Is it true that dogs resemble their owners?



Many people may think that it's just a coincidence that dogs resemble their owners, but in an experiment in which participants were asked to predict dog-owner pairs from multiple options, it was reported that they were able to create correct pairs at a rate higher than chance.

Katrina Holland , an animal behavior scientist at the UK animal welfare charity Dogs Trust, explains the question of why dogs resemble their owners.

Why do dogs look like their owners? | Live Science
https://www.livescience.com/animals/dogs/why-do-dogs-look-like-their-owners



'While this isn't a universal phenomenon for all owners and dogs, there is some evidence that purebred dogs and their owners tend to be somewhat similar,' Holland says.

In a 2015 study , participants were given the task of choosing a dog-owner pair from multiple photos of dogs and humans, or choosing a dog-human pair that looked similar. In both cases, the dog-owner pair was chosen above chance, suggesting that the dogs and owners are physically similar in appearance.

In another study , subjects were asked to perform the same task with the dog and human faces partially obscured. They found that as long as subjects could see the dog's and human's 'eyes,' they were able to match the dog and owner with the same accuracy as when the whole face was visible. However, when the eyes were masked out, the success rate dropped to chance.



If it is true that dogs and their owners have similar physical characteristics, the next question arises: Do dogs and their owners become similar over time, or do owners tend to keep dogs that are similar to them in the first place? Holland argues that the latter is probably the case.

In fact, a 2004

study showed that there was no association between the length of time people had owned a dog and the physical similarity of the owner. When participants were given the task of choosing a dog-owner pair, they were able to choose the correct pair above chance, regardless of how long the dog and owner had been together. This means that owners are more likely to choose dogs that look similar to themselves in the first place.



As for why people tend to keep dogs that look like them, one hypothesis is that people tend to seek out people who are similar to themselves, and that this is what happens when choosing a pet. A 2024 study showed that people tend to date people of the opposite sex who look similar to themselves.

'Our preference for dogs that resemble us may be due to the mere exposure effect , which states that people prefer something familiar (i.e., their own face, which they see frequently in the mirror) over something they've never seen before or that they encounter infrequently,' Holland said.

Furthermore, it's not just appearance that is similar between dogs and their owners; research has also shown that they also resemble each other in the Big Five personality traits - extroversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism.

Of course, similarity to yourself isn't the only important factor when choosing a pet. 'Taking the time to thoroughly consider and prepare for every aspect of dog ownership will set you up for a successful lifelong relationship with your new dog,' Holland advises. But with that in mind, there's nothing wrong with choosing a cute, similar dog to take to the dog park.

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