LONDON (Reuters) - Having a dog in the housereduces the risk that young children will develop allergies, Germanresearchers said on Tuesday.

The finding, based on a six-year study of 9,000 children, lendsweight to the theory that growing up with a pet trains the immunesystem to be less sensitive to potential triggers for allergieslike asthma, eczema and hay fever.

Just why this should be is unclear but scientists believeyoungsters may get beneficial early exposure to germs carried intothe house on the animal’s fur, which helps their immune systemsdevelop.

“Our results show clearly that the presence of a dog in the homeduring subjects’ infancy is associated with a significantly lowlevel of sensitization to pollens and inhaled allergens,” saidJoachim Heinrich of the National Research Centre for EnvironmentalHealth in Munich.