What Animals Can Teach Us
If you have ever been around a dog, you know their enthusiasm is total and unfiltered. They are not a particularly good model for emotional regulation, but they are extraordinary teachers of co-regulation. Have you noticed how you feel around a dog, or how your emotional state shifts when an animal is present? These are not merely subjective impressions.
What animals do for our nervous system
Evidence has shown that the human-animal relationship has significant psychological, physiological, and social benefits for people. This became especially visible during the COVID-19 pandemic, when pet adoption rates rose sharply as people sought emotional comfort. The reasons run deeper than companionship. Research shows that physical interaction with animals directly influences blood pressure, heart rate, and the hormones associated with emotional regulation and wellbeing, oxytocin and dopamine among them. These hormones slow heart rate and breathing, inhibit stress hormones, and create a felt sense of calm.
Animals also provide emotional and social support that buffers against stress and builds resilience. They feel inherently less judgemental than people, and the acceptance they offer has an unconditional quality that is psychologically significant. The impact is so well established that animals have been successfully incorporated into clinical mental health care through animal-assisted therapies, from equine-assisted therapy to therapy dogs. A growing body of research also documents the role animals play in the development of social and emotional skills in children.
Mindfulness, modelled by dogs
Unlike humans, animals spend very little time thinking about what is not currently happening. They do not replay the past or rehearse the future. Dogs, in particular, are perhaps the most genuine embodiment of mindfulness that exists: non-judgemental, fully present, absorbed in the moment. Part of what makes being around animals feel so good is that when they are with you, they simply are. No worries for tomorrow, no resentments from yesterday.
Not only that, but dogs actively draw you into their present-moment experience. A deadline, a painful break-up, a heated internal debate: none of it stops a dog from wanting you involved in exactly what they are doing right now. To the point of absurdity, sometimes. There is a lesson in that, about the ability to pull away from our internal world and return to the physical one, and about asking for and giving attention without self-consciousness. These are things we could all do with practising more. Understanding how to return to the present is something psychology explores in depth.
Radical self-acceptance and forgiveness
Animals are natural masters of body acceptance. They do not feel shame about their appearance, their appetite, or the state of their coat after a run through the mud. And we mirror this back to our pets: we love them regardless of what they look like. Animals also demonstrate a capacity for forgiveness that most humans find genuinely humbling. Accidentally step on a dog's paw and you will feel terrible while the dog has already moved on, bearing no grudge, no bitterness. The contrast says something important about where humans direct our emotional energy, and what we might gain from loosening that grip.
Most animals, especially dogs, approach each new day, new encounter, and new walk with a kind of open curiosity that is worth pausing over. Science is now confirming what animals have been embodying for as long as they have shared our lives. As we explore in our post on emotions as data, paying close attention to what we feel, without immediately reacting, is a skill. Animals just happen to be very good at modelling it.
Final thoughts
The next time you sit with a dog, a cat, a horse, or any animal, take a moment to notice what they are doing and what you feel in their presence. They are not just good company; they are quiet teachers. If you are interested in exploring how mindfulness, emotional regulation, and self-compassion can support your mental health, our team at Contemporary Psychology in St Kilda is here to help.