In case you didn't notice this past football season, the Dawg Pound is back in Cleveland.

After finally getting rid of a coach who had a win/loss record of 3 and 40 over two-plus years, the Browns, led by quarterback Baker Mayfield and other fresh talent, put together their best record (7-8-1) since 2007.

Dogs have a way of being good for body and spirit. That was confirmed by researchers at the University of Wisconsin who recently found that infants and newborns who are exposed to dogs are less likely to develop certain types of allergic diseases, such as atopic dermatitis (eczema) and asthma.

Another study from Sweden's University of Gothenburg found that infants growing up with three or more pets had even fewer allergies at ages 7 to 9 than kids who had only one or no pets.

All the researchers believe that early-childhood exposure to animals (the Swedes call it the “farm effect”) bolsters or preps a child's quickly developing immune system — sort of like an inoculation.

It seems that if you bring a newborn into your home and you have a dog and/or a cat — and your child does not have an allergic reaction — that doubles the likelihood that the child will dodge allergies later in life.

So we say, “Go Dawgs.”