Monday morning rolls around and you are off to work.  If we were to check your cortisol level, we would most likely see an increase based on work related stress.  No real surprise there.  Work bumps up the stress in a lot of us.  When it gets bad enough some people will turn to therapy dogs to help us calm down.

That got some people to wonder how well those dogs handle the stress of helping you handle the stress.  And the answer is....

A new study published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science looked at 50,000 therapy dogs currently working in the U.S. The researchers took samples of the dogs' saliva, and tested it to find how high the animals' levels of the stress hormone cortisol were both at home and again at work.

The Daily Mail reports that the findings were remarkable in that there was no difference in how much cortisol the dogs had at home versus at work.

No difference!  Which means your therapy dog won't be needing any therapy of its own for helping you cope with stress. The researches also analyzed 26 canine behaviors and discovered the animals rarely showed behavioral signs of stress while on the job. This all suggests the animals might actually enjoy helping out humans in need.

Man's best friend indeed! (Daily Mail)

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