A new study has found a link between the family dog and your toddler’s social and emotional development.

The study, which was published in The Journal of Paediatric Research found that toddlers who grew up with a dog were a whopping 30% less likely to encounter problems with other children and with behavioural conduct in preschool compared children from families without dogs. The study also found that owning and regularly interacting with a dog increased the likelihood of prosocial behaviour in toddlers.

Specifically, daily walking and active play with the dog were the activities found to best boost the prosocial results in children.