Why Dogs are Man's Best Friend

Why Dogs are Man's Best Friend

Last update: 02 May, 2018

“Man’s best friend”: you hear it and you immediately know we’re talking about dogs. However, new studies have discovered why this moniker is true. Living with a canine has is good for you in a lot of ways. Let’s talk about some of them and explore this new research.

The benefits of living with a dog

Man's best friend: a golden retriever with the family.

Living with a dog is good for your emotional and physical health in so many ways. In fact, it has been shown that children who are raised with dogs are happier and have a lower risk of getting sick.

For all people, children and adults, women and men, here are some of the advantages of having a dog:

  • They help with loneliness. For those who live alone, having a dog is the best solution. You will never come home to an empty house, and there will always be someone in a great mood to greet you with affection and a “smile.”
  • They prevent disease. Dogs go out into the street and carry bacteria and other germs with them. We gradually become immune to them when we live with a canine. Having a dog can improve asthma. And because of the exercise of taking him out for walks, we can lower our risk of heart disease.
  • They’re good for our physical health. Having a dog forces us to be active, and regular exercise helps us to be healthy inside and out.
  • They reduce stress. It has been shown that the presence of an animal reduces a person’s stress, like a well-known pet food brand demonstrated.
We could spend all day counting the benefits a dog can bring into our lives, but let’s talk about the specific advantages they have for us.

Man’s best friend can detect cancer

Several health and research entities collaborated on this research: the Madocan Canine Training Club and Mr. Dogs Association of Therapy and Assistance Dogs helped the Urology Service of the Santa Lucía of Cartagena Hospital and Health Area II of the Murcia Service.

These studies revealed that dogs are able to detect prostate cancer, a very common type of cancer that only occurs in men and that can be fatal. How do they do it?

They do it through their sense of smell. We all know that dogs have an incredible sense of smell, because they are able to store smells in their mind and remember them even years later.

In this case a group of dogs were trained to distinguish a certain smell. Researchers presented them with urine samples from different types of people, both healthy patients and sick patients. The group of dogs correctly diagnosed the disease in 87% of the cases.

A woman walking her gold retriever through the fall leaves.

It could be a huge scientific breakthrough to prevent or catch and prevent diseases that have caused so much suffering in so many people.

The professionals involved promise to continue working on getting even more precise results and statistics. They want to train different groups of dogs to detect different illnesses, including cancer, and thus to continue advancing research in order to save lives.

This is not the first test of this type that has been done, because many were done that showed that dogs can detect cancer without any need for complicated tests, but it was the first to result in such high statistics.

They say that dogs are man’s best friend, but did you ever think they could save your life?


This text is provided for informational purposes only and does not replace consultation with a professional. If in doubt, consult your specialist.