Are Dogs Like Their Owners? Or, Can A Pit Bull Catch ADD

People talk about how much dogs look like their owners and I believe there is a lot of truth in that. This is not true of Honey and me. Right off the top, my hair is dark and not in a buzz cut, she is a short-haired honey blonde. Often, when dogs look like their owners, there is similarity in hair color and/or style. There was an ad campaign that showed that:




(more pics here )

There was even a study done to see if similarities between dogs and owners could be proved. It seems like there is some truth to it - IF - the dog is a purebred, implying the owner chose the look of the breed specifically; that dog owners wanted to hang out with a familiar looking creature. (Because there wasn't any proof owners looked like their mutts and, it also didn't matter how long the owner had had the dog, it didn't follow they grew to look the same.)

I do believe it's true since I see it myself (lots of times, to my own internal amusement) on the street. I have also seen it in friends. One of my friends is a 5'1" brunette with a dark red-highlighted shag. She and her husband looked all over for their Cairn Terrier (Toto/Wizard of Oz dog), Marley, whose dark-coat got dark red highlights when she had been out in the sun a while. What I find cute is my friend's 6'2" husband is the one that wanted the small, dark-haired dog. No long-legged golden retriever for him...

But, that's not really what I'm talking about. I sometimes see nervous owners with nervous dogs, stand-offish people with stand-offish dogs, pushy people with pushy pups, etc. Are personality traits contagious? Do dogs pick up on what you're going through?

I'm thinking about this because, when I went to pick up Honey at daycare, I asked how she did. Of course, he said "great" - I think they have to say that - but, then he added something. He said she moved from dog to dog, playing with one for a while, then would get interested in a toy, then would run over to another dog. He said she seemed to have some kind of doggie ADD that day. Since I had spent my day unable to work on any of my projects for any length of time before I had to make a phone call, or get lunch, or make a note about something else, ya gotta wonder...

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