How Dog Clinical Trials Help Us Live Longer and Healthier Lives

You probably don’t need more reasons to love your dog, but recent studies have shown that our furry friends can actually help us live longer. In addition to the general health benefits of dog ownership, your pet may also be able to participate in a dog clinical trial to help develop new treatments for both canine and human ailments such as cancer.

Man’s Best Friend

Many of the benefits of dog ownership are found in the ways they enrich our lives. Dogs provide mental benefits such as companionship and social connection, as well as improving our physical health in a variety of ways. In exchange, we provide them with safety, comfort, and affection.

Prescription Puppies

Having a dog is known to reduce loneliness, as many of us see our dogs as friends and companions. We share our lives with our dogs, bond with them, and even talk to them – and studies have shown that, in a way, they can even talk back. The social connection a dog provides can help us cope with stress, anxiety, and depression, so much so that companion animals are actually medically prescribed treatment for such issues.

Getting to Know You

Dogs can also help their humans develop social skills. Beyond the connections we have with them, dogs can help us connect with other humans. Dogs get us out of our homes and into our neighborhoods, where we often run into other residents and form neighborly bonds. A person walking a dog is commonly seen as more approachable, and both those with their own dogs and those who love them from afar may stop to interact with our pets – and, by extension, with us. Some neighbors may even recognize us based on our dogs.

Our dogs make us happy, and the happier we are, the more productive we are likely to be. A study at Central Michigan University indicated that bringing a dog to work may increase both your productivity and that of your coworkers. Having dogs in the office also created stronger social bonds among teams.

Let’s Get Physical

Dogs have a lot of energy, and helping them release that energy gets us moving as well. Whether we’re going on neighborhood walks, playing friendly games of fetch, or wrestling with a tug-of-war toy, being active with our dogs is good for our health.

We know loving a dog has tons of benefits, both physical and mental, but as dogs are enrolled in more veterinary clinical trials, they may also provide crucial information about cancer treatment.

Bless Your Heart

Spending time with our pets actually improves our cardiovascular health. A University of Buffalo study found that caring for a dog may actually be more effective at lowering blood pressure than some pharmaceutical treatments. Petting a dog can also lower anxiety and stress responses, including heart rate, blood pressure, and adrenaline.

A Kid’s Best Friend

Dogs don’t only help the adults who primarily care for them. Our critters have also been shown to be invaluable in the healthy emotional and social development of children. Playful pets help young children blow off steam and relieve tension and pent-up emotions. Encouraging a child to help care for the family dog can also teach them responsibility and empathy. For only children, animals can provide companionship they don’t get from siblings. Dogs can also help children feel safer in stressful situations.

As a child gets older, the pet can even help them transition from total emotional reliance on their parents to a growing sense of independence as they transfer the burden of their emotional regulation from the parent to the pet.

Studies have also shown that children exposed to pets from infancy are less likely to develop allergic reactions to them. In fact, for children who might be at higher risk of developing allergies, a UW-Madison study says that the sooner you expose them to the pet, the better.

Our Closest Friends – Emotionally and Genetically

Dogs are valuable to our health in ways that go beyond everyday quality of life. Because dogs have over 350 diseases in common with us, including a variety of cancers, incorporating them in studies and clinical trials can provide a unique insight into potential treatments. Although we typically think of mice and rats as the clinical creature of choice, dog physiology is much more similar to our own, and their size means that we can use surgical tools and medication protocols similar to the ones used on humans.

In fact, man’s best friends have been used in medical studies for centuries and were major contributors to studies of digestive anatomy, vitamin deficiencies, and aging. They were instrumental in the development of defibrillator technology, blood transfusions, and insulin. Without our beloved companions, many of the medical advancements of the last hundred years might not have occurred.

Curing Cancer

Dogs have been particularly invaluable in cancer studies. Dog cancer presents in very similar ways to human cancer, and many of the treatments we have found for treating humans were first tried on dogs with similar forms of the disease. Dogs are also exposed to the same environmental factors as their humans, making them key players in identifying which of those environmental factors may put both us and our puppies at risk of cancers and other illnesses.

Dogs over 10 years old are at particularly high risk of cancer, but there are currently dog clinical trials exploring possible treatments to prevent cancer before it forms.

One more reason to love your dog: They may help you live longer! Dog clinical trials are making strides in cancer research and other disease treatments for both canines and humans.

Trials and Tribulations

Finding out your beloved dog is ill or hurt can be devastating. The thought of losing a human friend or family member is traumatic, and the potential loss of a beloved pet can be equally painful.

However, your pet’s heroic struggle may be able to make a difference. There are many veterinary clinical trials looking at potential treatments for a variety of ailments found in both canines and humans, including infections, genetic disorders, and even various forms of cancer.

If they are successful, these trials may ultimately help both dogs and their human companions to live longer, healthier lives. Although we never want to find out our furry friends are hurting, their participation in these trials can provide invaluable information about treating and preventing the very cause of their suffering, helping those who may be diagnosed later.

Is It Ethical?

When people hear about clinical trials on animals, they often worry about the ethics of such studies. It’s important to note, though, that enrolling your pet in a clinical trial does not mean blindly signing them up to be a lab experiment. Pets used in clinical studies are treated with the utmost care, and informed consent is a key component of enrollment – your dog will never undergo any treatment without your knowledge or permission.

If you think your dog might be a good fit for a veterinary clinical trial, check out some of the available studies from our partners at UC Davis Veterinary Medicine and the Texas A&M Office of Veterinary Clinical Investigation.