Why Do Some People Look Like Their Dogs?

You only have to search ‘owner dog look alike’ on Google to discover the MANY people who look like their dogs. For instance the woman below with hair almost identical to the wavy, auburn tresses of her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, or this gentleman who’s a dead ringer for his Pug.

Some of us may put this down to pure coincidence, but it turns out it’s not! There’s actual science that explains why so many dogs look like their humans – and it’s fascinating. Find out more below.

People who look like their dogs – the experiment

First off, do yourself a favour and check out these amusing photos commissioned by Laurence King Publishing of dogs and their owners. These owner-dog look alikes are uncanny!

So why is it so? Japanese psychologist Sadahiko Nakajima studied this phenomenon while working as a researcher with Japan’s Kwansei Gakuin University in 2009. Nakajima ran an experiment to see if strangers were able to match up dogs with their pet parents – purely based on photographs of their faces.

Incredibly, participants in the study were able to pair the two with an 80% accuracy rate.

Nakajima also sought to see whether facial features were key to correctly matching up dog with owner.

The study’s over 500 participants randomly received one of five different photo pairings. One pairing had the human’s face and the dog’s face unobstructed. One had the human’s eyes blacked out. Another had the human’s mouth blacked out. Yet another had the dog’s eyes blacked out, and one had just the eyes of the human and the dog showing.

Participants were then asked to select the dog-owner pairs they thought looked like each other. Accuracy fell to about 50% when the dog’s or owner’s eyes were blocked out. That’s basically the same accuracy as if the participants had randomly guessed. When the eyes weren’t blacked out, participants achieved 74% accuracy!

Owner dog look alike – intentional?

So, it seems that the eyes definitely play a part. Perhaps because eyes are such a huge identifier on both human and animal.

Other research on people who look like their dogs has discovered owners intentionally pick out dogs that look similar to them. This could be why some humans are set on buying a pedigree pup rather than adopting. They can more easily seek out a breed that looks like them rather than making a selection from the dogs available at a shelter.

We may not realize it, but we look for physical features as well as personality traits in our prospective pets that closely resemble our own. Researchers have even found that dogs and owners tend to share traits such as extroversion or shyness.

Why do we want pets that look like us? Perhaps a bit of narcissism comes into play. Or it might be what psychologists call the “mere-exposure effect“. This effect basically shows that we have a tendency to prefer familiar sights. The grandmother with the curly blonde hair finds it comforting that her Maltese poodle looks the same, for instance.

Dogs are like … babies?

Social psychologist Nicholas Christenfeld of the University of California-San Diego, who’s also done a study on people who look like their dogs, says the ‘mere exposure effect’ may have a lot to do with our evolution.

One way children are thought to trigger the caretaking desire in their parents is by looking like one of them. So, when a person sees what Christenfeld calls a “little, helpless, non-verbal creature that looks like them,” some of those same basic nurturing instincts could spring into action.

“The feeling people have about their children is often very similar to the feeling people have about their pets. Lots of couples will use pets as a sort of practice trial for kids. And when kids go away to college, they’re often replaced by pets. They come back for spring break and it’s, ‘Sorry, you have to sleep in the garage. Fluffy has your room now.’”

Social psychologist, Nicholas Christenfeld

Like this kind of informative, science-y content and want to learn more pet facts? Check out these fascinating pieces below:

• Which Colours Can Cats Really See?
• Dog Vision: Can Dogs See Colour?
• Why Do Cats Purr?
• What Does a Dog Wagging Its Tail Mean?
• Why Do Cats Knead?
• Why Were Dogs Domesticated by Humans?

Insure your fur match (or not so)

Do people think you and your pup are the perfect owner-dog look alikes, or are your looks chalk and cheese? Either way, we know that your pet is like a child to you. No wonder they’re called fur kids, and we’re called pet parents!

Make sure you have proper financial coverage for your kid’s medical bills. PD Insurance offers award-winning dog insurance that’s cost effective and paid month to month – meaning you’re not locked into any contracts. Why not get a quote now?