post 10/10

Health Benefits of Dogs and Cats

Pets come with powerful mental and physical health benefits for humans. Dogs especially can help reduce stress, anxiety, and depression. Dogs can also take away loneliness, encourage exercise, and improve cardiovascular health. Having a dog for your children can help them grow up to feel more secure and the kids will be more active.

I have two dogs and both of my dogs can understand my tone of voice and the words that I say to them. Dogs are able to understand the use of words that we use, and they're good at interpreting our tone in our voice, and body language. Dogs will try to understand your emotional state and try to understand how we are feeling. My dogs will both try to comfort me when I cry because they can sense me being upset. And when my mom was in the hospital and came back, they would not leave her side until she was better because they knew something was wrong.

The American Heart Association found that having dogs helped with reduced risk for heart disease and greater longevity. Studies also have found that humans who have borderline hypertension adopted dogs from a shelter and their blood pressure declined greatly within five months of having that dog. Another study also found that adults over the age of 65 make 30% less trips to the doctors than those who do not have a pet.

Dogs have proven to help improve healthy lifestyle changes for humans. Some health benefits include increasing exercise, providing companionship, reducing anxiety, adding a routine to your day, and proving a stress relief. Studies have shown that dog owners are more likely to meet their daily exercise requirements and it will keep both you and your pet healthy.

http://www.helpguide.org/articles/emotional-health/the-health-benefits-of-pets.htm

Post 2 10/3

Dogs and boys build character together:

Have you ever thought about dogs helping children build character? Especially from a juvenile detention center? Because I haven't. There is a program in Georgia call Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice's rescue 2 Restore program. And this program began in 2014 hoping to improve the life of youths in these centers to help them get a second chance at adoption for homeless dogs who would of been killed.

During the first year of the program, the youths at the detention centers help care for the dogs. By simply feeding, cleaning, and training them. They have a strict routine that start at 5am and ends at 7pm and make sure that the dogs are walked, fed, and have clean water. This routine goes for about 12 weeks and after those 12 weeks are over, they help the dogs earn their Canine Good Citizen certificates so they can go to the Humane Society to be adopted. The boys get really excited about training their dog the best and get awarded for doing so.

Since I have 2 dogs at home, I trained them well and trained them to go to the bathroom outside and rewarded them by giving them treats. And that is how the boys did it at this program. They would give the dogs positive reinforcements for good behavior and negative behavior was ignored.

Helping these dogs has created good character traits for the boys. They learned to calm down, focus on studies and even get their GED. According to the article, the boy stated "Without the dogs, I never would have gotten my GED, they taught me patiences. I was able to apply that patience to studying." I think that dogs definietly help with patience because they are a lot of work. They are kind of like children and have to have patience with them.

http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/animal-tales/rescue-dog.html

Blog 1 9/26/2016

Keeping pets and people healthy:

Most people have some kind of pet at home that they had since they were little. With it being a dog or cat, there is usually always some type of animal in your home. I am one of those people who did and does have a pet. I actually have 2 dogs and both of them are golden doodles. My family was originally not going to get a pet because we all are allergic to fur. My mom found this type of breed online and did research on it. My mom found that the purpose of the cross breed of golden retriever and poodle was to attempt to develop guide dogs suitable for visually impaired individuals with allergies. Once my mom found that, she decided to check one out and bring me along. I did not have any allergic reactions and later found out that they have a non shedding coat. Knowing that, we got 2 of them. 

Your pet is not just a pet, they are a family member. They provide amusement and companionship. Dogs for example provide you with exercise indoor and outdoor for both the pet and for you as well. According to this article, pets can decrease our blood pressure, cholesterol levels, and triglyceride levels. With that being said, pets make people healthy. 

The main point of this article was to inform us about how diseases can be transmitted to humans. Getting regular vaccinations and veterinarian care can help keep your pet healthy and keep it from transmitting infections to humans. One disease in particular that caught my eye was salmonella and this disease can be transmitted to people through pets, particularly reptiles, baby chicks, and ducklings. Knowing that diseases can be spread through pets to humans is very important because most people have pets and not getting them vaccinated can lead to unhealthy pets and humans. 

All in all, getting vaccinations is very important to your health and your pets health. Healthy pets calls for healthy people. 

Reference: Bren, L. (2004). Keeping Pets (and People) Healthy. FDA Consumer, 38(1), 30-35.