Physicians have long claimed having a dog is healthy and French researchers proved that a dog helps both men and women get dates and cash in a phenomenon known as the "dog effect".

Four experiments surrounding whether or not a pooch will help you get a date have been reviewed and carried out with and without a dog. Here they are explained with their results.

Experiment 1: A man solicited people for money in the street and 9 out of 80 people donated to the man without a dog and 28 gave to the guy with the dog.

Experiment 2: This was the same experiment as in number one except a woman executed the experiment instead of a the man. Twenty-six out of 100 people gave to the woman without a dog and 51 gave to the lady with the dog.

Experiment 3: A man accidentally dropped some coins on the ground, to see if people would help him pick them up. Twenty-three out of 40 people helped the man without the dog as opposed to 35 that helped when the dog was present.

Experiment 4: Young women were approached on the street and asked for their phone number by a man. Eleven out of 120 gave their numbers to the guy with no dog whereas 34 gave to the guy with the dog.

it was since concluded "that the presence of the dog was associated with a higher rate of helping behaviour (experiments 1, 2, 3) and higher compliance with the request of the confederate (experiment 4)."

This is an astonishing finding: a man's likelihood of obtaining a woman's phone number increases three-fold when accompanied by a dog!