How Love Benefits Your Dog’s Health

There’s a popular phrase that I see frequently in the dog world. It reads, “If love would have saved you, you would have lived forever” and is used to commemorate our love for our dogs who have passed to the Rainbow Bridge. It really speaks to me, as I am sure it does to you, too. We have all longed to heal our dogs with all of the love in our hearts.  

I’ve been writing for many years about being a compassionate, loving, patient dog owner. I am also passionate about holistic health and creating a lifestyle for our dogs. I have spent the last 11 years doing everything I can to keep my own dogs’ lives as free of toxins as possible. In pursuit of this mission, I have learned that these two things are intertwined. In this blog post we will explore how love is connected to wellness and why loving our dogs can benefit our dogs’ holistic health.

 If Love Could Have Saved You

Let’s go back to that quote for a minute. I did some research and found that it is part of a poem by a woman named Jennifer Ag. It is called If Love Could Have Saved You and I found the full version on a website called Pet Loss Matters,

“If love could have saved you
If hugs could have healed you
If friendship could have cured you
You surely would still be with me.

If kisses could have kept you breathing
If treats and petting kept your heart beating
If devotion could have mended your wounds
Your gentle voice would not be silent.

If love could have saved you
You would surely still be with me
But even though you are not
You will always be my best friend.”

Source: Pet Loss Matters

 

The Mind-Gut Axis

Holistic health means supporting all of the various systems of a dog or a human as interconnected. Love is part of the equation. You see, there is something called the mind-gut axis. Your gut is your digestive system, and your mind is, of course, your brain. We have this mind-gut axis and so do our dogs.

Essentially, having a healthy digestive system helps your brain function better, and a healthy brain helps your gut work better. It’s a two-way street, so ideally, you want your brain and your gut to both be living the good life.

Research also shows that a healthy digestive system increases your immune system function, so when you put all of this together it becomes clear that a healthy, happy brain leads to a healthy gut that’s working well, which leads to better immunity.

The Physical Power of Love

A loving environment cultivates feelings of emotional fulfillment and peace. This is true for dogs and humans. When we spend time together, both of us benefit. Whether it means going on adventures together, or spending quiet, down-time together, dogs flourish when they spend time with the humans who love them.

Researchers have studied the physical effects of petting dogs. For humans, petting a dog promotes, “the release of serotonin, prolactin and oxytocin- all hormones that can play a part in elevating moods.” Studies also show that dogs also experience a surge of oxytocin when they receive loving affection from their humans.

How Oxytocin Helps Us

Research shows that oxytocin reduces mental stress and physical pain. In fact, in one medical abstract states, “Oxytocin can induce anti-stress-like effects such as reduction of blood pressure and cortisol levels. It increases pain thresholds, exerts an anxiolytic-like effect and stimulates various types of positive social interaction. In addition, it promotes growth and healing. Repeated exposure to oxytocin causes long-lasting effects by influencing the activity of other transmitter systems, a pattern which makes oxytocin potentially clinically relevant.” 

 

Dogs Show Love Differently Than Humans

All animals have ways of showing affection, respect, dominance, submission, love, fear. In the same way that different cultures of humans have different mannerisms and cultural norms, so do animals. While we humans show love by holding someone close, that can be considered to be aggressive or dominant to a dog and they feel stress. When we show them love the way they want to feel loved, it helps their mind be happy and healthy.

My Jackson is a great example of this. Hugs and over the top affection are stressful to him. This is actually common in many dogs. I have to force myself to limit the hugs and kisses that I give him. As much as I want to wrap him in my arms and hold him close, I know by his body language that he hates that. He leans away, he turns his head away from me, and if I persist, he will get up, walk away, and go lay down in his kennel. As much as I want to be able to hold him tightly to me, do not want him to feel that stress.

Instead, I provide affection to him on his terms. I know that he loves ear rubs and chin scratches by the way he leans into them. He will seek me out, turn onto his back and ask for tummy rubs. He loves to walk under my legs so I can reach down and scratch the top of his back and back legs. When he is done, he just walks away. These things give him joy, which I can tell by his demeanor and the way he seeks this attention. These are the types of affection that raise his oxytocin, not the way that I as a human want to love up on him. And that’s ok, I love him for being a sentient being and having his own mind. Otherwise I’d get a fake plush dog to snuggle.

So is love all you need for holistic health?

Of course, love is not all that you need to live a long and healthy life. If that were true, we would have immortality in real life and not just in fiction. We still are mortals and all living, breathing creatures have a life-span. Love is only one part of the equation of holistic health.

Creating a holistic life for our dogs means taking steps to keep toxins out and the immune system boosted. Love is a big component but it is not the only part of this lifestyle. It will not keep our beloved dogs with us forever. However, it will make the time we do have together the best that it can be. Love makes us happy and being happy helps us be more healthy. With love, dogs and humans can live better, more full lives with each other.