Valerie- Taiylor Williams

February 26, 2020

EN 102

Ms. Barnes

Annotated Bibliography

“Why Dogs Make You Happy.” ​Psychology Today​, Sussex Publishers,

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-path-passionate-happiness/201809/why-dogs-make-you-
happy​.

To start off, the author says “This is the thing about dogs.​ They make your life better.

They make you smile more. They force you to move. They encourage you to be more mindful of

the present. They make you feel loved.” (Why dogs make us happy). ​The author is not even

trying to convince the reader at this point, he/she is just flat out telling us that dogs make our

lives better with no argument then tells us how/why. The first point is “dogs improve your

mood”​ (Why dogs make us happy).​. The author uses logos as a way to make the statement be

more factual by using case studies and statistics. It's been scientifically proven that having a pet

and not just dogs “makes you have an optimistic perspective on life”​ (Why dogs make us happy).

and having pets reduces anxiety and depression.

The second point is having a dog makes you feel loved and who does not want love. The

article says that dogs release oxytocin which is the happy chemical that is released in our brain

that makes us feel good. Point number three the author is proving is dogs lower our stress by

saying petting animals “ ​lowers your cortisol, the stress hormone” (Why dogs make us happy).

The next point is dogs help you to be social. Having people to socialize with would help people
be happier because who does not want friends. The last point the author says is dogs keep you

healthy and fit. Having activity in your life while being fit naturally brings people happiness but

having a dog gives you another reason to go out for walks and runs. I picked this article because

it was very simple to read and it conveys the whole point of my paper. I feel that this resource is

in the middle of how trustworthy it is because it's not sketchy but it's not something I found in

the library search engine.

Leipholtz, Beth. “7 Reasons Dogs Make The Best Life Companions.” ​HuffPost​,
HuffPost, 29 Dec. 2016,
www.huffpost.com/entry/7-reasons-dogs-make-the-best-life-companions_b_8870538.

In the article “7 Reasons Dogs Make The Best Life Companions” by Beth Lezipholtz,

Lezipholtz starts off her article in her perspective on how she views dogs and “how much better

dogs are as lifelong companions and friends” ( 7 reasons dogs make the best life companions).

She gives her valid points on why dogs make better companions. These points Lezipholtz is

using to convey to us on to why dogs make better companions are not backed up by research it's

more of a personal opinion. Points like “They can cuddle better than anyone”( 7 reasons dogs

make the best life companions) and “Their reaction when you come home from work is

priceless”( 7 reasons dogs make the best life companions) are more of her personal experience.

She talks about how she likes cuddling with her dog more and how her dog lays at her feet. For

the other point she talks about how she loves to come home from work and her dog is waiting for

her like she has “been gone for weeks”( 7 reasons dogs make the best life companions). The

other points are basically about the love and loyalty dogs give humans and vice versa.
 I wanted to use this source because it was a perspective on an average person who has a

dog that makes their lives more exciting. Using this source would show how happy people with

dogs could be. I also liked how relaxed the article was written so I could understand what the

author was trying to prevail . I feel that this article is not as trustworthy as the rest because there

was no scientific evidence proving all her points and it was also written in her perspective.

LLC, Aquanta. “How Dogs Sense Emotions.” ​Home​,

www.doghealth.com/behavior/how-and-why/1994-how-dogs-sense-emotions​.

Dogs are amazing creatures that we do not deserve at all. I bet sometimes we sit and think

about how my dog does the things it does. For instance when your sick and your dog realizes it

so your dog acts more calm and lays with you while your resting or when your dog makes a

mistake and you scold at them they try to hide their guilt by not making eye contact with you. It's

like they can sense our moods like it's their superpower but it's actually just science. Dogs are

practically mind readers. They can tell if something is off with us by ​“the different inflections in

your voice that mean that you’re happy, anxious, sad, tentative, or angry.”(How Dogs Sense

Emotions ). Dogs can also sense our moods through smells and body language. You might say

how, but dogs are great watchers”( How Dogs Sense Emotions ). All dogs do most of the time is

watch/follow their owner or the person they love the most. If you're under someone's shadow

almost all the time you are bound to know when their mood changes or when they are acting

differently. With that being said if your sad or upset your dog will accommodate you and make

you feel better, or when you are happy they will want to play with you.

Putting this article with my research question makes since and ties in to my question

because it basically talks about how dogs will try to make us happy and not just why. I feel that
this article is a good one to choose because it puts us as the reader into a dog's perspective of

“how can i make my owner happy?” it makes us think in a different way unlike our first

perspective. I also like that the article was written for a dogs health website meant for all things

dogs and not like a website that has a mixture of topics.

Tarling, Bryce. “Grow up WITH PETS: Animals in the House Make for Healthy
Children.” ​Alive: Canada’s Natural Health & Wellness Magazine​, no. 419, Sept. 2017, pp.
127–130. ​EBSCOhost​,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=awh&AN=125086768&site=eds-live&scope=
site.

I feel that a lot of people can agree that while growing up at some point in time we all

begged for a dog. We would ask for one on christmas, ask for one on our birthdays, or kept

asking until our parents said yes. We were probably asking for a dog because they are so cute

and loveable but what we probably did not know is that growing up with a dog benefits us.

According to research “pets don't just provide companionship. They also offer social support”

(Grow up WITH PETS). Also having the responsibility of taking care of an animal has “lasting

benefits”(Grow up WITH PETS)

I feel that this article ties into my research because it talks about how having a family dog

is beneficial for everybody. It's more abstract in the way the author says having a dog makes you

more happy but it still gets the point across. This source is very trustworthy because I found it on

scout.

Dorau, Bethany Groff. “Emotional Support Animals: Overview.” ​Points of View: Emotional
Support Animals​, Dec. 2018, p. 1. ​EBSCOhost​,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=pwh&AN=134162013&site=eds-live&scope=
site.
 An emotional support animal by definition is an “ animal that helps an individual with a

mental health disorder by providing companionship, relieving stress or anxiety,or offering other

forms of support.” (Emotional Support Animals: Overview ) in the its been up for debate on

whether emotional support animals should be allowed in places like service dogs are. As our

society develops people with mental disabilities has risen as well so now a lot have people have

grown into the idea that mental health dogs are just as helpful as physical health dogs.

Mental health is important to me because I have struggled with being mentally happy in

the past and I have really bad anxiety. I feel that if someones mental health were to improve they

would overall be a lot happier with themselves.

Alomajan, Maria. ​Dogs in Action : Working Dogs and Their Stories.​ Exisle Publishing, 2013.
EBSCOhost​,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=655709&site=eds-live&scope=sit
e.
Ptsd is a common disorder for military people that have gone through something

traumatic like a war that brings episodes or flashbacks of the traumatic event. Sometimes ptsd

can feel so real that it's hard to snap out of it. Having a psychiatric service dog helps snap

someone out of an episode by just being there because it tricks the brain because the brain

realizes that the dog was never there. Having an animal right by your side to snap you out of a

bad episode would help your mental health tremendously because it will reduce flashbacks.

I picked this article because it had a soft spot in my heart. Both of my parents are military

and my dad has PTSD from fighting in desert shield/desert storm. Luckily he is not as

traumatized as others but i know what it's like to watch a family member go through it. I feel that
this article would be beneficial to my paper because dogs help with our mental health and being

mentally stable is a way to happiness.

All of my research had to mainly do with dogs and things that would bring people

happiness which ties into my main point. Some articles were less serious than others but it

brought it all back to the idea that dogs can bring peace, happiness, and/or mental stability. What

I mainly saw in some articles was that the author listed points and explained why they felt that

way. In others they were very vague and I had to put two and two together to understand the

main idea of the article.

I feel like my main problem in my research is probably tying in all my research. I'm still a

little lost on how I feel about my paper. Going into my research essay I'm going to have to do

better at annotating my sources. I might have to get new sources as well.