Dogs in Schools: Can Spending Time with Dogs Improve Executive Functioning in a Naturalistic Sample of Young Children?

ABSTRACT

Recently, studies have begun to examine the educational and cognitive benefits of interacting with animals, specifically dogs. This study contributes to this research, with a focus on executive functioning abilities in six- to eight-year-old children. A naturalistic sample of 63 participants were allocated to one of three conditions, with varying levels of human–dog interactions, and participated in a four-week program hosted by a participating primary school. Participants completed the Opposite World test, a measure of inhibition and cognitive switching, and the Digit Span test, a measure of working memory, before and after the intervention. While there were no significant differences across condition, the analyses found that all participants improved in inhibition from baseline, with large effect sizes. It was also found that rates of improvement were greatest for participants with a lower starting ability, across inhibition, cognitive switching and working memory performance. This pattern was found in all three groups but was particularly marked for individuals who engaged in dog-intensive intervention conditions. This is an intriguing trend, as educational interventions often fail to target the individuals who need them the most. While limited by the lack of a true no-dog condition, our preliminary results can potentially inform future interventions targeting development of executive functions in children.

KEYWORDS:

• Animal-assisted activities
• child development
• executive functions
• human–animal interaction
• school-based intervention

Acknowledgements

We thank Righteous Pups Australia and St Monica’s School for their generosity and support in providing access to the therapy dogs and recruiting participants. Without their assistance, this project would not be possible.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflicts of interest were reported by the authors.