Benefits of Senior Adults Having a Pet

There are many benefits for a senior adult to owning a pet. Our pets dramatically enriches our lives, our physical health and our emotional well-being. Pets can help to relieve stress, prevent heart disease, help to stop loneliness and depression help to lower insurance costs and in general make people feel good. You might say that pets are just plain healthy.

Some of the benefits are;
1. Pets encourage happiness and laughter. Have you ever watched a cat play with catnip?
2. Older adults go to the doctor less when they have a dog and find relieving stress easier. Having to feed and caring for a pet is good therapy.
3. Pets will give you that closeness and the feeling of being loved unconditionally and the feeling of touching and being touched without any judgmental warmth and affection.
4. People feel more like having a social interaction when they own a pet. It decreases the feeling of isolation and depression.
Senior adults find it easier to start a conversation with people they don't know when they have a pet with them. It makes them feel comfortable and at ease.

Pets aren't just for older people, they have the same effect on most people no matter what their age. People with tempers find that a dog can calm them down and help them to find peace. A pet can help you to relax and makes it easy to talk to someone else that loves pets. Relieves the tension and stress in your life.

Loving and caring for a pet can help a person that is self centered to think about something else and experience a genuine feeling for another creature. That person can find direction and a general purpose in life that they can't find in themselves. Pets are a fantastic comfort in times of grief and loss. You can take your dog out for a walk and get the exercise you need plus the therapy of a pet that doesn't judge, doesn't bring up sad things, whose only thought is to please their master. A child can learn a lot from caring for a pet . Responsibility, affection, an unconditional friendship, and a great playmate.

Pets have been used in hospitals and prisons to help people adjust and become comfortable with the surroundings they are in.