A recent study has revealed that dog guardians find their relationships with their canine companions just as satisfying — or even more so — than their relationships with other humans.
The research, published in Scientific Reports, consisted of 717 dog guardians who were asked to rate their relationship with their dogs, partners, children, best friends, and closest relatives across 13 different characteristics.
“Our results indicate that the owner-dog relationship is most similar to the child-parent relationship but can overall be interpreted as a mix of child and best friend relationships, combining positive aspects of the child relationship with the lack of negative aspects of friendship, along with a unique level of relative power dynamics,” the study stated.
The study found that dog guardians felt more satisfied in their relationships with their dogs than in any human relationship, aside from their relationships with their children.
Canines scored particularly high in the support, companionship, nurturance, affection, and reliability categories. They were also shown to have relatively few negative interactions with their guardians.
“Our results showed that it [the bond] does not replace human relationships but offers something different, a unique combination of characteristics to complement what we receive from the human side of our social network,” first author of the study, Borbála Turcsán, told The Guardian.
Lady Freethinker is encouraged by the powerful bonds humans share with their dogs and hopes these connections can inspire a greater appreciation and respect for all animals.
