Want your children to be asthma and allergy free? You may want to consider getting a dog. Susan Lynch, a gastroenterologist at the University of California, San Francisco, has discovered this connection while studying microbes in newborn babies’ bodies.

"Exposure in early life to a greater breadth of organisms seems to be beneficial and allows the system to accumulate a greater diversity of organisms, which really means a greater diversity of the microbial functions."

In other words, the mixture of home dust and dog’s dander, can help a child become immune to asthma later in life. This seems to contradict a well-known fact that pets can trigger allergies? But Lynch says timing is everything.

“In later life for example, if asthma or allergies have developed, then exposure to a dog will clearly will trigger allergies.”

So to prevent these immune diseases – a pet should be brought home when a child is no older than one month.

Editor's note: special thanks to Emma for taking the time out of her busy day to pose for the accompanying picture.