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Like master, like dog: study
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-04-02 11:02 Those who think purebred dogs
look like their owners are barking up the right tree, but matching a mutt to its
master is another thing, a study suggests.
Research at the University of California, San Diego in the United States,
indicates that when people pick a dog, they look for one that, at some level,
bears some resemblance to them. And when they get a purebred dog, they get what
they want.
When given a choice of two dogs, judges correctly matched 25 purebreds with
their owners nearly two out of three times. With mutts, however, the pattern
went to the dogs.
“When you pick a purebred, you pick it specifically because of how it’s going
to look as a grown-up,” said Nicholas Christenfeld, UCSD professor of psychology
and co-author of the study, which appears in the current issue of Psychological
Science.
Christenfeld said mutt owners such as himself make their choice on the
spur-of-the-moment at a dog pound, not knowing what a puppy will look like.
Forty-five dogs and their owners chosen at random were photographed
separately at three San Diego dog parks. The judges, some 28 undergraduates
taking psychology classes at UC San Diego, were shown pictures of the owners and
two dogs and asked to match the correct dog with the owner.
Out of the 25 purebreds, there were 16 correct matches and nine misses. For
20 mutts in the study, there were seven matches, 14 misses.
“There is a certain stereotype of person from each breed,” said Tracy
Cavaciuti, a French Bulldog breeder in Connecticut.
So what kind of person likes the pop-eyed, pointy-eared, pug-nosed Frenchie掛
“Actually, they’re quite trendy and good-looking,” Cavaciuti said, adding
that they tend to strut on the streets of New York City’s tony Upper East Side.
Hound people are a different story.
“You can spot them a mile away,” she said. “They’re very doggy.”
How the aristocratic Afghan Hound or the other worldly French Bulldog
resemble their owners is unclear since the study found judges didn’t use any one
characteristic to make the matches. There were no significant correlation
between dogs and owners on the basis of size, attractiveness, friendliness and
energy level when considered separately.
“People are attracted to looks and temperaments that reflect themselves or
how they perceive themselves,” said Gail Miller, a spokeswoman for the American
Kennel Club. Miller, who has owned several bearded collies, described her
“beardies” as gregarious, active dogs.
“I’m definitely like them — very outgoing, likes to have fun and get active,”
she said.
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