International Women’s Day: Dogs Are Women’s Best Friend

Happy International Women’s Day! To celebrate today’s auspicious occasion (8th of March), we’re celebrating why dogs truly are a woman’s best friend. Wondering how? With scientific data of course 😊

PD Insurance has compiled the findings of three independent studies. Each study focuses on a different aspect of the human-dog bond. From co-evolution to co-sleeping and interspecies communication, it turns out that women have led the way to dogs becoming humans’ BFF.

Scroll down to uncover these pawsome facts.

Celebrating International Women’s Day with BFFs

Washington State University researchers have uncovered data that suggests women influenced the co-evolution of dogs and humans.

PD Insurance spoke to Jaime Chambers, a WSU anthropology Ph.D. student and the first author on the paper to get some insider information. She says

“My dogs Chalo and Priya have been a steady, comforting presence in my life for over 8 years. They’re an integral part of my daily rhythms, my hikes on favourite trails, my moves across the country and across the world. We’re a part of each other, and they’re a big inspiration for my research.”

Let’s explore her research findings…

Human and dog co-evolution

The research, first published in 2020, examined more than 844 ethnographic data recordings from all around the world. Researchers looked at how useful dogs and humans have been to each other throughout history. In addition, they hoped to uncover what factors influenced the formation of this usefulness into a bond.

Upon analysing the data researchers noticed a major influencing factor is women. They found a pattern emerging – when women were more involved in a dog’s life, the dog’s value or “personhood” went up.

Personhood meant a dog would be given a name and included in family life. The data suggests that only when a dog formed a special relationship with a woman did the rest of the family or social group accept it.

Being accepted meant a dog would be regarded as special and treated with affection. Personhood for a dog also meant it would be more likely to sleep in bed with the humans. Importantly, it also meant that if a dog died it would be missed by its humans. Now that’s a striking thing to hear this International Women’s Day!

Jaime adds:

“Humans have had dogs by their side for thousands of years – longer than any other domesticated animal – and when I walk with Chalo and Priya, I’m inspired to learn more about this big, complex story.”

Sleeping with your dog in your bed     

Did you know that sleeping with your dog in your bed can make you healthier? Yup, and in addition, a 2018 Canisius College study shows women actually sleep better with pooch by their side.

Is this another reason to celebrate dogs being women’s bestie this International Women’s Day? We think yes.

In the study, researchers collected data from nearly 1,000 participants. All the participants were women who shared their bed with their pet, their partner or both. Pets included cats and dogs and percentages looked like this:

• 57% shared their bed with their partner
• 55% had at least one dog co-sleeping in their bed
• 31% shared their bed with at least one cat

And the results?

Well as it turns out, partners and cats were equally disruptive to sleep. Whereas “dogs who slept in the owner’s bed were perceived to disturb sleep less and were associated with stronger feelings of comfort and security.”

For all the cat owners out there (ourselves included), rest assured the research is not 100% conclusive.

In fact, the article concludes by saying that follow-up research is necessary. But as dog lovers we’ll take it.

Woman and dog speak

Want to know how to speak dog this International Women’s Day? As it turns out women have an innate ability to understand and interpret the different dog growls and what they mean.

The Royal Society Open Science journal published a 2017 study on interspecies communication, looking at whether participants could tell the difference in dog noises. For example, between growls for playfulness, stranger defence, and food guarding.

They could. 63% of the time, participants knew which growl applied to which context. This is higher level of accuracy compared with a random chance rate, which would only be 33%

Annnnnnd… of all the participants, the gender who measured the most accurately were women. The researchers weren’t sure why women scored so highly, but for the time being they’ve linked it to empathy. Since pets inspire such good feels, be sure to also read about National Pet Day.

Pet insurance for International Women’s Day

Pet insurance is a wonderful way to protect the health of your beloved pooch (and your purse strings). Celebrate International Women’s Day by giving your best friend an even greater level of security than they provide you.

Dog insurance allows you to make quick decisions around pup’s wellbeing so you can focus more of your time on enjoying life together. It helps build your bond while reducing out of pocket medical costs like non-routine vet visits, hospitalisations, accidents, illnesses and more.

Plus, if you sign up online with PD Insurance we’ll give you one or more months of pet insurance free! Why not take two minutes now to get a free quote?