So I was running on The Loop this week: a long, slow run, and because I was going so slowly (or perhaps because I was struggling with focus?) I started looking around at all the dogs and their owners. I’ve written before about The Loop Dogs and their owners (Check out “What I Know About You By The Way You Treat Your Dog”), but this time what struck me was the resemblance between the owners and their dogs. Not just the overweight dogs = overweight owners kind of resemblance, but the actual look of the dogs and the look of the owners. So I thought to myself:
1. I wonder why they look like each other.
2. Do I look like my dog?
It’s weird. I read a bunch of different articles about scientific-study-this, or other-scientific-study-that and no one really had any definitive reason. Not a single one said proudly with fists raised and proclaimed, “It’s because of <this one thing>!” They talked a lot about how all these different sets of people could match pets and owners from photos with freaky accuracy, but they didn’t talk about why they were able to do so. One of the vague, possible reasons that struck home with me was: “Familiarity.”
That makes sense. We look at ourselves all the time. Every day when we get ready for work, and countless times throughout the day (at least if you’re a lady), we look at ourselves in the mirror. There’s nothing more familiar to us than our own faces. And perhaps that’s how we choose our pets, because they’re familiar.
Many couples will get a dog as kind of a “starter family.” You know, the trial run before they have children. In fact, many people feel as strongly about their pets as they do about their children. Maybe they subconsciously choose a pet that’s familiar so that their “child” more closely resembles them.
And let’s talk relationships: How many of you have either stayed in a relationship that was unhealthy, was over but just not ended, or have hooked up with an ex? I’m guessing pretty much anyone who’s lived. We stay in relationships because they’re familiar and there’s comfort in familiarity. There’s comfort in knowing automatically how a lover moves, smells, and sounds. Sometimes, in a world so full of chaos, change, and unpredictability, we want the comfort of someone familiar.
At the beginning of a relationship we endeavor to become familiar – comfortable – with each other. That’s how we come to know each other and how we fall in love. Familiarity lends itself to greater intimacy, and greater intimacy fosters a relationship. Familiarity can evoke feelings of love and happiness, just from seeing that person walk into a room, or in the words of Aesop in the tale of the Fox and the Lion, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” In relationships where we become too comfortable, or complacent, we tend to overlook the wonder and mystery of our lover. Taking for granted the little surprises and niceties that we’ve become too accustomed to and now we expect them as “what he/she always does.”
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I digress… back to dog owners and their dogs: As far as the resemblance goes, I believe it’s only skin deep – purely in the way a dog looks and the facial features of the owner. While some dog owners will resemble their dogs in temperament, I don’t think it’s as reliable as visually resembling each other. One of my friends has 2 dogs: a Chi-Weenie (Chihuahua and Weener dog) and a Chi-russel (Chihuahua and Jack Russel); but her personality is Labrador – all day every day.
Oh, and here’s a picture of me and my dog, Jack-Jack. I don’t know if we resemble each other, but I knew she was mine and I was hers from the first moment I saw her.
Whether we choose them because they’re familiar to us visually, or familiar to us on a deeper level, or both, I can’t say. What I can say is that it seems to be true more often than not. What do you think? Do you resemble your dog? Have you seen people who resemble their pets?
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