{"id":490,"date":"2021-03-17T09:00:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T13:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/its-cuthemedev1.carleton.ca\/mental-health\/?p=490"},"modified":"2026-01-14T10:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T15:06:14","slug":"can-pets-be-good-for-romantic-relationships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/2021\/can-pets-be-good-for-romantic-relationships\/","title":{"rendered":"Can pets be good for romantic relationships?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Can pets be good for romantic relationships?\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p>Can pets be good for romantic relationships? Carleton grad Anika Cloutier (now at Queen\u2019s University) and Psychology faculty member <a href=\"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/psychology\/people\/johanna-peetz\/\">Johanna Peetz<\/a> conducted several studies showing that pet ownership was associated with relationship benefits (greater overall relationship quality, partner responsiveness, adjustment and relational investment) among couples who owned pets together compared to couples with no pets. They also identified one possible reason for <em>why <\/em>pets may benefit relationships: Living with a companion animal might provide the opportunity to practice empathic abilities, which is a fundamentally important ability in the maintenance of positive relationships. The longer participants reported having lived with a pet, the higher their ability to take other people\u2019s perspective and to feel empathic concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To read this article online, click here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/08927936.2016.1181361\">https:\/\/www.tandfonline.com\/doi\/abs\/10.1080\/08927936.2016.1181361<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For additional stories about this topic please see, <a href=\"https:\/\/vancouversun.com\/life\/relationships\/pet-therapy-romantic-relationships-can-benefit-from-puppy-love\">https:\/\/vancouversun.com\/life\/relationships\/pet-therapy-romantic-relationships-can-benefit-from-puppy-love<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/27\/well\/family\/dog-date-men-women-love-dating-relationships.html\">https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/02\/27\/well\/family\/dog-date-men-women-love-dating-relationships.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Can pets be good for romantic relationships? Carleton grad Anika Cloutier (now at Queen\u2019s University) and Psychology faculty member Johanna Peetz conducted several studies showing that pet ownership was associated with relationship benefits (greater overall relationship quality, partner responsiveness, adjustment and relational investment) among couples who owned pets together compared to couples with no pets. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[22,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-wellness-wednesday"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/mental-health\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}