A Purdue University research team hopes to use science, not just anecdotes, to prove dogs really are man’s best friend.
The researchers are conducting a years-long study that measures service dogs’ effect on humans, both emotionally and mentally.
Assistant professor of human-animal interaction Maggie O’Haire says part of the next phase is measuring levels of a stress hormone called cortisol.
“When you first wake up in the morning, your salivary cortisol levels rise,” she says. “And it’s looking at how much it rises, which can be an indicator of your level of stress about the upcoming day, so it’s more a chronic stress indicator in that way.”
If contact with a service dog appears to correlate with lower levels of cortisol, it may mean the pups are calming the humans.
O’Haire and her colleagues, PhD student Kerri Rodriguez and post-doctoral research fellow Jess Bibbo, also plan to apply sensors to the skin of test participants in future stages of the test to gather more empirical data.
The first phase of the study included survey responses from individuals with service dogs, family members of service dog owners and individuals without dogs.
O’Haire says the results have been promising thus far.
“Overall, there is a higher quality of life among those who have a dog,” she says. “So, specifically, we see greater emotional functioning, improved social functioning, improved quality of life at work and school.”
O’Haire says she and her team have not heard of another service dogs study using both subjective and objective research methods.