You come home after a stressful day and reach out to your cat for a bit of comfort. It hisses. Maybe takes a swipe. Or simply flicks its tail and saunters off without so much as a meow. A dog, by contrast, greets you as though they’ve just won the lottery.

Of course, some owners will argue their cats are very loving, but is it a cat or dog that is actually better for your mood? A Dutch study has just tried to find out. The researchers tracked pet owners across five days to see whether interacting with a dog or cat influences mood in real time.

The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, used an app, sending out around ten notifications a day for five days – including non‑working days – to catch people in the act of playing with their pet. Whenever participants were pinged, they had to answer quick questions about whether they were interacting with their pet, their current mood, and how stressed they felt (the owner, not the pet).

The researchers found that interacting with........

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