Dog owners can be as close to their pets as to their children, study shows

Dogs are not simply “fur babies” or “man’s best friend” but a blend of both, researchers have found in a study they say highlights the special status of pets.

The study suggests owners rate their relationship with their dogs as being as satisfying or more satisfying than their closest human relationships. However, the researchers did not find the owner-dog bond was stronger in people with weaker human relationships.

“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,” said Borbála Turcsán, first author of the study from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary.

Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the team described how they used social media to recruit 717 dog owners over two periods, from April 2011 to February 2013, and from January 2022 to December 2023. About 20% of participants had children and about 80% had a romantic partner.

They were asked to rate their relationship with a pet, child, romantic partner, closest relative and best friend on 13 characteristics including companionship, intimacy, reliability, satisfaction and power balance.

Participants were asked how often they protected and looked out for the individual, spent fun time with them, argued and found the individual got on their nerves, as well as how sure they were the relationship would last and who was more dominant.

The team found owners rated their dogs higher for companionship and needing nurture than their closest relative, best friend, and romantic partner, while they experienced fewer negative interactions with their dog than with their child, romantic partner or closest relative.

Owners also rated their dogs higher than their best friends and closest relatives for areas including affection, reliability and support. However, when it came to intimacy, romantic partners trumped canines.

And they reported greater relationship satisfaction with their dogs than with their closest kin or best friend. There was little difference in satisfaction when the bond was judged against one with a romantic partner or child.

But when it came to power, owners’ relationships with their dogs showed the greatest imbalances. The researchers noted that while children were raised to become independent adults, dogs required ongoing guidance and supervision.

“Dogs offer a highly positive relationship with minimal conflict, strong social support, and the unique opportunity to have full control over another living being’s life,” said Prof Enikő Kubinyi, senior author of the research.

Turcsán added that while the dog-owner relationship was most similar to that between a child and a parent, a crucial feature – aside from the power asymmetry – was that dogs had much lower levels of antagonism and conflict with their owners.

While the study has limitations, including that participants were self-selecting, the researchers said the findings highlighted the flexibility of the roles dogs played.

“A dog can be a playmate for children, a good flatmate, best friend for young singles, a surrogate child for young couples, a sibling figure once children arrive, a grandchild for “empty-nester” parents, and perhaps the most important source of social support for elderly people living alone,” said Kubinyi.

Turcsán agreed: “Dogs can be (almost) anything we want them to be.”