Spending time with dogs can relieve stress — and help you concentrate too, scientists say

No arf-ing kidding.

Any canine owner can tell you that dogs relieve stress — now, a new study backs them up.

Researchers from Konkuk University in South Korea discovered that spending time with dogs helps people relax and concentrate.

For the study, published in Plos One, the experts recruited 30 adults and measured their brainwaves via electrode headsets, while they interacted with a lovable poodle named Aro. 

They did the following eight activities with Aro for 3 minutes each: meeting, walking, playing, feeding, hugging, massaging and photographing. 

Researchers found that walking a dog made a person feel more relaxed, brushing a dog improved participants’ concentration and playing with a dog yielded all of the above. 

When playing with Aro and a squeaky toy, researchers had stronger alpha brain waves, which are associated with relaxation. Walking her in a park trail also produced alpha waves. 

When participants brushed the dog and massaged her they produced more beta brain waves, which are correlated with concentration.

The researchers also asked people how they felt after each activity with Aro and they all reported feeling less stress and depressed.

The participants all said that their moods improved after hugging Aro and feeding her treats. 

“This study demonstrated that specific dog activities could activate stronger relaxation, emotional stability, attention, concentration and creativity by facilitating increased brain activity,” the study authors wrote. 

This isn’t the first study to show that spending time with dogs is good for people’s mental health.

A 2022 study published in the International Journal of Psychophysiology found that spending just 20 minutes with an animal can decrease cortisol, the stress hormone, and increase oxytocin, the hormone associated with love and bonding. 

Another study found that dog owners over 45 are 40 % less likely to get dementia.