As Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 (13–19 May) kicks off, with a theme of ‘Movement: Moving more for our mental health’, Dr Émilie Crossley from the Society for Companion Animal Studies (SCAS) explores how dog walking can help us to move more and feel better.
Moving more for our mental health
We all know that moving our bodies is important for our physical health, but movement also carries significant benefits for our mental health.
The Mental Health Foundation suggests that regular physical activity can positively impact our mood, reduce stress and anxiety, treat depression, improve self-esteem, and protect against cognitive decline in older people. They also point to research indicating that doing physical activity outdoors in a natural environment can have greater mental health benefits than exercising indoors.
Walking is one of the easiest ways of getting more physically active. It doesn’t require any special equipment, it’s affordable, and it can be done just about anywhere. This is where companion animals can play a role in supporting our mental health through encouraging us to move more, for example, through dog walking.
Dog walking: a way to get moving
Humans and dogs both need to exercise, so dog walking is a mutually beneficial activity. Research suggests that dog owners are more likely to walk for recreation than non-dog owners and that children with dogs tend to walk more than those without. There is also evidence that owning a dog may help older people to keep active: a UK study found that older adult dog owners achieve an average of 22 additional minutes of walking per day compared to non-dog owners.
It can be challenging to increase your level of physical activity when the motivation for doing so is to improve your own health and wellbeing. However, many dog owners experience a sense of ‘dog obligation’ that strongly motivates them to walk their dog – for the dog’s benefit rather than their own. In this sense, dog walking can be understood as a form of ‘purposeful activity’ which is more likely to be sustained in the long run.
Mental health benefits of dog walking
In a study that conducted focus groups with 35 dog owners, Ana Maria Barcelos and colleagues found that dog walking was strongly associated with positive feelings, indicating that this activity may contribute to human wellbeing. Dog owners associated walking their dog with both positive ‘high arousal’ affects, such as happiness and excitement, and positive ‘low arousal’ affects, such as calmness and relaxation. Dog walking helped participants to maintain a routine, connected them socially with other people, and provided a greater sense of purpose in their lives.
Similar findings were obtained in a qualitative study of 10 dog owners in New Zealand. Using an innovative ‘dog-walk-along interview method’, through which participants were interviewed while walking their dogs, Kate Campbell and colleagues found that dog walking was experienced as positive and relaxing. Participants framed dog walking as a chance to escape from busy jobs, providing respite in beautiful, relaxing natural locations. They also derived personal satisfaction from walking their dogs as an act of care towards a much-loved ‘friend’ or ‘family’ member.
Using a similar methodology, but this time in the UK, Carri Westgarth and colleagues’ research draws attention to what they describe as the ‘vicarious pleasure’ involved in dog walking. That is, positive emotions in dog walkers can be produced by their perception that the dog they are walking is enjoying themselves. This finding indicates that the human–dog bond may be key for maximising the psychological benefits of dog walking.
These studies indicate that what is so powerful about dog walking is that it potentially combines a number of elements all known to improve mental health: exercise, purposeful activity, emotional connection, social contact, and time spent in nature.
What if you don’t have a dog?
Dog ownership is a commitment that not everyone is able or willing to make. However, there are other ways to get involved in dog walking. In the UK, there are volunteer dog walking opportunities for dog rescues, animal shelters, and charities such as the Cinnamon Trust.
There are also commercial services that connect dog owners who need a hand with their dog care with potential dog walkers in their local area. And, of course, more informal dog walking arrangements between friends are often easy to make. As a non-dog owner myself, I certainly enjoy taking my neighbours’ dog for an occasional walk, even if it’s just around my garden as she searches endlessly for my cats!
Companion animals and mental health
Beyond encouraging us to get outside and get moving, dogs and other companion animals provide humans with a range of benefits that can support our mental health. Here you can read the blog post written by SCAS Trustee Dr. Helen Brookes for last year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, which discusses her research on the role of companion animals in supporting people to manage mental health difficulties.