News & Features

Adolescence is a critical period of social transition, making teenagers highly susceptible to social anxiety.

To better understand how companion animals may support human wellbeing, it is important to closely analyze the daily interactions between humans and their pets.

In this article, Dr Vanessa Ashall, HAI Technical Leader at Waltham Petcare Science Institute (WPSI), speaks with Dr Megan Mueller. Alongside her team of researchers, Megan is leading the first ever longitudinal study looking into the impact of pet dogs on teens with social anxiety. This ground-breaking research is part of the Pets and Wellbeing Study (PAWS) program, led by Waltham in collaboration with leading academic institutes and experts.

Pets play a quiet but powerful role in our lives. They shape daily routines and create moments of balance in increasingly busy, screen-led schedules. While this is obvious at home, the connection between pets and wellbeing is more visible in the workplace too.

Dr Vanessa Ashall is the Human-Animal Interaction (HAI) Technical Leader at Waltham Petcare Science Institute. In this article, she speaks with Alex Elford, a PhD student at the University of Liverpool. Alex has an academic background in both human psychology and animal behaviour and is part of the research team investigating relationships between cats and their owners, and the related impact on mental wellbeing, for a study in the Pets and Wellbeing Study (PAWS) program.

We’re excited to share the highlights from our Waltham-led symposium at the ISAZ Conference last month! Having recently returned from Canada, Waltham Petcare Science Institute Senior Research Scientist in Human-Animal Interaction (HAI), Dr Becky Smith, reflects on the Waltham HAI-led symposium that took place at the International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ) Conference earlier this month.

Waltham Petcare Science Institute Human-Animal Interaction Lead, Dr. Vanessa Ashall shares her perspective on the importance of the Pets and Wellbeing Study (PAWS) program multidisciplinary approach to studying human-animal interactions (HAI). Through reflecting on her own experiences of living and working with animals, she highlights the importance of both understanding and measuring the impacts of pet cats and dogs on human mental health and wellbeing.

Loic Moutault, President Mars Petcare, explores how the connection with pets impacts his own wellbeing and highlights how the Pets and Wellbeing Study (PAWS) program aims to deepen our understanding of the human-animal bond - and how this bond influences both people and pets.

Cats and dogs have lived alongside humans for thousands of years, however the specific study of interactions between humans and animals has only been studied since the 1960s. Dr Tammie King, a pet behaviourist at Mars Petcare, explains why this field of study is so important to pets and people alike.