Short answer
Yes, but mostly in the moment and less dramatically than the internet suggests. In a randomized trial of 249 university students, 10 minutes of petting cats and dogs lowered salivary cortisol compared with watching others pet them, looking at photos or waiting (1). A 2026 meta-analysis of 28 studies found that having a dog in the room during a stressful task slightly lowered heart rate reactivity and self-reported stress, but did not change blood pressure or cortisol reactivity on average (2).
The long-term benefits of having a pet are less about touch and more about routine. The American Heart Association concluded in 2013 that pet ownership, particularly dog ownership, is "probably associated" with lower heart disease risk, and warned against getting a pet solely for that reason (3, 4). Dog owners in one UK study had four times the odds of meeting the 150-minutes-a-week activity guideline (5). On mental health, the evidence is honestly mixed.
If you got a pet hoping it would calm you down and you still feel stressed, you're not failing at pet ownership. Pets help some people, some of the time, and they also add real work.
Note: This article explains research. It is not medical or veterinary advice. If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 in the US (22). This guide is published by Welltory, which makes one of the apps mentioned.
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Do pets actually reduce stress?
Pets reduce some markers of stress during and right after contact, and that effect is the best-studied part of the story. Whether owning a pet lowers your stress across months and years is a different question, and the answer depends on you, the animal and how well your lives fit together.
It helps to split "stress" into three layers, because the research does:
Acute stress — what happens in your body in the next 10 to 30 minutes. This is where petting studies live, and they show modest, fairly consistent effects on heart rate and how stressed people say they feel.
Daily load — sleep, movement, loneliness, structure. Here a pet can work through habits: walks, regular wake-ups, a reason to go outside, a reason to talk to neighbors.
Long-term health — heart disease, depression, lifespan. These studies are observational. They compare owners with non-owners, and owners differ in many ways besides the pet.
NIH's health newsletter summed it up plainly: interacting with animals has been shown to decrease cortisol and lower blood pressure, "but the results have been mixed," and "an animal may not work for everyone" (17).
So the fair short answer to "do pets reduce stress?" is: often in the moment, sometimes over time, and never automatically.
What happens in your body when you pet an animal
Several body systems respond to friendly contact with an animal. Here is what has actually been measured.
Cortisol
Cortisol is the main stress hormone of the HPA axis (hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal glands). In the 2019 trial by Pendry and colleagues, students were randomly assigned to one of four groups: hands-on petting of cats and dogs, watching others pet them, a slideshow of the same animals, or a waitlist. After controlling for each student's own morning cortisol, the hands-on group had lower cortisol at the end of the session than all three other groups (1). The authors describe this as "momentary stress relief" — not a lasting change.
Heart rate and blood pressure
The 2026 meta-analysis by Rodriguez and colleagues pooled 62 effect sizes from 2,027 people who did a stress task (math under pressure, public speaking, a cold-water test) with or without a dog present. A dog's presence was linked to slightly lower heart rate reactivity (g = −0.12) and lower self-reported stress (g = −0.29). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure and cortisol reactivity did not change significantly (2). In plain words: people felt calmer and their hearts sped up a little less, but the effect was small.
An older and much-cited study, Allen and colleagues 2002, tested 240 married couples. People with pets had lower resting heart rate and blood pressure, smaller increases during mental arithmetic and a cold-water test, and faster recovery. Among owners, the lowest reactivity came when their own pet was present (9). Not every study replicated this, which is why the newer meta-analysis matters: it shows the average effect across many labs is real but modest.
Oxytocin and the "bonding" story
You will often read that petting a dog "floods you with oxytocin." The real picture is more careful. A 2012 review of 69 studies concluded that friendly animals can reduce heart rate and blood pressure or buffer their rise, and proposed oxytocin as a likely mechanism (10). But the oxytocin studies were small — one had 10 people per group — and one found a rise in women interacting with their dog but not in men (10). Oxytocin is a plausible explanation, not a measured guarantee.
Heart rate variability
Heart rate variability (HRV) reflects how flexibly your nervous system shifts between "on" and "rest." The AHA statement lists "improved autonomic tone" and "diminished sympathetic responses to stress" among effects reported in pet studies (3). There is no large trial showing that owning a pet raises your HRV over time. If you track HRV, your own before-and-after readings are more informative than any headline. Our guide to what HRV means explains how to read it.
| Measure | What studies found | How strong is the evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Self-reported stress | Lower during and after contact | Moderate, consistent across studies |
| Cortisol | Lower after 10 minutes of petting in one large RCT; no average change in stress-task studies | Mixed |
| Heart rate | Slightly smaller rise during stress with a dog present | Moderate, small effect |
| Blood pressure | Lower in some studies, no average effect in the 2026 meta-analysis | Mixed |
| Oxytocin | Rises in small studies, not in everyone | Weak to moderate |
| HRV | Reported in some studies, no long-term trial | Weak |
What are the benefits of having a pet? The list, sorted by evidence
Most lists of pet benefits mix solid findings with wishful ones. Here is the same list, sorted by how good the evidence is.
Better supported:
More walking (dogs). Dog owners in a UK community study had 14 times the odds of walking for recreation and four times the odds of meeting the 150-minute weekly activity guideline (5). In an AHA-cited study of more than 5,200 adults, dog owners were 54% more likely to get the recommended level of physical activity (4).
Short-term calm. Lower self-reported stress and a slightly smaller heart-rate spike when an animal is present (2).
Plausible, but observational:
Heart health and longer life. Large cohort studies link dog ownership with lower risk of death, especially for people who live alone (6).
Less loneliness. NIH notes studies finding that animals can reduce loneliness and increase feelings of social support (17). Our article on loneliness and the nervous system explains why that matters for your body.
Unclear or mixed:
Anxiety and depression. Reviews find positive, mixed, absent and even negative associations (11, 12).
Better sleep. Depends on where the animal sleeps and who you are (15, 16).
Dogs: why the walk may matter more than the cuddle
If dogs help health over the long run, the most likely route is boring and practical: they make you go outside, every day, whatever the weather.
The physical activity effect
The Westgarth study surveyed 191 dog owners and 455 non-owners in one area of England and used activity trackers in a subset. Owners were far more likely to walk for recreation, walked longer each week when they did, and had four times the odds of hitting 150 minutes of activity a week (5). Children in dog-owning homes also walked more and played more freely outside.
That matters for stress because regular moderate movement is one of the few stress tools that works across almost every body system: sleep pressure, mood, blood pressure, blood sugar. A dog turns movement from a decision into an obligation. You do not have to find motivation at 7 a.m. — someone is standing by the door. If you want a sense of how much walking adds up, see how many steps a day you actually need.
Daylight and a fixed schedule
Morning walks also give you daylight at roughly the same time every day. Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, the body's internal clock, according to NIH (21). A dog's schedule — up, out, fed, out again — quietly enforces the regular wake time that sleep experts recommend and most of us skip on weekends.
What the heart studies show — and what they cannot
The largest study to date followed 3.4 million Swedish adults for up to 12 years. In single-person households, dog owners had a 33% lower risk of death (HR 0.67) and a 36% lower risk of cardiovascular death (HR 0.64) than non-owners (6). A 2019 meta-analysis of 10 studies and 3.8 million people found a 24% lower risk of death from any cause in dog owners (7).
These numbers sound huge, so here are the caveats in the authors' own words. The Swedish team wrote that their observational study "cannot provide evidence for a causal effect," and that reverse causation and confounding "cannot be excluded" (6). The 2019 meta-analysis pooled results that were not adjusted for confounders (7). Another 2019 meta-analysis of 12 studies, which used adjusted results, found no association between pet ownership and all-cause mortality overall, with a small benefit only in some subgroups (8). As the AHA statement's chair put it, "It may be simply that healthier people are the ones that have pets" (4).
The honest reading: a dog can be a very effective way to walk more, and walking is good for your heart. The dog itself is not a medicine.
Cats: calm company, with fewer studies
Cats have far less research behind them than dogs, partly because they do not change your activity level. The Pendry trial included cats as well as dogs, and hands-on petting lowered cortisol (1). Beyond that, the long-term data are thin and mixed: a 2025 meta-analysis found cat ownership linked to a slightly higher risk of depression (OR 1.06), which likely reflects who chooses cats and why rather than harm from the cat (12).
The calming effect of a cat is real for many people — warmth, weight, a slow rhythm of breathing on your lap. Just expect it to show up as a quieter evening, not as a number on a cardiology report.
Do pets help with anxiety and depression?
This is where search results promise the most and research delivers the least.
A 2021 systematic review of 54 studies on pet ownership and mental health found 17 with a positive impact, 19 mixed, 13 with no impact and 5 negative (11).
A 2025 meta-analysis of 21 studies and 159,322 people found no overall link between pet ownership and depression (OR 1.03) (12).
A longitudinal study that followed 4,237 people through the COVID-19 pandemic found that, after adjusting for confounders, pet ownership did not ease stress or most kinds of loneliness (13).
A 2025 review of 116 studies found that a stronger attachment to a pet was not reliably linked with better mental health, and in studies of depression and anxiety symptoms it was more often linked with worse scores (24).
Why the mismatch between how pets feel and what the numbers say? Three reasons:
People get pets when life changes. A move, a breakup, an empty house, a hard year. The pet arrives with the stress already there.
Averages hide fit. For one person a dog is a reason to get up; for another it is one more thing they cannot keep up with.
Pets help in specific moments. A 2018 review of people living with long-term mental health conditions described pets as especially valuable "in times of crisis" — and also named the practical and emotional burden of care and the psychological impact of losing a pet (14).
A pet can be part of how you cope. It is not a replacement for treatment of an anxiety disorder or depression. If worry or low mood keep interfering with daily life, that is a reason to talk to a clinician (23). Our overview of generalized anxiety disorder covers how it is diagnosed and treated.
Is sleeping with your dog or cat good or bad for your sleep?
Where the animal sleeps matters more than whether you have one. A Mayo Clinic study of 40 healthy adults and their dogs, using activity trackers on both, found that a dog in the bedroom did not hurt sleep, but people who let the dog into the bed slept worse (15). A survey of about 1,000 US women found that dogs in bed were rated as less disruptive than human partners or cats, and that dogs gave a stronger sense of comfort and security; cats were rated about as disruptive as a human partner (16).
A simple way to decide:
If you sleep well already, keep doing what you do.
If you wake up often, try the pet on its own bed in your bedroom for two weeks and compare.
If you have allergies or asthma, keep the bedroom pet-free; cat allergens in particular are sticky and linger for months (20).
Our guide to the best sleep environment covers light, noise and temperature, which pets also affect.
The other side: a pet is also a load
Every list of pet benefits skips this part, so here it is.
Money. The ASPCA's 2021 estimate puts annual costs at about $1,391 for a dog and $1,149 for a cat, and first-year costs at about $3,221 and $1,904, before emergencies (19). Money worry is a stressor in its own right.
Sleep. Puppies and new rescue animals often need night-time trips outside or wake you early. A sick or old pet can do the same for months.
Falls. CDC estimated about 86,629 fall injuries a year in the US linked to dogs and cats, 88% involving dogs. Women were 2.1 times more likely to be injured than men, and about a quarter of dog-related falls happened while walking the dog (18).
Allergies and infections. Cat and dog allergies affect 10 to 20% of people worldwide, and "a truly non-allergic dog or cat does not exist" (20). Children, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems are at higher risk of getting sick from animals (17).
Worry and grief. A pet's illness is real stress, and its death is real grief. The body response to grief — broken sleep, a raised heart rate, exhaustion — is the same whether the loss is a person or an animal. We wrote about it in grief and the body.
None of this means "don't get a pet." It means the stress math has two columns.
When a pet is not the answer right now
Consider waiting, or a lighter version of animal contact, if:
you or someone at home has animal allergies or asthma;
money is already tight;
you work long hours away from home with no backup care;
you are in a mental health crisis and caring for yourself is hard right now;
your housing situation is uncertain.
Lighter options still give you the moment-to-moment effect that petting studies measure: fostering an animal for a few weeks (AAFA suggests fostering to test for allergies) (20), volunteering at a shelter, walking a neighbor's dog, or visiting a therapy-dog program on campus or at work.
Living with stress and a pet: the questions people ask next
Does petting a dog lower blood pressure?
Sometimes, in the moment, but not reliably. Some older studies found lower blood pressure with a pet present, but a 2026 meta-analysis of experimental stress studies found no significant average effect of a dog's presence on systolic or diastolic blood pressure (2). If you have high blood pressure, petting a dog is a pleasant extra, not a treatment; see how to lower high blood pressure for what works.
Does petting a dog reduce stress?
Yes, modestly. Ten minutes of petting cats and dogs lowered cortisol in a randomized trial of 249 students (1), and having a dog present during a stressful task lowered self-reported stress and slightly reduced the heart-rate rise (2). A therapy-dog study of university students found large immediate effects that were small a few hours later (31), so think of petting as a reset, not a cure.
Are cats or dogs better for mental health?
Neither wins clearly. Dogs come with more evidence for physical activity (5), and in one pandemic study dog owners showed larger drops in stress and loneliness than cat owners before adjustment (13). Cats need less time outside and cost less (19). The better question is which animal fits your energy, schedule and home.
Should I get a dog for my anxiety?
Get a dog because you want a dog and can care for one for the rest of its life, not as an anxiety treatment. A dog can bring structure, walks and company, which help many people. It can also add worry, cost and broken sleep. If anxiety is shaping your days, start with a clinician, then decide about a dog as a lifestyle choice.
Why do I feel more stressed since getting a puppy?
Because puppies are hard work: night-time toilet trips, chewing, training and constant supervision. Short sleep and constant vigilance push stress up for anyone. This usually eases as the puppy grows and the routine settles; if it does not, a trainer or your vet can help.
How does losing a pet affect your body?
Losing a pet can cause the same grief response as other losses: poor sleep, a heavy chest, fatigue and trouble focusing. Reviews of people living with mental health conditions specifically name the psychological impact of losing a pet (14). Pet loss grief is real grief and deserves the same patience.
Before you blame yourself
If you expected a pet to fix your stress and it hasn't, it is easy to think, "Something is wrong with me — everyone else feels better with a dog." Before you blame yourself, check what your body already recorded. Maybe your sleep got shorter after the puppy arrived. Maybe your evening heart rate is higher on days you rush the walk. Maybe your best days are the ones with a slow morning walk in daylight.
Pick one lever and keep it for 2 weeks: for example, a fixed 20-minute morning walk at the same time, or moving the dog's bed off yours. Then compare your sleep and your stress readings with the 2 weeks before. One change at a time is how you learn what actually helps you — and whether the pet is part of the stress or part of the relief.
When to see a doctor
See a doctor or mental health professional if:
worry, fear or low mood last for weeks and interfere with work, sleep or relationships (23);
you have new sneezing, wheezing, hives or shortness of breath around an animal (20);
an animal bite or scratch becomes red, swollen or painful;
you fell while walking your dog and are still in pain;
grief after losing a pet is not easing after several weeks, or you cannot function.
If you are thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 now, or chat at chat.988lifeline.org (22).
How to bring this up with your doctor
You do not need to justify your pet to get good care. What helps:
Say what you noticed: "I feel calmer after walks with my dog, but my anxiety is still there most days."
Ask by name: "Could this be generalized anxiety, and what are my treatment options?" or "Could my symptoms be an allergy to my cat?"
Bring two to four weeks of notes: sleep times, how often you walk, stress spikes and what happened before them.
Mention your pet's role honestly, including the hard parts: night wakings, cost worries, a sick animal.
If you feel brushed off, say: "This affects my sleep and my work. I'd like a plan or a referral."
Start understanding your body
Learn what affects your energy, stress, sleep, and daily state. Get the app.
How Welltory helps — and what it cannot do
What it cannot do. Welltory is a general wellness product, not a medical device. It does not diagnose anxiety, depression or allergies, and it cannot tell you whether a pet is right for you.
What it can do is help you see whether your own routine with an animal changes how your body handles stress:
A quick heart rate and HRV reading with your phone camera. It is a spot reading, not continuous monitoring. Try a reading before and after a 20-minute walk with your dog on a few different days, following the camera measurement guide and the tips for accurate HRV readings. One reading is noise; a pattern over weeks is information.
Tag what happened. On iPhone with an Apple Watch or Oura ring, the Today screen shows stress and recovery through the day. When Welltory spots a stress or recovery episode, it asks "What happened?" or "What helped you rest?" — tap a tag, type or talk: "walk with the dog," "cat on my lap," "puppy woke me at 4."
Look back at patterns. On iOS, My Patterns starts showing which tags come with stress and which with recovery once you have about 7 tagged events; month-to-month comparison needs a paid plan.
Sleep, steps and resting heart rate from your watch or ring. Connect Apple Health, Health Connect or Samsung Health to see how walking days compare with couch days.
A log for your doctor. You can export your data as a CSV file from the web app and bring it to an appointment.
Patterns are links to discuss with your doctor, not proof that a pet or a habit caused a change.
How we made it
We based this article on randomized trials, meta-analyses and large cohort studies in AERA Open, Anthrozoös, Circulation, Scientific Reports, Psychosomatic Medicine, PLOS ONE and BMC Psychiatry, plus guidance from NIH, CDC, the ASPCA and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. Every number was checked against the source we cite on November 10, 2026. Search questions came from what people in the United States most often ask about the benefits of having a pet and whether pets reduce stress. For the product section, we checked every function against the Welltory Help Center on November 10, 2026.
Made with AI tools, then edited and fact-checked by the Welltory team. See our Editorial & AI policy.
Jane Smorodnikova, co-founder of Welltory, built the methodology behind how we read physiological data.
Written by Tatsiana Yashyna.
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See what affects your energy, stress, sleep, and daily state with Welltory
This article is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. If you are in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, call or text 988 in the US. This guide is published by Welltory, which makes one of the apps mentioned. Welltory is a general wellness product: it helps you track and understand your data and does not diagnose or treat any condition. Sources were retrieved on November 10, 2026.
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Written by Jane Smorodnikova
The founder and CEO of Welltory. A recognized tech leader with two Master's degrees and experience at MIT, she has scaled Welltory to over 17 million users.
Written by Tatsiana Yashyna
Deputy COO at Welltory. With a background in medicine and years of working with health data, she translates research and real physiological signals — sleep, stress, heart rate, and hormones — into clear, evidence-based explanations that help people understand what their bodies are telling them.
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