I think, well, I thought to myself, I'm going to be talking to Amy and I thought that you might just discover a new hidden talent if you're a pet owner. there you go. Yeah. Well, you you reminded me, I did one of those paint things and did an animal, but it wasn't even my own animals. was like fantasy animals in my head, apparently, but I do crochet cat

so I have crocheted a couple of cat sweaters for tiny kittens that were, I had, started with this one little kitten that she would go into the kitchen and then she'd get right up next to the refrigerator and just stay there. And I'm like, why is she doing that? And then I realized there was heat coming out. I hadn't thought about it and she was cold. So the next thing I knew, I, and I didn't even use a pattern. just guesstimated the whole thing. So I made this cat vest. I will say it was not a big hit with the

She did not appreciate it right away. It took her a little while to get used to it. But since then I've also crocheted a couple of like over the shoulder bags that I can carry kittens and cats around in. So who knew I could crochet? I it off of YouTube. See, so you discovered your artistic talent. There you go. For you, yeah. Yeah. It's so nice. my gosh. Well, this was so much fun Denise. I appreciate you so much being on the show

letting everybody know about all of these wonderful benefits that we get from our pets. I'm sure some people knew some of them and I love the fact that we can get these benefits even if we don't have a permanent pet living with us 24 seven. So thank you so much for sharing all this great information with us. My pleasure. I just have had so much fun and I was looking forward to doing this today. Truly. Me too. All right. Great. Well, thank you again to everybody for listening to another episode of Starlight Pet Talk and be sure to share this episode with your

Friends, whether they have pets or not, because they could be gaining all of these wonderful benefits, regardless of whether they currently have a pet. So be sure to check in with us next week. Thanks for listening to Starlight Pet

Amy Castro (50:39.399)
Be sure to visit our website at www .starlightpettalk .com for more resources and be sure to follow this podcast on your favorite podcast app so you'll never miss a show. If you enjoyed and found value in today's episode, we'd appreciate a rating on Apple. Or if you'd simply tell a friend about the show, that would be great too. Don't forget to tune in next week and every week for a brand new episode of Starlight Pet Talk. And if you don't do anything else this week, give your pets a big hug from us.