Having Dogs Likely Boosts Teens' Social Skills: Study

Tokyo, Dec. 25 (Jiji Press)--Having a dog at home likely helps alter adolescent children's microbiome to make them happier and have better social skills, a study by a Japanese research team showed.

The team's findings, based on surveys of children and experiments involving mice, were published in U.S. journal iScience.

Children's gut microbiota is partially altered either by dogs' resident bacteria entering the children's system or by changes in children's gastrointestinal environment due to changes in children's psychological condition from living with dogs, according to Takefumi Kikusui, a professor at Azabu University and a member of the team.

Children's social skills are believed to be boosted by the vagus nerve, which runs through the intestine, stimulating the release of oxytocin, known as the love hormone, according to the team.

Owning a dog also opens up more opportunities for children of interactions with family members and neighbors through dog-related activities such as feeding, cleaning up and taking a walk.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]