Go to any park, and you will see the rather strange phenomenon of the canine mini-me. Maybe it’s a bearded hipster, followed by a little bundle of fur that looks like it went to the same barber, or a pugnacious thug carrying a bulldog. Or it’s a leggy jogger and her Afghan hound, their glossy locks blowing in the wind.
A researcher even found that the dogs and their owners both tended to show similar personality profiles. “It was actually higher than the similarity found in married couples and friends,” she says. Importantly, the correlation couldn’t be explained by the amount of time the dogs and their owners had spent living together, so it didn’t seem that the dog had simply learnt to ingratiate itself by copying the owner. Instead, the personality seemed to be part of the dog’s appeal in the first place.
The dog we choose looks like us, acts like us, and is in many ways a reflection of our own true nature. Thank you, Leo; I knew your owner the moment I saw your photograph!
