The relationship between pet dogs and their owners is strikingly similar to the child-parent bond in humans, a new study has found.
Scientists at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna investigated the bond between dogs and their owners and found that the relationship turns out to be highly similar to the deep connection between young kids and their parents.
Domestic dogs have been closely associated with humans for about 15,000 years. The animals are so well adapted to living with human beings that in many cases the owner replaces conspecifics and assumes the role of the dog's main social partner, researchers said.
The relationship between pet owners and dogs is highly similar to the deep connection between young children and their parents.
One aspect of the bond between humans and dogs is the so-called "secure base effect". This effect is also found in parent-child bonding: human infants use their caregivers as a secure base when it comes to interacting with the environment.
Until recently the "secure base effect" had not been well examined in dogs.
Lisa Horn from the Vetmeduni's Messerli Research Institute took a closer look at the behaviour of dogs and their owners.
She examined the dogs' reactions under three different conditions: "absent owner", "silent owner" and "encouraging owner".
The dogs could earn a food reward, by manipulating interactive dog toys. Surprisingly, they seemed much less keen on working for food, when their caregivers were not there than when they were.
Whether an owner additionally encouraged the dog during the task or remained silent, had little influence on the animal's level of motivation.
In a follow-up experiment, Horn and her colleagues replaced the owner with an unfamiliar person. The scientists observed that dogs hardly interacted with the strangers and were not much more interested in trying to get the food reward than when this person was not there.
The dogs were much more motivated only when their owner was present. The researchers concluded that the owner's presence is important for the animal to behave in a confident manner.
The study provides the first evidence for the similarity between the "secure base effect" found in dog-owner and child-caregiver relationships.
"One of the things that really surprised us is, that adult dogs behave towards their caregivers like human children do. It will be really interesting to try to find out how this behaviour evolved in the dogs with direct comparisons," Horn said.
The study was published in the journal PLOS ONE.
