Dog owners do look like their pets, say psychologists

Researchers found that members of the public could predict which breed of dog a person would own almost twice as accurately as they should be able to, just by looking at a photograph of their owners.

Women with long, glossy hair stand with their Afghan hound during the Crufts dog show. Photo: REUTERSBy Kate Devlin
Last Updated: 12:03AM BST 03 Apr 2009

Volunteers rightly connected poodles, labradors and Staffordshire bull terriers with their masters.

There were a number of physical reasons why owners looks suggested which dog they would have, including what clothes they wore and their build, said Dr Lance Workman, from Bath Spa University.

"There is a little bit of truth in the theory that owners look like their dogs, but if you are of a robust build you will probably have a more robust dog so that you can gets lots of exercise. If you are more slight you may want a poodle as you think that they need less exercise," he said.

Dr Workman, who previously carried out a study which showed that the Birmingham accent was the most hated in Britain, added: "When we tested the dog owners' personalities, we found no strong links between any particular personality trait and choice of dog breed, so any shared qualities are only skin deep."

Many celebrities have been compared to their dogs, including the petite Paris Hilton and her miniscule Chihuahua, Tinkerbell.

But dog lovers should be warned that volunteers also wrongly thought that choice of breed could predict the owners' personality

Overall, they judged bull terrier owners as less intelligent than the others, while those who had plumped for poodles and labradors were thought to be nicer.

However, personality tests revealed no such differences between the three groups.

Dr Workman added: "What this study shows is that you shouldn't judge a person by their dog, but we all do."

The tests also showed that overall the dog owners were nicer or "more agreeable" than the general population, the only major personality difference the study found.

Psychologists asked 70 people to match 41 dog owners, found through the Kennel Club, to their breeds.

They were correct between 50 and 60 per cent of the time, when chance suggested that they should have a success rate of around 33 per cent.

The volunteers were shown full-length pictures of the owners, mainly photographed in their own homes.

The team behind the study decided to look at Staffordshire bull terriers because the breed has had a lot of negative publicity in recent years, while they were interested to discover if poodles attracted more "sophisticated" owners and labradors were considered to be a "neutral" breed.

The findings were presented at the British Psychological Society annual conference in Brighton.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5094835/Dog-owners-do-look-like-their-pets-say-psychologists.html