Over the past few years, humans and dogs have become so close they’re now considered family. This means that we’re now spending significantly more on them than ever before, as we align their lifestyles more closely to ours. In this short clip, Animal Advocate, Lara Shannon speaks to Veterinarian expert, Dr Kate Lindsey of Kalmpets and Livin representative Michelle Goff to discuss the special relationship we have with our fur-kids and the important role they can play in assisting with anxiety, depression and even post traumatic stress disorder.

Video Transcription

Lara Shannon: Over the past few years, humans and dogs have become so close they’re now considered a very important part of the family. This rise of the furkid means we’re spending significantly more on them than ever before, as we align their lifestyles more closely to ours. And we seek out products and services that will enhance their quality of life. Kate you work with dogs everyday, how do they know what we’re feeling?

Dr Kate Lindsey: The human – dog relationship has been one of our longest lasting, thousands of years, even hundreds of thousands of years. They are very attuned to our body language and what our intention is, in changing our body language.

Lara Shannon: So they can see whether we’re happy or sad?

Dr Kate Lindsey: Absolutely, subtle changes, things that we ourselves are not very good at doing, dogs actually read human body language far, far better than we read body language.

Lara Shannon: Given the knack of knowing what we feel, dogs are also playing a growing role of assisting people with anxiety or depression, and even posttraumatic stress disorder.

Michelle Goff: Dogs make wonderful companions, and when we come in the door everyday they’re the first ones to greet us and make us feel special as we are the most important things in their lives. And when we touch and interact with our dogs and pat them, it doesn’t matter what sort of day we’ve had, or how bad it’s been, it straightaway makes us feel happy. As we pat and stroke our dogs, it’s actually a form of meditation called mindfulness, which is actually a way we help to cope with stress and anxiety in our lives. The other aspect is dogs get us outside, on days like this in the sunshine and sunshine is really critical for our vitamin D, because it activates the genes that produce serotonin and dopamine in our bodies, which make us feel good.

Lara Shannon: So taking your dog out for a walk is clearly going to make you feel good, and giving you a big hug as well.

Michelle Goff: Exactly, we forget everything that’s happened in our day and we just feel good about ourselves.

Lara Shannon: We’ve become so close to our dogs, it’s no wonder we want to spoil them, yet 3 out of 4 people still don’t have pet insurance.

This could affect the whole family should something unexpected happen.

So to make sure that you and your best mate are covered, visit hif.com.au.

Pet Insurance by HIF

We all love spoiling our fur-kids, yet only 26% of dogs and 19% of cats in Australia have pet insurance - and that could be very hurtful when the vet bill arrives! With HIF Pet insurance, you'll enjoy affordable cover for cats and dogs of all ages. Plus, claiming is easy thanks to our online member Pet Pawtal!