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NotBlazeron t1_j673pa1 wrote

Reply to comment by gard3nwitch in Cat broke into Lynx's cage and now they are best buds. by V6R32

Getting a dog to fix loneliness only helps a little

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Novawurmson t1_j67vfbq wrote

Works even better for cheetahs than humans. It's not the loneliness (they raise cheetahs in groups); it's that the cheetahs partially base their stress on the rest of their group. The golden retrievers are living the life (food, exercise, constant cheetah, dog, and human companionship) and are lower stress to begin with.

Interesting, this is also a thing in raising fish. Some skittish fish do better if there's chill, schooling fish around. If the schooling fish aren't hiding, that likely means no predators are around, so the skittish fish can relax.

Edit: As several people have pointed out, the fish are called dither fish. I haven't raised fish in a while and had forgotten the term.

Edit2: I also didn't know the piece about it reducing aggression. I didn't really raise territorial fish like cichlids, so that's cool.

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ma2412 t1_j67wqrr wrote

Hm, not so different from us then.

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asteriskysituation t1_j68b346 wrote

Aquarium hobbiests call those “dither fish” because of their behavior of “dithering” back and forth, it’s also helpful to displace aggressive fish behaviors as a kind of “distraction”

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Sunsent_Samsparilla t1_j68k3nm wrote

Makes sense. It's like a pro and a noob playing a game together. If the pro doesn't seem worried the noob wmwont be either.

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IFapToCalamity t1_j674rv6 wrote

You good bud?

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NotBlazeron t1_j67j81w wrote

I'll be okay

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SugarPantsJiff t1_j67wqpz wrote

"I'll be okay at some point in the future" is very different than "I'm okay right now". Sometimes the only thing you can do is to cling to the desperate faith that someday it will get better. But it gets really hard to keep believing that

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soopirV t1_j67cgdp wrote

Just need more dogs

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goliathfasa t1_j67r5w8 wrote

Good… twice the dogs… double the fall.

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Devai97 t1_j683y4q wrote

This is getting out of hand! Now, there are two of them

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handsomehares t1_j68dr0l wrote

The dog won’t fix loneliness.

But it will get you out of bed in the morning and get you out of the house for walks.

Loneliness is often exacerbated by the things loneliness brings on.

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deenut t1_j67zk28 wrote

Getting a golden is more effective than just any Dog!

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