Your Dog Becomes More Like You Over Time
I've heard people say that dog owners sometimes tend to look like their dogs, but dogs acting like their humans? That's a new one.
But according to the Daily Mail, a new study found that dogs' personalities often end up becoming more and more similar to their owners' traits as they change over time. Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks?
The study out of Michigan State University looked at owners of more than 1,500 dogs, including 50 different breeds, different gender and age.
William Chopik, a professor from Michigan State University, said that through the study they found that "When humans go through big chances in life, their personality traits can change.We found that this also happens with dogs – and to a surprisingly large degree.We expected the dogs’ personalities to be fairly stable because they don’t have wild lifestyle changes [like] humans do, but they actually change a lot."
Professor Chopik and his team found correlations in three main areas:
- age and personality
- human-to-dog personality similarities
- influence a dog’s personality has on the quality of its relationship with its owner
So, if you bought a dog hoping they would inspire you to get off the couch and go for a walk don't get to excited, because chances are you'll both end up laying on the couch together. But, hey, who doesn't love a good couch cuddle buddy?