Are your children interested in getting a pet dog? Research suggests they might have a scientific basis for their desire!

 A recent study discovered a fascinating connection between getting a family dog and a significant increase in physical activity among younger children, especially girls. This finding adds to the growing body of research exploring how having dogs can improve health, not only for kids but for people of all ages.

In this study, researchers from Australia observed 600 children over three years, starting from preschool age. They monitored the kids' physical activity levels using specialized devices that measured various aspects of movement, such as speed, duration, and intensity. Additionally, they surveyed parents about their children's activities and whether they owned a family dog.

Among the children, half did not have a dog. Approximately 204 kids had a dog throughout the study, while 58 children acquired a dog during the research period. Sadly, 31 kids lost their canine companions, creating a natural experiment for researchers to examine how dog ownership influenced the children's activity levels.

As expected, both boys and girls in the study engaged in more activities like dog walking and outdoor play after getting a dog. However, the impact was notably significant for girls.

Emma Adams, a doctoral candidate at the Telethon Kids Institute and the University of Western Australia, who led the study, explains, "What we found is that adding a dog to the household increased young girls' light intensity physical activity by 52 minutes a day — almost an hour. So that's quite substantial. It could make a meaningful difference to their health and wellbeing."

Conversely, girls who experienced the loss of a dog during the study period saw a considerable decrease in their daily light intensity physical activity — by 62 minutes a day. These findings were published in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Katie Potter, an assistant professor of kinesiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, whose research focuses on utilizing the human-animal bond to promote physical activity, remarks, "This new study is exciting because it's the first that I've seen using a longitudinal study — one that follows kids over time — designed to try to understand how the acquisition of a dog affects changes in physical activity."