Thurber’s Tail: How Dogs Make Us Laugh

She points to the findings of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, which researches EQ and teaches people how to improve it, and notes that a high EQ score is the best indicator of a child's success — as well as an adult's.

Which brings us back to the value of pets.

Daniels writes that a variety of research in the U.S. and U.K. has shown a correlation between attachment to a pet and higher empathy scores.

I know my buddy, Thurber, has certainly improved my empathy and EQ score.

How to Promote a More Cheerful World

I didn't realize that my emotions for my puppy would run so deep, or that I would work so hard and do so many things to give him the happiest, healthiest life he can experience.

Plus, everywhere we go — and he loves few things more than jumping into the backseat of my truck — he makes total strangers smile, laugh and converse with me.

His simple presence can bring human strangers together. He not only makes us forget the petty human world — for a little while, at least — but he reminds us that a simple but magnificent creature like him can turn the most hardened souls back into empathic, laughing, happy children.

As I work hard to train Thurber to be a great dog who exhibits compassion, self-discipline, courtesy and empathy, he is training me right back to improve all of those very same skills.

I can no longer imagine what my world would be like without my lovable Labrador enriching it for me — and everyone else who meets him every day.

As I said, I wish all of my fellow citizens could become more cheerful by inviting a furry family member into their homes.

It wouldn’t solve all of the world’s problems, but we’d certainly be more cheerful and civil as we work to solve them!

Tom Purcell is creator of ThurbersTail.com, which shares helpful pet-care tips and funny stories and videos featuring Tom’s beloved Labrador, Thurber. Email Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com.