If you find yourself faced with a choice between the two, read on to discover which is better for your wellbeing overall…
Ten years ago, Elisa Roche had recently recovered from cervical cancer, suffered a miscarriage and had broken up with her boyfriend. “I felt really low,” she recalls. Her tonic? She went online and found a litter of puppies in Dorset then travelled by train, in the pouring rain, to take possession of the last one left, a miniature dachshund-chihuahua cross she named Dolly. “I think it is no coincidence that following a miscarriage I opted for a tiny animal who needed looking after,” says Roche now.
Today, Roche lives in a contented trio with Dolly and a rescue cat named Wolfie, “a mean b—-rd” who scratched her for the first year Roche owned him but now tolerates her presence – and that of Dolly. “We’re a weird wolf pack,” she says. “But having the two of them makes for an amusing household.” Not only that, she says, but they keep her both sane and healthy: the dog wakes her up in the morning, welcomes her home in the evening, gets her outside for a bit of exercise and in Roche’s “cold London flat, she’s a handy little hot water bottle”. Wolfie, meanwhile, “is a good exercise in patience. There’s no forcing him to do anything”.
Roche’s set-up is the perfect illustration of the benefits of pet ownership – and manages to disprove the argument that one is either a cat or a dog person. But if you really had to choose, which is better for your wellbeing?
Scientists in Tokyo recently discovered that owning a dog of any breed reduces the risk of older people getting dementia by 40 per cent, as it increases the likelihood of getting out of the house, which leads to more interactions with other people and in turn exercises the brain.
While owners may complain about cold, wet dog walks, they are doing good. A 2017 study published in the journal BMC Public Health examined the influence of dog ownership in older adults. It found that canine owners spent an additional 22 minutes a day walking, taking 2,760 more steps a day, and sat down significantly less. Furthermore, a 2019 paper in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that the odds of a dog owner meeting physical activity guidelines of 150 minutes a week are four times greater than their non-owning counterparts, plus they’re more likely to walk even without the dog. Extra exercise has a knock-on positive effect of burning more calories and improved sleep. “I need to get another dog,” one friend told me ruefully this week. “My health is suffering without one – I’m just not taking enough exercise anymore.”
Mental health in older adults can also be given a boost by a four-legged friend, as highlighted by a 2019 study from the Aging and Mental Health Journal, which found dogs provided companionship, gave a sense of purpose and meaning, reduced loneliness and increased socialisation.
That was the case for Outi and Brian Hubbard, who got their rescue dog Lily when their daughter moved out – taking her dog with her. “We were faced with a house with no dog bowls and it felt like the soul of our home had been ripped out,” says Outi (64). Brian, 66, had recently retired, while Outi was continuing to commute from Hereford to London a couple of days a week. Lily gives Brian company while his wife is away and is a sunny presence. “She sleeps under our bed, and every morning she emerges, tail wagging, so happy to see you – there are no conditions attached.” Lily keeps them fit and healthy, getting two long walks a day. The dog’s location tracker on her collar has provided an unexpected bonus for Outi: “I can see where Brian is all the time.”
Prof Daniel Mills, one of the authors of the 2017 study, agrees. Dog ownership offers “safety, security and consistency”, he says. “You can confide in your pet, and know they’re not going to let you down.”
Dogs have also been found to positively impact children, both when it comes to anxiety levels and blood pressure and heart rates. “It’s well recognised that people see pets as members of the family, particularly in Western cultures,” says Prof Mills. “Our dog smiles and ‘talks’ to us when we walk in the door,” says my friend Meiken Greenamyre of her pet Orly. “The girls come home and go right to her, especially our youngest. It’s her downtime after school. We’ve always had dogs, and the kids have always gone to them instinctively when they are stressed.”
Looking at my own newly acquired puppy – currently chewing up the house while we wait for her to have her last vaccination and be allowed outside – I’m looking forward to being able to take her out for a long walk. But she can also be a cause of anxiety: on day one, she chewed through the ethernet cable, on another, she pooed all over the curtains. She is, however, considerably less stressful than our late cat, who gave my son fleas, got stuck up a tree for two days and eventually disappeared, leaving us all terribly worried, and then devastated when we discovered she’d been run over.
Nevertheless, “cat people” will point to studies that say owning a feline friend beats doggy daycare any day. Researching this article, one friend sent me a picture of her husband looking adoringly at their large cat, Jeremy. Her husband, she says, “has become a fully converted ‘cat man’. Some would say clinically obsessed”. There’s science in their corner too: cats have been found among other things to reduce academic stress in students, have a positive impact on your psychological health, reduce general health issues and improve your kids’ lives.
When it comes to cats, however, Prof Mills says it’s difficult to generalise, largely because for cat owners, any sort of impact, positive or negative, is more likely to be driven by owner expectation. He cites a 2021 paper he co-authored, My Cat and Me, which identified five distinct forms of cat-owner relationship that sound like monogamy levels on a dating app. They include things like “open relationship”, “casual relationship”, “remote association” and “friendship”. “One group of owners have a very loose relationship [with their cat] and see the cat as an aloof loner, so they have very little expectation,” says Prof Mills. “At the other extreme, are those who are very emotionally invested in their animals.” The latter will be much more affected mentally, he says, which can in turn affect the physical, so how the relationship with their cat is “going”. Cats don’t need walking, so don’t affect step count or cardiovascular health in the same way as dogs. The most important piece of the puzzle is the individual animal. “You’ve got to get the right cat for the right person for the relationship to work. If you get the wrong cat, you’re going to have problems,” says Prof Mills.
In short, it’s hard to make a clear-cut call on whether a cat or a dog is better for your health. “The one thing that really comes out in our work is when owners’ expectations of their pet’s behaviour is not met. That is incredibly stressful for them.” (“Unsurprising,” I think, as I look at the trail of chewed slippers, torn-up cardboard and small poos.) “I can tell you that owning a dog is not necessarily a good thing for your mental health,” adds Prof Mills. The more reliant on your pet you are for your wellbeing, the harder it is when things go wrong. As Elena Ratschen, an associate professor in health services research at the University of York, puts it: “It’s wonderful to have pets – but important to be aware of the downsides.” Having a pet can be expensive – and yes, a dog does require walking, and socialising, and cats and dogs both require vets’ visits. The pressures of pet ownership – both physical and mental – can sometimes take over, negating the positive effects, particularly if you’re mentally fragile in the first place.
We are regularly reminded at this time of year, “a dog is for life, not just for Christmas”. Luckily, however, I’m a stoical sort, and according to Mills: “There’s very little to support the idea that pet ownership itself improves your mental wellbeing if you’re already quite happy.” For anyone else wondering whether to take the plunge, the human-animal bond is not confined merely to cats and dogs. Ratschen points to one large study that found that “people cared as deeply for their dog as their hamsters”.
So, no need to decide; just pick the small nocturnal animal that lives in a cage, doesn’t need taking for a walk and only has a life expectancy of two years. You’ll love it as much as a dog, and that can only be a good thing for your health.