The Discussion and Conclusions of the actual paper, since my institution subscribes to the journal: Discussion It is widely known that human-animal interaction

The Discussion and Conclusions of the actual paper, since my institution subscribes to the journal: Discussion It is widely known that human-animal interaction is associated with positive health effects for humans, and for many years, its investigations had focused on this aspect (Fine, 2010). Nevertheless, dogs' unwanted behaviors could also have affect humans. This research focuses on owners’ perception about dog behavior when left alone and its association with their perceived stress and happiness. We evaluated owners who believed that their dogs had separation-related problems and owners who perceived that their dogs were well behaved in their absence. After comparing the characteristics of both groups, as in McGreevy and Masters (2008) study, we did not detect a tendency related to breeds or an association related to their size. We found a significant difference between the groups according to the dog's time living with their actual owner: those owners who perceived that their dogs were well behaved when left alone had lived with their dogs longer. Owners perceived that those dogs that did not present separation-related problems also had higher scores in trainability. This relationship may be explained by Tiira and Lohi (2015) findings that anxious dogs could be exercised less because these dogs may be less obedient or more prone to running away when walking. Hyper- or over-attachment are typical descriptions in the literature regarding dogs with separation anxiety (Ogata, 2016). We found higher attachment scores within the group of owners who reported that their dogs had separation-related behavioral problems; however, attachment style should be considered (Parthasarathy and Crowell-Davis, 2006). Results suggest that owners and dogs that share the same preferences in activities also share symptoms associated with stress. Dogs share many of the same environmental factors that contribute to anxiety in other species, such as humans (Tiira and Lohi, 2015). Owners with higher levels of stress may not have a relaxed relationship with their dogs, which can contribute to their annoyance about their dogs' behavior, so they spend less time with them, increasing the anxiety in the dogs. In turn, a dog's behaviors may annoy the owner and may be a source of stress for him or her, which affects his or her perceived happiness. Conclusion The findings of this study suggest that if owners do something to improve behaviors that they consider annoying in their dogs, their perceived happiness and dog-owner relationship could improve. Owners who perceive themselves as stressed also perceive separation-related problems in their dogs.