First comes love, then comes Fido

Why do three-quarters of Americans in their 30s — 25 percent more than the overall population — own dogs? It’s probably not because they’re settled into adulthood in the traditional sense, as in married homeowners with children. A recent Stanford study shows that these classic milestones are happening on a delayed timeline for millennials, not to mention the American birth rate is at a 30-year record low. But if you feel like your Facebook newsfeed has become flooded with more puppy announcements than birth announcements, you’re likely noticing the trend of dogs as the first of millennial milestones.

Today’s median age for marriage is 27.4 and 29.5 for women and men, respectively, while fifty years ago it was 20.8 and 23. While the millennial generation was born around the time the American divorce rate was spiking, in the last decade it has plummeted by 18 percent overall.“If you’re older, you’re more mature… you probably have a better job, and those things make it less likely that you’ll get into arguments with your spouse,” says Andrew Cherlin, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University, to The Atlantic. It may be why almost half of millennials see their pets as practice for having children. Theories explaining why the divorce rate has dramatically dropped include that young couples are doubling down on compatibility tests, like pet ownership and cohabitation.

And when the nuptials do take place? It’s not uncommon to see good old Rover take part in the wedding ceremony. One only needs to look to Martha Stewart Weddings’ advice on how to integrate a pup seamlessly into a ceremony to know that millennials have overthrown decades of tradition. Then of course, there are those beloved literal dog weddings.

But maybe the reason that millennials are becoming fervid dog owners is the most obvious one of all: happiness. Scientists have found that the gaze between a human-dog duo can elicit the same type of oxytocin as between mothers and their infants. (Doggy stroller, anyone? With a side of “Doggy Dad” t-shirt?) For a demographic in which depression has increased 47 percent nationwide in recent years, the happiness factor is no small matter. And the health benefits of dog ownership even go beyond the physiological boosts. It’s been said that owning a dog can lower blood pressure, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels. There’s even a study that links owning a dog to living longer.

Maybe it’s no wonder that the majority of millennial pet owners are more likely to splurge on their furry companions than themselves, contributing to a multi-billion dollar pet industry that has quadrupled since the 1990s. It’s a dog’s world, after all.

Sources are provided for informational and reference purposes only. They are not an endorsement of Advertiser or Advertiser’s products.