What are pets?

A pet is basically a household animal which people keep at their homes for their enjoyment. The most popular pets which people keep are dogs, cats, horses, fish which also give those domestic help.

There are other benefits too when you have a pet at home like a trained dog can be used as guide to a blind person. However average domestic pets like cat, dog, and tortoise also have the benefits like they help us to reduce stress, reduce loneliness, enjoy us, and encourage exercise and playfulness. Also some of the pets like dogs are normally kept because of the security reasons as they don't allow strangers to enter house also they may be used to protect other domestic animals like sheep, goats from other wild animals.

How Pets help in changing our mood?

Most of the pet owners know that they enjoy with their pet but they don't know what physical and mental benefits too they get when they keep pets at home. This is the recent results which show the benefits of human-animal bond:

1. Pet owners are less prone to depression as they use their pet as the stress reliever. There are many people in the world who don't like to talk to others when they are stressed but one can see the difference when the same person has the pet at home which he/she use to reduce stress.
2. It is observed that pet owners have comparatively less blood pressure in stressful situation unlike people who don't have pets. This may be because the relieve their stress by enjoying with the pet.
3. It is observed that heart attack patients with the pets survive longer than the heart patients who don't own pets.
4. Pet owners over age 65 years make lesser visit to the doctor than those who don't have pets in the similar age group.
5. Playing with the pets can increase serotonin and dopamine which help us to stay calm and relaxed. It is observed that people having pets have lower triglyceride and cholesterol level which is not there with the people not having pets.

Pets help to make our lifestyle healthy:

Healthy lifestyle is important for all of us as it reduce stress level, prevent us to get in to depression, anxiety. Keeping pets can make our lifestyle healthy by following ways:

1. Increase in physical workouts. When person goes to Gym for exercising he /she may get bored at certain point of time. But when a person has a pet he/she may include few of the physical things like when a person has a dog he/she may walk with it. Even having a cat one can do some physical work while chasing it to have a fun.  Even one having horse does some physical work out in caring for it.
2. Pets provide companionship. Loneliness often cause us depression and make it worse if someone remains in isolation for so long. Caring for an animal give some sort of companionship and gives us a feel that there is someone who is there for us. We often forget our troubles while taking care for them and keep us busy in them. Most of the pet owners often talk to their pets and treat them as their family member which ease them in loneliness and also they may be used for domestic help.
3. Even pets help us to connect with new people in life as pet owners normally meet in the parks and various places where they interact with each other. I remember once I took my dog to a veterinary doctor there I found lots of pet owners and made friends which still are my friends after 10~15 years also. So these pets act a social medium for us also.
4. Pets make a routine of your day. All the pets require some regular feeding and exercise specially dogs so one has to do it for them one cannot escape it after keeping them at home as pet. 

Older people and pets:

In old age people become lonely as they lose most of their companions and also they are retired from the job so their social life also comes to an end. In order to revive their social life again they need someone who can remain with them and to have pets at that age solves the purpose. Pets do have a great impact on the health of older people. Old people get someone to be taken care of as in old age it may happens that their kids may have moved to a separate place leaving them alone and with the help of pet they keep in their house they have someone with whom they can pass their time with. When a person becomes old he retires and has nothing much to do at home so it’s better to have a pet. It also helps to revive your social network which might have ended once you retire. I have seen lots of old people going to park with the pet and do friendship with people there. Pets also provide a source of positive and non verbal communication which boosts up the morale of people.

Pets and children:

Most of the children who grow up with the pets are less prone to the allergies unlike who don't. Also they have the sense of responsibility and compassion.  Pets help kids as well as adults to relax as playing with them always make us calm and relieve our stress that we mostly develop at workplace. Also they feel sense of security everywhere when they are alone but do have a pet along with them. I remember we used to feel comfortable with our dog even if we were alone at home as we knew that our dog is there with us. Pets help to make our children developed emotionally, socially and physically. 

How to choose a pet:

This of course important to consider few of the things before choosing which pet you need to keep at home. 

1. If you have little time to spend outside then its better to have some birds or fish as they don't require to go out as they can stay well if you create an environment inside your house which they like.
2. If you are more active and have time to go out then its preferable to have dogs as for dogs running/walking is essential for them at least once in a day as it keeps them fit.
3. If someone has kids and elderly people then its best to have kittens and puppies at home.
4. Also one must consider the space at home as sometime it becomes difficult for us as well as a pet to survive in the house having less space.

Pets are not for everyone:

One thing we should always remember that pets are not for everyone. We should not keep a pet when we see our neighbor has kept it. There are lots of things which one need to do to keep pets art home. Some of the drawbacks of keeping pets are as below and one must keep these in mind while planning to have pets:

1. Pets always cost money as there are certain things which are essential for them like there is food bill, often they need to take to the veterinary doctor and there are other maintenance charges which one must consider while keeping a pet. Just to have pet and then depriving them for the basic needs just it cost money is not good at all. I personally know many people who kept pet as their friend has kept one but could not able to care it just because of lack of time.
2. Pets require time and attention. It’s easy to own pet but like us they too need some time and attention. For example a dog needs to be taken for a walk to stay active. Moreover it is required to be fed with eggs and non vegetarian sometimes. Dogs like human beings are social animal and can't be left alone for longer time.
3. Pets require responsibility. One has to take the responsibility of the pet if kept as all of them need to be fed at a fixed time daily. They need to be looked after as they may harm to the strangers who enter in the house. Even the cats too can bite or scratch to the kids or the stranger.
4. Pets can have an effect on our health too as they may transmit diseases to us so they should be vaccinated at the proper time.

Most of the people like to have a cat or a dog as a pet but they must know the distinction between them. A cat likes more to be alone unlike a dog which always needs your attention. Cats like to be in house whereas a dog likes to be taken outside frequently.

Conclusion:

So from this article I would say that pets are also important in our life as they give us some sort of companionship and ease us in loneliness but one should always keep in mind that they are easy to buy but are not easy to maintain as one need to take responsibility of theirs at home. So one should be careful while keeping them otherwise they look some sort of burden after sometime. 

Image - Wikepedia 

• Written by Sanjeev Gupta.
• In category Animals.
• 11 years ago.

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