The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos - Let Slip the Dogs of More Happiness

Episode Date: September 6, 2021

Companion pets - especially dogs - are credited with making our lives richer and more fun, but does the science back up this belief? Dr Laurie Santos breaks down what it is dogs can do to make us happier - and what behaviours we can adopt to experience the wellbeing boost of dog ownership even without buying one. She'll also introduce you to Georgia the motorcycling dog and her owner, Laurette Nicoll. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Pushkin. The first day I saw Georgia, she was about a six-month-old puppy. And she just had these amazing big pointed ears and her brindle coat, and I had never seen anything like her. This is motorsports reporter Lorette Nickel. It was magnetic. As soon as I saw her, I knew that she was meant for me. And the exact thought I had in my head is, that's my puppy. These days, the pair are pretty much inseparable.

In fact, Georgia was happily sniffing around Lorette's feet as we talked over Zoom. George, do you want to come up here? Do you want to come up here? She's being shy all of a sudden. But it wasn't obvious back when the pair first met that they would even have a chance to be together. The first and perhaps most obvious obstacle to their union was the huge chain-link fence that separated them. Georgia was a street puppy. A neighbor had found her and was keeping her temporarily penned up until he could find a way to get this tray off his hands. I just kept explaining to him how special I thought that she was. And he finally told me, he's like, I'm taking her to the pound

because she keeps running away. Lorette hated the thought of Georgia going off to a shelter in some unknown future. But she also wasn't feeling ready to adopt a new puppy. In the end, it was Georgia who made her feelings known. I was making breakfast. I had to go get something from another room. And when I came back, this nine-month-old puppy was all of a sudden standing in my kitchen. Lorette responsibly returned the puppy, who promptly escaped again and again. So the third time that I put her back and she came back,

I just put a note on my neighbor's gate saying, I have Georgia, please call me. And that's when I said, you know, I really love this dog. Can I keep her? And he said, yep, just like that. That was the beginning of our life together. George's persistence had finally paid off, but Lorette's reluctance to take on a pet had been genuine. When the pair began their journey together, Lorette was going through an awful health situation. I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I had to go through six rounds of chemotherapy and 25 rounds of radiation therapy.

And the radiation really took a toll on my body. And so I needed to recover from it, not only physically, but mentally. The new puppy didn't become the bird and Lorette was initially expecting. Instead, Lorette describes Georgia as her savior. There's some days that I can really talk about it, and then some days that it's a challenge. And sometimes it sneaks up on me, which it's doing right now. But I think for me, on the days where I just thought, this is hard, this is challenging, I don't know if I can do this, I just, I want to go back to sleep. On those days, Georgia walked in the room and she's like, hey, mom, I love you. And it gives you that little bit of, okay, yep, let's push through. I got this.

We sometimes take for granted just how much support our pets and particularly our dogs offer us and just how much their companionship can bring us joy. Lorette and George's story shows the true power of the human-canine bond. The research shows that there are evidence-based ways to maximize the benefits we get from our dogs, and that there may be ways to achieve those animal-induced benefits even if you don't have a pet of your own. But the science shows that the happiness dividend dogs and other companion animals provide is often more complicated than we expect. If we're not careful, we can inadvertently impede the happiness boost we could be getting from our furry friends. Our minds are constantly telling us what to do to be happy.

But what if our minds are wrong? What if our minds are lying to us, leading us away from what will really make us happy? The good news is that understanding the science of the mind can point us all back in the right direction. You're listening to The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos. Now, I'm guessing that most of my podcast listeners know me best for my work on happiness and the class I teach on the science of well-being. But long before I became a happiness expert, I had a slightly different psychology career path. Hey Bailey, welcome!

I studied animals and how they think. And that means I spent a lot of time around cute pooches. Welcome to the Canine Cognition Center! Back in 2013, I set up Yale's first Canine Cognition Center. My students and I bring dogs from the community into the center for short experiments and study how canines make sense of the world. Do you want to search in the box? Are you ready to search in the box?

Oh, you're ready? You did such a good job. If you live near Yale's campus, you should sign your dog up for a visit. It's fun, and your pup will even get a doggy version of an Ivy League diploma for their efforts. Bailey, do you want to see your degree? Do you want to see your degree? Oh yes, you're so proud. Good job, you're so proud.

Yes, your kisses. Oh, kisses. Kisses, kisses. My canine research has taught me and my students a ton about what dogs know about the world, and the unique way that they're able to learn from their human companions. But anecdotally, running the center has also taught me a lot about the connection between dogs and happiness. The dog lab is one of the most popular spots on campus for students to do research, mostly because they really love hanging out with the test subjects. I know the microphone is so weird. It's a weird microphone. My student assistants always walk into the lab seeming a bit frazzled and stressed

about the usual challenges of college life, but they leave their canine shifts in a completely different emotional space. Watching these transformations got me curious. Why is it that dogs and other companion animals affect us so much? Sadly, the specifics on how we built such a strong bond with dogs is pretty much lost to time. Many canine researchers hypothesize that it all started tens of thousands of years ago, when a group of relatively chill wolves began following our ancestors around, eating their trash and inching closer and closer to their campfires. Those ancient canids were the first step on the evolutionary path to the cuddly domesticated dogs we know today. But our

relationship with these ancient pooches was very different from the one we have with our modern pets. They had some sort of function in terms of helping us hunt or guarding or protecting us in some way. This is Carrie Westgarth, a senior lecturer at the University of Liverpool. But as time's gone on, they've become much more integrated into, at least physically, into our family homes

rather than living outside, but I also think much more emotionally into our family lives as well. Carrie is an expert on the emerging academic field of human-animal interaction. She's the author of a new book called The Happy Dog Owner, Finding Health and Happiness with the Help of Your Dog. If you have a dog yourself, you probably have some very strong intuitions about the effect that that creature has on your life generally. But surprisingly, relatively little scientific research had explored this question, at least not until the early 1980s. There was a particular study by Erica Friedman where she looked at people who'd had a heart attack and then looked at their survival one year on. And after adjusting for a few other

different factors about these people, She noticed that the people that own pets were much more likely to have survived. The results were striking. Pet owners were four times more likely to survive after a heart attack than non-pet owners. But there were a few problems with Friedman's initial study. First, the sample size was pretty small. Only 90 or so patients were examined. And second, it was only a correlational study. To truly establish that pets actually cause a psychological benefit, you need to do an experiment. And that's just what a different group of researchers did in the late 1980s. They measured blood pressure and heart rate in a group of college students while they were petting

a dog, talking to a dog, talking to a human, or just relaxing without a dog present. The researchers found that students assigned to stroke the dog had the lowest readings. Interacting with a dog, it seemed, had a causal effect on people's cardiac stress. The researchers famously christened this pattern the pet effect. But was this so-called pet effect just about the petting, or about the pet? Could the mere presence of a dog also reduce our heart rate and our psychological distress? Researcher Karen Allen at the University of Buffalo devised another experiment to find out. It's a really clever study, and it's one of those ones where as soon as I saw it, I thought,

why didn't I think of this? It's such a cool idea. Allen and her colleagues had a group of subjects undergo different kinds of stressful events. They either had to do a set of hard math problems or plunge their hands into super cold water. But the subjects were randomly assigned to endure these events with different audiences. They either had to experience the stressful situation alone, with their spouse present, with their pet present, or with both their pet and their spouse present. spouse present, with their pet present, or with both their pet and their spouse present. The researchers then tested which group of subjects seemed least affected by the stress, which one completed the math test quickest with the fewest mistakes, and which one's heart rate recovered most quickly once the stressful tests were over. The answer? It was the group of subjects

with just their pets. When you're alone, you're fairly stressed during these tests. When you're with your spouse, you're even more stressed. But when you're with your pet, you're much less stressed than you were either with your spouse or alone. It was a pretty incredible result. The researchers who published these studies were reasonably careful in interpreting their results. They only went so far as to conclude that pet owners

clearly perceived their pets to be a good source of support. But this level of caution was lost on the journalists who covered this study and others like it. Their over-the-top headlines still make Carrie cringe. Your dog will make you live longer. Your dog will solve your depression.

Pet owners are happier and healthier. These sorts of headlines, they're only half of the story, unfortunately. It doesn't always quite work out as the headlines make you think. And this worries me because if people are going to assume that if they get a dog, it's going to be absolutely fantastic and it's going to solve all their problems, they're going to be in for a bit of a rocky ride. Even though she's a human-animal interaction expert, an experienced dog owner, and a professional trainer, Carrie's still no stranger to the rocky personal ride that

a new pet can cause. She experienced it firsthand when Roxy, a new pug puppy, became part of her family. Though small in size, the impact Roxy had on Carrie's home was massive. It's complete upheaval to your life. And I pretty much had an emotional breakdown. This thing is crying, it is biting, it is pooping, it is piddling. Piddling is a quaint British way of describing Roxy's rather unquaint habit of urinating all over Carrie's house. The chaos took a negative toll on Carrie's well-being and even began threatening the health of her human relationships. And at one point I said to my husband, I'm just going to have to send her back.

I can't deal with this. I felt so sick all the time. I was so stressed out about it. And obviously he was very upset and he said he'd never forgive me if I sent her back. In the end, Carrie did not, in fact, send Roxy back. You look pretty cuddled up with Roxy right now, I'll say. She's my baby.

She's definitely my baby. But Carrie's early experience with Roxy caused her to question what she and many researchers initially thought about man's best friend. That dogs are some magic bullet who universally have a psychological benefit for their owners. universally have a psychological benefit for their owners. Everybody who studies this probably generally really likes animals and wants to show a positive effect because they believe that there is a positive effect of pets in our lives. Actually, what we find is that a number of studies show either no difference between people who own pets and don't own pets, or they show that the dog owners, for example, have worse levels of depression.

As Carrie looked into the scientific results more and more, she started to figure out a solution for why the existing data don't match our lay intuition that dogs should be a magic bullet for happiness. The problem, she argues, is that most of the studies use a pretty black and white benchmark to work out the benefits of dog ownership. One that amounts pretty much to dog or no dog. Like, do you own a dog or not own a dog? Or is a dog present or is no dog present?

Black and white comparisons like these miss a lot of the specific nuances that matter. Carey has found that surprisingly few studies have explored the actual relationship people have with the pooch they own. Simple things like, is your dog well-behaved? How much time do you spend together? What do you do when you're hanging out? These kinds of factors tend not to be taken into account, even though they probably matter a lot in terms of the joy you're getting from your dog.

When we get back from the break, we'll hear more about what Carrie discovered when factors like these were added to the empirical mix. The Happiness Lab will be right back. When I was recovering from cancer, walking from the couch to the dishwasher, I was completely winded. And that was about seven steps. And by the time I got to the dishwasher, I was dizzy and lightheaded and thought, nope, I can't do this. So I had to go back to the couch. Lorette Nichols' relationship with her dog Georgia is a great example of the potential

positive benefits that human-animal interaction can provide. There's this black cancer cloud that was really, really large, and Georgia came in and really helped me push through. It may seem that the huge happiness bump Lorette got from Georgia and their incredible chemistry together just happened instantly, almost as if by magic. But as I heard more of their story, I kept thinking back to what I learned from chatting with researcher Carrie Westgarth. It's not just having a companion animal that improves your well-being. It's the specific ways that you interact with that animal. As Lorette talked

more about her day-to-day life with Georgia, I realized that the duo seems to naturally engage in exactly the behaviors Carrie has found are fundamental for the happiness-boosting benefits of dog ownership. The first of these behaviors, one that's honestly so simple it's easy to miss how important it is, is exercise. There's lots of research showing that exercise is great for our happiness. Studies show that a relatively short burst of cardio can reduce negative feelings like anxiety, tension, and depression. And whether we like it or not on that rainy Sunday morning,

our pups often force us to get moving. They demand that we get off the couch, at least for a quick stroll, even when that feels like a struggle. Lorette saw this benefit of dog ownership firsthand. She had been an active person and an avid runner before she got cancer. But when her extensive course of chemo floored her, attending to Georgia's needs was the only way Lorette could get herself safely moving again. She obviously needed to go out and she needed walks. And so just putting her out in the backyard so she could go to the bathroom

was never going to work for her. So I was able to increase my mileage safely for me and what my body allowed. And Lorette's not alone here. Carrie has seen this pattern over and over again in her work on human-dog interaction. Dogs tend to push us past our usual athletic threshold. She calls it exercise by stealth. All those chill evening walks add up to improve not just our physical health, but our mental health too. My research participants tell me how stress relieving that is to go out, especially that at the end of the day walk after work is finished, getting your mind free of all the stress and worries, blowing away the day walk that you do

after work in particular is what people say is really stress relieving and helpful for their well-being. Even non-dog owners probably realize that it's good to get some exercise in when you're feeling stressed. But even when we know the benefits, a nightly walk can be a hard habit to keep up with, especially on busy nights. But you don't really have a choice when your pooch is staring at his leash excited to get going. And that's why so many studies find that, on average, dog owners get more exercise. In one UK study, Carey found that dog owners were four times more likely than non-owners to meet the health guideline of getting 150 minutes of exercise in a week. People who don't have a dog just don't seem to move as much. Carrie had this unfortunate pattern hit close to home

when her father's beloved dog and walking companion passed away. So I text him and said, you know, if you're thinking about getting another dog yet, and he replied, not yet, I'm not ready. But in the meantime, there's no reason to go for a walk. And my dad lives in the middle of beautiful countryside with all the reasons in the world. He's retired.

It's all the reasons in the world to go for a walk. But not having that dog there just made it really hard for him to want to be motivated to literally walk out of his door around this beautiful countryside. But even though dogs make it easier to get the mental health benefits that come from exercise, Carrie has shown that this only works if you actually take a walk with your dog. And sadly, many dog owners don't always do this, which explains the fact that merely owning a dog isn't always enough for getting the potential health benefits they provide. But Carrie has found that on the days when you do manage to make it out for a walk, you often get more pleasure simply by having your dog at your side.

There's something different with going for a walk with a dog to going for a walk without a dog that can make it extra special. The special sauce that dogs bring to our walks together is actually the second factor that allows our pets to boost our well-being. together is actually the second factor that allows our pets to boost our well-being. Mindfulness. That ability to be in the present moment, to savor and enjoy the here and now. If you listen to other episodes of the Happiness Lab, you know that lots of scientific work shows that being present is a great way to boost your happiness. There are lots of ways to experience more mindfulness, but having a happy pet around makes that easier because our pups are pretty much the most mindful creatures around. A stick, a puddle, a patch of grass, a tiny cookie crumb

dropped on the floor. They're all worthy of intense interest, attention and curiosity. Carrie has found that we can allow our dog's excitement to bring us back to the here and now too. Dogs are just great at doing this because you can be absorbed in your phone or thinking about a problem that you've got to solve. And then your dog shoves its head in your lap, shoves your phone out of the way and shoves their face up in your face. And you can do nothing but respond to that. And when you stroke their ears, those sensations, my dog has very velvety ears, one of my dogs. That sort of tactile, that sensation, it brings you really into the present moment, which is what I love about dogs. But we only get the mindfulness benefit dogs provide if we actually allow ourselves to pay attention.

If you keep your face buried in your smartphone when your dog is playing fetch, or you spend your walk ruminating about some upcoming meeting, you simply won't get the happiness boost that mindfulness can provide. But if we're willing to put in some work, dogs can help us to help ourselves, even if we're having a particularly tough time. Imagine if you were suffering from depression and you were really struggling to get out of bed in the morning because you've got that animal relying on you, probably jumping on your face, trying to get you out of bed. They want feeding, they want walking. And you can get that sense of mastery and purpose that I think is really important for that fulfillment that is so important for our well-being. I go into things like dog training classes. You can feel like you're really achieving something with your dog and that can really help with your self-esteem. And this gets to a third behavior that Carrie has found is necessary to engage in if you want all the benefits that dog

ownership can offer. Training. Carrie's book goes through case after case in which an untrained pup can be a recipe for misery. This is yet another spot where Lorette and her pup Georgia are great examples. Lorette certainly didn't skimp on Georgia's training or her socialization. She really stretched my ability as well because she made me realize how much, again, mental stimulation that she needed. You know, she was already getting a lot of love, great food, exercise, but we needed to work on the high fives and we needed to work on the sits and the downs and but also take her out into public and that's where she really seemed to thrive george's love of people coupled with the great training she got from lorette meant that she was naturally drawn to the fourth behavior that carrie

has found is necessary for getting the biggest positive benefit we can from dog ownership social connection we use our pups to lead us into new forms of human-human interaction. Dogs are a social lubricant in that they're a bit of an icebreaker. Oh, what a lovely dog you've got there. Can I stroke it? What a cute dog. Where'd you get it from? What breed is it? I get asked that with my dogs all the time. Research shows that the simple act of striking up a conversation with a stranger is a great way to fill up our leaky happiness tires. As one of my former guests, psychologist Nick Epley once put it, dogs naturally cause us to chat, smile, and interact more with the people we run into. The importance of this final beneficial behavior, using your

pooch to increase your social connection, is the big reason I wanted to speak to Lorette for this episode. You see, Lorette found a way to turn her outings with Georgia into occasions that brought her entire local community together. It all started before Lorette got sick, when she had a somewhat crazy idea. Once upon a time, I saw a motorcycle rider in a sidecar with a dog. At that moment, I thought, that's exactly what I want to do. That dream came true years later on Lorette's 40th birthday, when she bought herself a bike with a sidecar. It was a big, noisy, vintage-looking thing that she instantly fell in love with. But would Georgia take to this weird new ride? Would she be okay donning a pair of dog goggles? Or, I guess, doggles?

She just jumped straight into the bike. I didn't ask her. I didn't pat the seat. I didn't want to push it on her because I thought if I scare her, then she won't ride. But she just knew. She just knew that this was going to be something so special that she and I got to do together. And I need a word that's bigger than fun because, and I'll be totally honest, I know when my little town, it's called Old Town, is the busiest. So I will go cruise for attention at the high points of the day because it's just so much fun and it kind of it snaps people out of their own little bubble we'll cruise into old town at brunch time on sunday everyone sees and kind of hears the bike because it sounds totally different and then all of a sudden i can see it on their face when they realize there's a dog with doggles and a red handkerchief just enjoying her best life and their face

lights up. They grab their phones, you know, and I'll I'll wave to everybody and talk to them and say, good morning. How are you? This is Georgia. And it's just, yeah, you can see the parents tap the kids and point the kids' eyes in the directions of Georgia. And it's, I don't know, it's so difficult to talk about the reaction because it's so much joy from other people realizing that this motorcyclist and her dog are just living their best life together. And when Lorette and Georgia are done making friends with all the locals on Main Street, they head off to the open road together. And that's where Lorette was able to achieve the final benefit we can get from our dogs,

a sense of purpose. Before her cancer cloud took over, Lorette was incredibly driven, someone with lots of aspirations and goals. It was hard for her to be stuck home for so long, feeling listless and lost. In tough moments, the guilt of that period still weighs heavily on her mind. When you have so many months of feeling like you're stuck in neutral, it's really challenging. stuck in neutral, it's really challenging. When I, when I start really beating myself up, when that inner mean girl starts ping ponging and just saying, you're not doing enough, the job that you've done isn't up to par. I can take Georgia out on the bike and it all goes away.

That all goes away. And so for me, it's, it's so important for my mental health to have that really deep connection with her. And it shuts that mean girl up for a couple hours, too. We all have that mean girl. We all need our Georgias. Lorette's living proof that there are happiness benefits to getting a dog, if you put in a little work. It doesn't require buying a vintage sidecar and a pair of doggles, but to see real benefits, you need to get out and walk your pup, to mindfully be more present when you're out, to connect with the humans around you, and to notice that sense of purpose that you get from having a creature who needs you.

In theory, all of these practices should be easy to do, but Carrie has found that a surprising number of dog owners don't always hit the bar. You can't get the benefit of a blissful, socially enriched walk if you never take your dog out of the house, or if your untrained pup snaps and snarls at everyone passing by. And that is the big insight of this episode. The benefits of being a dog owner come less from the dog and more from you. In the end, you're the one that needs to put in the training and exercise and presence. Which is actually kind of good news in a way. Because I know tons of people who would love to get the happiness boost that dogs provide, but live somewhere where they're not allowed to

have a pup, or who have allergies that make living with a dog impossible, or who just aren't in the right financial or emotional place to start caring for a new pooch. And let's face it, there are also people who are just not into pets. They'd surely also love to enjoy some of the mental health benefits of dog ownership, but maybe would choose to do so without the fur and slobber. When we return from the break, we'll see that non-dog owners can also get some of the joy that Lorette gets from Georgia. We'll hear how one educator has found ways to help teach these practices to her students, and how she's used the important inspiration dogs provide

to help teens develop new well-being practices, ones that will hopefully keep going strong, even when there's no pooch present. We'll learn how she did that when the Happiness Lab returns in a moment. I grew up with all kinds of animals, snakes, lizards, hamsters, gerbils. This is Linda Adante, a psychiatrist based in Hanover, New Hampshire. And I really believe when we work with animals and we start to see the world through the perspective of a creature that is not us, that is the most poignant lesson for empathy. Linda has long recognized the importance of lessons like these, especially for young people who struggle with their mental health. especially for young people who struggle with their mental health.

I started using the term walking wounded. You know, the student who excels, the student who others envy because they seem to be able to do it all, and then goes into college and crashes. But Linda's biggest glimpse into the teen mental health crisis came from experiences closer to home. Linda serves as a community educator at Hanover High, the school her two daughters attended. I would say, hands down, it's a high- high pressure school. I think there's, you know, having

Dartmouth College nearby, having a lot of parents who are either professors or physicians at the local medical center. You see students feeling the pressure of, you know, the grades and, you know, wanting to be outstanding. And this is the trap, right? Outstanding in everything. Linda had the same experience interacting with the striving, stressed-out students at Hanover High, as I did in my role as head of college at Yale. Like me, she hated seeing what her learners were going through emotionally. And like me, she wanted to figure out better ways to teach her students evidence-based strategies they could use to feel better. But unlike me, Linda worried that a typical positive psychology curriculum might be a bit boring for students whose attention spans were strategies they could use to feel better. But unlike me, Linda worried that a typical positive

psychology curriculum might be a bit boring for students whose attention spans were already being pulled in so many directions. I've taught high school students long enough to know that it doesn't take much time for them to glaze over and mentally leave the room if you're just talking at them. So Linda decided to get creative. She partnered with her colleague Linda Danilek, an educational assistant at the high school, to create a totally new course. The class the pair came up with, and one that I absolutely wish I had thought of myself, was called Canine University, What I Can Learn From My Dog. We were going to teach wellness through the eyes of the dog. the eyes of the dog. Canine University covered many of the topics that I teach in my happiness class at Yale, and ones that you've probably heard about on this podcast. Practices like social connection, gratitude, random acts of kindness, exercise, and mindfulness, all of which are known

to significantly improve our happiness when practiced regularly. But Linda's students learned about these topics not from a boring lecture. They saw these behaviors modeled by some furry teachers, the two instructors Family Pups, Serena and Skipper. The concept of canine university was genius, not only from a student engagement perspective, but also from an empirical one. The course built directly off the big insight that researcher Carrie Westgard talks about in her book, that we can leverage the presence of dogs in the short term to help us practice happiness-inducing behaviors in the long term. Linda didn't just want her students to engage in mindfulness and gratitude and kindness when Serena and Skipper were there. She also wanted her students to see the benefits of these well-being boosters overall.

Even in times when there were no pooches present. Linda was using a quick dose of dogs to inspire the long-term happiness strategies that benefit all of us, whether we're a dog owner or not. Linda was able to walk her students through nearly all of the important practices that Carrie identifies in her book, starting with mindfulness. We explained how dogs are present in the moment at all times. Dogs really do bring their attention to something. They bring it to each other when they're playing with each other. How do we do that? How do we miss the mark? So that's very much where the dogs were our teachers. And that's why we had to have our professors, Serena and Skipper, in the room with

us all the time. Linda reasoned that having the pups present would also give the students a chance to practice a second behavior that science has shown can quickly boost our mood, doing nice things for others. Our theory being the best of us comes out when we're with our canine friends. But that theory was confirmed more powerfully than Linda expected when Serena, Linda's small Havanese assistant, got stage fright at the start of her first class. Linda's small Havanese assistant, got stage fright at the start of her first class. She was shaking like a leaf. And to watch them immediately drop to their knees, lay on the floor, and offer their hand in the most gentle way. I thought, wow, they're not afraid of being embarrassed or looking silly. There was an immediate connection. If you're feeling sad, the best way to get happy quick is to do something for someone else. Another surprise was how quickly the dogs

facilitated social connection between the humans taking the course. What we saw was a group of students who didn't know each other before the course began, and over four days they were talking and sharing, and it was an amazing just experience that happened over that period of time. But the most impactful practice of the entire four-day class was the final course activity. The students took a field trip with their own dogs if they had one to see next door's pond. Getting them into the woods with their dogs was the primary way for us to have that as a sort of a little bit of a learning laboratory. The field trip allowed students to experience one of the practices you heard Carrie recommend before, exercising with your dog.

But getting more movement wasn't Linda's real motivation for the store's pond trip. Because our kids get out in the woods. They're athletes. They run, they walk. We live in a very rural area. I wanted them to be out there and paying attention. Linda wanted her students to have an adventure in mindfulness. It was one of the hardest final exams she could come up with. I think they are so plugged into so many things that the idea of resting the mind is hard, is difficult, is challenging. is hard, is difficult, is challenging.

But as with other practices in canine university, Linda was hoping that her students would closely follow the lead of their canine mindfulness tutors. I really wanted everybody to get on all fours and sniff the ground. What we were able to do was, you know, just basically to go out into the woods and glory with our dogs as they sniff the ground and wag their tails and notice things. Even though Linda scaled back from forcing her students to do the full-on ground sniffing, she did get them to follow their dog's lead by engaging all of their senses more than they would have otherwise. What senses are you using right now? What do you hear? And as we were walking through the woods, I would say, what do you hear?

And they would yell out, water. We hear water. You know, it might be my dog's panting. But the idea is we listen, but we only cue in to the sounds we have to worry about. We don't cue into the sounds that give us pleasure. And again, more time, I would have them walking in their bare feet. You know, it's like, what does it feel like? What does the gravel feel like? What does the grass feel like? After this sensory exercise and a whole week of dog tutelage, Linda gave Serena, Skipper, and her students the rest of the afternoon off. Her pupils had several hours to do whatever they wanted at Storrs Pond. Linda was interested in whether the experience with dogs over the last few days

had changed the way her students carried themselves during a time when she wasn't directly conducting happiness lessons. She hypothesized that there'd be a change in her students' behavior. But to see it firsthand and to see that transformation, I expected it to happen. I was impressed with how much happened in four days and how quickly. Students who would usually be stuck on their phones spent the afternoon being social in real life with one another.

They even used the time to connect with their instructors. Like most high school teachers, Linda was used to being snubbed by shy students who didn't know her well. But on that walk, I really believe it was the dog connection. There was so much they found to talk to me about and joke with me about. Again, an immediate connection. You know, I mean, they just looked more relaxed. But as a mental health professional, Linda didn't just want to rely on anecdotes. When Linda originally designed Canine University, she planned to use a set of state-of-the-art empirical surveys to measure whether the class had a positive effect on students' well-being

in such a short time. She had planned to do a bunch of pre- and post-assessments of students' mood and well-being. But in the end, her students were too busy being with their dogs. And, well, just being. Which, in retrospect, Linda realizes was probably a good thing. I had a lot of things I was going to do. And as I got to see the students, what I realized is

they were not at all interested in doing that. They wanted to be in the moment. So we didn't measure it. We experienced it. We laughed about it. We were in the moment. Linda didn't need a survey to see just how transformed her students seemed after the class. Her experience with Canine University taught her that brief interactions with dogs can be an inspiration for all of us, no matter whether we have a pet or not, to help us adopt new strategies that positively affect our well-being.

So, does Linda hope that someday dogs will be giving lessons at every high school? Oh, well, that would be my dream. Yes. I agree with Linda here. I think we'd all be better off if we had a little canine university in our lives. But we don't necessarily need a high school spring intensive course or even our own personal pet dog to get that needed canine education. The science shows that we can get a lot of the happiness benefits that come from being around a dog if we just remember to ask ourselves that all-important question.

What would a dog do right now? By following this sort of canine lead, you'll start using more of your senses and getting curious and present with the world around you, and even maybe start moving more. With a little canine inspiration, we can naturally wind up engaging in practices that'll get our metaphorical human tails wagging

and that will help us feel a little happier. naturally wind up engaging in practices that'll get our metaphorical human tails wagging, and that will help us feel a little happier. The Happiness Lab is co-written and produced by Ryan Dilley. Our original music was composed by Zachary Silver, with additional scoring, mixing, and mastering by Evan Viola. Joseph Fridman checked our facts. Sophie Crane McKibben edited our scripts. Marilyn Rust offered additional production support. Special thanks to Mia LaBelle, Carly Migliore, Heather Fane, Maggie Taylor, Daniela Lucarn,

Maya Koenig, Nicole Morano, Eric Sandler, Royston Besserve, Jacob Weisberg, and my agent, Ben Davis. The Happiness Lab is brought to you by Pushkin Industries and me, Dr. Laurie Santos.