Dog Owners that Look Like their Dogs – Pet tip 202

Have you ever walked down the street with your dog and upon passing another dog owner and their pooch, been stopped dead in your tracks because of an uncanny resemblance between the two? It’s true, even scary sometimes, how some people can look so much like their dogs. Or is it the other way around, that we pick dogs that look like us? Let’s look at both sides of this argument, to figure out an answer.

Is it possible that over time, we begin to look more like our dogs? People have often commented on how married couples begin to take on each other’s attributes. Due to the amount of time we spend with our beloved canine companions, it certainly does not seem impossible that we begin to look like our dogs as we age. We may even help this along by fashioning our hair to look like the fur coat of our pet dogs. However, what about those younger people that still look like their dogs? There must be more to this!

Research at the University of California has indicated that perhaps it is actually we humans that want to look more like our dogs. It has been suggested that we actually do this purposely, by choosing purebred dogs that have some trait that closely resembles one or more of our own traits. For example, there is the obvious match between the curly haired poodle and its curly haired poodle owner, but there are also other matches. Other dogs can resemble their people in one of their characteristics such as the active person choosing an active dog breed, and the less active person choosing a less active breed. Along the same note is the suggestion that people also choose dogs with similar traits to themselves because it makes them feel more comfortable. This ‘like attracts like’ phenomenon also seems to be sometimes shared by the dogs themselves. Some dogs seem to discriminate between dogs of the same breed or colour or temperament. An older dog may be annoyed and not accept a little puppy that is bouncing on its head. Additionally, a brown dog may accept another brown or dark coloured dog more readily than it would a white dog. We mentioned this occurs with purebred dogs, but what about mixed breed dogs?

The consensus on mixed breed dogs is that they do not look like their owners. The reasoning behind this is that with a mixed breed dog, you do not really know what it will look like or how it will behave as an adult. This is in contrast to the traits that are ingrained in purebred dogs, and can more easily be predicted. Thus the people that choose purebred dogs are often looking (perhaps unconsciously – perhaps consciously) for the dog breed that most closely resembles their own looks and temperament, or how they perceive themselves. They spend more time researching and choosing a specific breed than they would adopting a mixed breed from the pound, so they get exactly what they are looking for in a dog – themselves!