Rowan Sanderson sits down with personal trainers Stephen Clarke and Rab Shields to share what they consider to be the top health benefits to owning a dog. From inspiring you to step out of the house to do some exercise, to improving your people skills, to nurturing better microbiome, owning a dog can potentially improve your life in more ways than one.

Dogs simply give you a reason to get active versus motivating ourselves to exercise alone. With a little clever thinking, the possibilities for breaking a sweat with your pet are endless. In addition to exercise, dogs make you feel genuinely excited to speak to people. In other words, with a dog by your side, “Your heart and your head are more open to positive influence.”