According to a 2011 study published by the American Psychological Association, owning a dog improves the well-being of people, and can serve as an important source of social and emotional support for people from all walks of life.
Psychologists at Miami University and Saint Louis University conducted a series of experiments to examine the potential benefits of dog ownership among people. Dog owners “had greater self-esteem, were more physically fit, tended to be less lonely, were more conscientious, were more extraverted, tended to be less fearful and tended to be less preoccupied than non-owners.”
According to a study from psychologytoday.com, scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna have found that the bond between dogs and their owners shares striking similarities to the relationship between human parents and their children. Secure Base Effect is a fundamental part of parent-child bonding. Human infants view their caregivers as a secure base when it comes to gaining confidence for interacting with the environment inside and outside the home. Until now, Secure Base Effect had not been thoroughly examined in dogs and their owners.
According to a study from academia.edu, a recently stipulated idea is the one that dogs are able to emotionally relate to people through what seem to be human-like visual cues. Dogs trigger a biological reaction in humans. More specifically, when dogs gaze upon their owner, people have shown increased levels of oxytocin. This is a hormone, more popularly known as the love hormone.