Can you be too attached to your pet? In a Psychology Today article called “How Our Bonds with Pets Support Mental Health,” Jason Shimiaie argues that strong attachments to dogs provide important mental health benefits for their owners.
Indeed, many of the pet owners I know are both psychologically healthy and deeply attached to their companion animals. Yet decades of research on the human-animal bond suggest a complex picture of the link between attachment to pets and psychological well-being.
Over the past 40 years, more than 100 research studies have been published on the link between pet attachment and mental health. The results of these studies have been mixed. For example, a 2021 study reported that high attachment to companion animals was associated with reduced risk of suicide in pet owners. However, a careful long-term 2025 study of 600 older adults in Baltimore led by Erika Friedmann and Nancy Gee found that owners who were more strongly bonded to their pets experienced greater declines in well-being over time than less attached pet owners.
How can we make sense…
