Gaby
When a dog looks like its owner, is it coincidence or something deeper? “While this isn’t a universal phenomenon for all owners and their dogs, they often share certain similarities,” said Katrina Holland, a British dog behavior researcher. In a recent study, participants could match owners to their dogs in photos by comparing specific physical traits of each. The study found that some aspects of appearance mattered more than others. For example, facial features—especially the eyes—played a bigger role in perceived similarity than traits like size or fitness.
So, if dogs really do resemble their owners, how can we explain it? Do we choose dogs that look like us, or do dogs gradually start to look like their owners? Holland said the first scenario is more likely. She pointed to a 2004 study that showed how long a person and their dog had lived together did not affect their resemblance. Participants were equally successful at matching dog-owner pairs no matter how long they’d been together. That suggests people tend to pick dogs who already look like them, Live Science reported.
“Perhaps we choose dogs that resemble us because of a simple exposure effect: we prefer familiar things, like our own faces that we see in the mirror,” Holland said. But resemblance isn’t only about looks. Dogs and their owners often share personality traits known as the “Big Five.” The Big Five are extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism (the tendency toward negative emotions). “One hypothesis is that people generally seek out others, including partners, who are similar to them,” Holland said. The same applies when people choose pets.
