How does Getting a Pet Affect your Relationship?

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Updated: 17 Jun, 2023

Shared sacrifice strengthens your bond as you trade personal time for your pet, and you can grow closer by turning daily care into shared rituals.
Coordinating routines builds teamwork, and mapping who does what helps you feel seen and supported as you create reliable, loving rhythms.
Budgeting together deepens trust, showing you can plan, adapt, and support each other through costs while keeping your relationship at the heart.

Are you a cat or a dog person? It does not really matter. What matters is that you and your spouse agree that it is time to get a pet. It is the first step towards leading a responsible life.

Both of you think it is time to get a pet.

A pet is a lot like a baby, there are a lot of things to do to maintain it. Yet, all that effort will make you immensely happy in the ways you cannot imagine.

It will improve you and your spouse as individuals. Any kind of pet in the house is a great stress reliever and a great natural anti-depressant.

The real question here, is – how does getting a pet affect your relationship and not you individually? There are many positive and negative things about getting a pet.

Related Reading: Is Your Dog Ruining Your Relationship

Here are the most important five:

1. You will have less time for yourself

The level of responsibility that you are going to have when you get a pet increases significantly. An animal is another mouth to feed and to look after.

Owning a cat includes taking it to the vet for regular checkups and for vaccines. Furthermore, you will have to clean kitty litter and make sure that your cat is content with its surroundings.

However, cats can be piece of cake when compared to dogs. If you get a puppy, both of you will need to spare the equal amount of time playing with it. You will also have to teach it where to (or where not to) pee and not to bark on people it does not know.

This all means that you are going to give up your favorite TV show or a movie night. That time should be devoted to your pet. It may seem as an obligation, but all of that will become a sort of satisfaction to both of you, as well.

2. The number of responsibilities will increase

Every pet requires certain routines to be made in order to keep it healthy and happy. You as a couple need to make a deal about duties regarding your pet. If you manage to stick to it, awesome! Your responsibility will achieve a new level, and you will find yourself more grownup than ever!

For example, one will always need to take a dog out for the walk, while the other needs to take care that it is clean and fed. This seems like an easy work on paper, but it is not. It takes a lot of practice to know exactly what your pet wants, what (and whom) it likes and dislikes.

Other pets such as parrots or goldfish do not need you to create new daily routines. You will still have to take care of them and know how they express their emotions.

The number of responsibilities will increase

3. Plan your budget and include your pet

The sad part of it all is that vets cost a lot. However, it is not the only thing that is necessary for your pet. You need to pay additional expenses for every checkup. Every vaccine and every drug that you take for your pet will make your wallet thinner.

Dogs cost approximately $1200 for the first year and cats cost $1000. This value lowers in half after the first year. This means that the cost of having a pet is $500 – $600 annually.

You as a couple need to plan your budget according to your pet. It does not need to be on the top of your list, but it should not be taken out of that list either.

Related Reading: Can a Pet Help in Strengthening Family Bonds?

4. You will explore new emotions

Pets will make both of you fall in love with them. You and your spouse will become closer than ever. You will have something in common which requires the same amount of time and energy. This is a unique feeling that people who never owned a pet will never experience.

Sadly, this brings negative emotions as well. If you get too attached to a pet, you will feel enormous pain once it is gone.

Cats and dogs can run away if they are not properly cared for. That is why you should always give them your love and care and hope that they will live longer.

5. Your mental and physical health will increase

This is now a fact that everyone knows. People who suffer from depression or anxiety will start feeling inexplicably better. This happens solely because there is another member of the family there and it shares the love with everyone.

There are myriads of research that support this hypothesis. For example, cat’s purr is in the frequency zone (20 – 50 Hz) which calms people down and relieves stress.

Your physical health will be better, as well. If you own a dog, you need to walk them every day for a couple of hours. That is a great way to exercise. Dogs need constant exercise and they will be much happier if you can run and play with them as much as you can.

To sum up, every couple should consider getting a pet if they can afford it. There will be many things that they would have to give up, though. The reward that comes afterwards is something that will definitely bring them closer together.

Pets share an unconditional love for humans who own them. Humans will, hopefully, learn from pets how to express that type of love towards each other.

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Marriage.com Editorial Team Relationship & Marriage Advice

The Marriage.com Editorial Team is a group of experienced relationship writers, experts, and mental health professionals. We provide practical and research-backed advice on relationships. Our content is thoroughly reviewed by experts... Read more to ensure that we offer high-quality and reliable relationship advice. Read less