Interaction and Emotional Connection with Pets: A Descriptive Analysis from Puerto Rico

Abstract

The study of human–animal interactions has become a prominent research field. The presence of pets in our daily lives has meant a change in the perception of our relationship with pets. One of the new lines of research that has opened up in this area analyzes the possible physical, emotional, and psychological benefits of a human–animal bond. In this context, two main objectives were pursued in this study, whose sample (N = 1436) was investigated in Puerto Rico: (PO1) determining the characteristics of the owners and the care of the pets within Puerto Rican society and (PO2) to analyzing the benefits of living with pets for health and personal well-being, especially at the psychological level. We sought to identify the feelings that arose in pet caretakers as a result of human–animal interactions. The methodology used, which was descriptive and not experimental, was based on a questionnaire of 86 questions with a Likert scale. After the descriptive analysis was undertaken through a frequency analysis, a binary logistic regression was carried out to establish whether the feelings and emotions of the subjects toward their companion pets were determined by sociodemographic variables and were related to the type of coexistence with their pets. The two main results from this study are as follows: for most owners, their pets are very important beings, and those who establish an emotional connection with their pets experience love, joy, and peace. Pets are part of human life through very intense relationships and interactions that, in most cases, increase personal welfare by providing improvements to the human–animal biopsychosocial system. In this sense, a relationship with a pet has a positive impact on the mental health of the owner. Pets are a part of our family lives and are regulators of the most elementary feelings and emotions in humans.

Effects of contact with a dog on prefrontal brain activity: A controlled trial

“…Social interactions with animals are highly emotionally relevant for a majority of people [7,[31][32][33][34]. We thus hypothesize that interacting with the dog led to higher emotional involvement in the participants compared to interacting with the plush animal.…”

“…Interacting with an animal is a social situation that is emotionally relevant to most people [7,[31][32][33][34]. Several reviews have identified the prefrontal cortex as the key region for different aspects of social cognitive processing, such as theory of mind/mentalizing [35] and understanding self and others [36].…”

The Interplay Between Affect, Dog's Physical Activity and Dog–Owner Relationship

“…Nineteen ( N = 19) volunteer dog owners (17 females, 2 males, age: M = 33 years) were chosen to participate in the study. The most common breeds were Border Collie ( 3 ), Labrador Retriever ( 3 ), mixed breed ( 2 ), and the rest included, for example, Welsh Springer Spaniel, Golden Retriever, Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Australian Shepherd, Doberman, and German Shepherd. Six of the dogs were males, and the rest ( 12 ) were females.…”

“…Domestic dogs are highly social animals, and due to that, mutual relationships develop easily with humans ( 1 ). In Finland, as in many other cultures around the world ( 2 , 3 ), domestic dogs are considered as family members, who usually live at the homes of their owners. The strong social bond between dogs and their owners resembles the attachment between a parent and a child, and includes characteristics present in a friendship [reviewed in ( 4 )].…”

Research on the Relationship Between Pets and Emotion of Human.

“…Based on Ursula Aragunde-Kohl's research, the coexistence of pets and humans is a continuously improving research field, and it has covered many scientific fields. Moreover, according to the results of Aragunde-Kohl's research, pets could have a positive impact on their owners' mental health with emotional connection, including the feelings of joy, peace and love [2]. However, there are two problems in the research.…”