Research Summary: (Self-)caring with Companion Animals – How Animals Shape Rest and Relaxation
By SCAS Communications Volunteer, Dr. Lori Hoy
Caring for our companion animals can help us practice better self-care – according to results of a recent article by McGlacken & Ashall, Dec 2025.
Through in-depth interviews with dog and cat guardians across 11 countries, researchers found that the obligations of companion animal care – the daily walk, the cuddle on the sofa – give people permission to rest and prioritise their own well-being in ways they often struggle to do for themselves alone. And crucially, the benefits run both ways: it's the shared enjoyment, the mutuality, that makes these moments so meaningful.
It turns out that close companion animal relationships can lead to self-care that is both social and more-than-human. Read the full Research Summary below by SCAS Communications Volunteer, Dr Lori Hoy
Introduction
Self-care tends to be framed as a personal responsibility – something individuals must pursue for themselves. Emerging research challenges this view, recognising that well-being is deeply relational. This qualitative study extends that thinking across species, exploring how companion animals shape everyday experiences of rest and relaxation. The findings suggest that caring for a companion animal can itself become a meaningful route to self-care.
Research Design
Thirty-one online semi-structured interviews were conducted with dog and cat guardians across 11 countries from September 2024–January 2025. Twenty-four interviews were with women and six with men, and one involving a male-female couple. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify patterns in how participants understood their relationships with their companion animals and how these shaped their rest and relaxation practices.
Key Findings
The analysis identified two overarching themes – granting permission and prompting prioritisation, and the role of mutuality – which together explain how and why companion animals support human self-care. These can be understood through four interconnected mechanisms:
1. Granting Permission: Reframing Self-Care as Care Duty
Companion animals help guardians give themselves permission to rest and relax, by recasting optional leisure as necessary care.
Caring activities such as dog walking are experienced as obligations rather than indulgences, removing the guilt often attached to taking time for oneself.
Breaks taken to spend time with a companion animal feel more socially ‘acceptable’ than those taken purely for personal benefit.
Dogs and cats offer different but equally valid pathways to rest: dogs primarily through physical activity; cats through more sensory/tactile interactions.
For those who find it difficult to prioritise their own well-being, a companion animal's dependency provides the external motivation to act.
2. Prompting Prioritisation: Restructuring Time and Daily Life
The needs of companion animals help guardians reshape their day in ways that create space for rest and relaxation.
A dog can act as a reliable ‘off switch’ from work, with walks providing a natural transition out of the working day.
Caring for a dependent animal puts work and other stressors into perspective, encouraging a more balanced approach to daily life.
Certain acts of pet care can feel intrinsically rewarding in a way that many self-directed tasks do not, reducing the need for conscious motivation.
The non-negotiable nature of pet care creates structure and discipline in daily routines – even for those who would struggle to prioritise the same activities for themselves alone.
3. The Power of Mutuality
The emotional foundation underlying these self-care mechanisms is mutuality: the sense that rest and relaxation are genuinely shared between people and their companion animals.
Activities and time with companion animals are experienced as mutually beneficial, amplifying enjoyment for both parties.
Spending time with a companion animal offers relational depth that solitary hobbies do not – combining one-on-one connection, reciprocal affection, purpose, and responsibility.
Personal happiness is often derived from the visible happiness of the companion animal, which participants described as central to why time together felt restorative.
Everyday activities such as watching television or going for a walk are enriched – given, as one participant put it, ‘another layer’ – when shared with a companion animal.
4. Structuring and Enriching Everyday Life
Beyond facilitating specific moments of rest, companion animals help create the broader conditions for everyday well-being.
Pet care obligations build natural rhythms and transitions into the day, creating regular pauses amid competing demands.
Ordinary activities become more meaningful when shared with a companion animal, transforming routine moments into quality time.
The presence of a companion animal encourages greater presence and mindfulness – several participants, for example, described leaving their phones at home during dog walks.
Study Limitations
The authors acknowledge several important constraints that should be considered when interpreting these findings:
Qualitative scope: As a qualitative study, the research did not aim to make generalisable claims but rather to illustrate common themes and mechanisms within the participant group.
Geographic and demographic representation: Although participants came from various countries, most were from Europe and Northern America. The sample was also skewed towards women, which is significant given that men may experience mental health and self-care differently.
Species limitation: The study focused solely on guardians of domestic dogs and cats, despite companion animals representing a wider range of species (birds, rabbits, reptiles, etc).
Selection bias: The study did not specifically seek participants whose companion animals had behavioural or health issues, which are known to have significant negative impacts on guardian well-being which may have shaped the dataset toward more positive experiences.
Conclusion
This study makes a compelling case for understanding self-care as a relational activity – one that can extend across species. Obligations to care for companion animals were consistently described as enabling and enriching experiences of rest and relaxation: giving people permission to stop, reshaping how they use their time, and adding emotional depth through a genuine sense of mutual benefit.
The findings reveal that companion animals are not passive recipients of care but active participants whose well-being is intertwined with their guardians’ own. In short: for many people caring for their companion animals is not separate from caring for themselves.
Read the full article: McGlacken, R., & Ashall, V. (2026). (Self-)caring with companion animals: a qualitative exploration of how companion animals shape everyday practices of rest and relaxation. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2025.2606862