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I don’t know if this is a new trend or an old one experiencing a revival, but lately I’ve seen a lot of “what does your dog’s breed say about you?” style articles. I’ve even seen a few ones related to romance: what does your boyfriend’s dog say about him, or about his sex life?
While I find the latter a bit of a stretch, I think maybe there might be some truth in the former. The breed of one’s dog might say a bit more about one’s living situation than personality, so that two vastly different people might both own the same type of dog. We still might be able to learn a thing or two about others from the type of dog they choose.
Owners of boxers or pit bulls, for example, are more likely to be high-energy themselves. Owning a dog that requires that much exercise isn’t a great idea if you’re not interested in being active much yourself. Toy dog owners like lap dogs, which means they’re more likely to be interested in cuddling than romping. Owners of smart breeds like border collies are up for a challenge.
Sometimes I think the personality articles go too far. I’m not sure if the ones commonly found in magazines (like that I’ve been seeing recently) actually follow any real lines of research (or even that they’re meant to be anything more than fun articles), but Bath Spa University and the British Kennel Club just released a study on the personality-dog breed effect.
Over 1,000 dog owners completed online surveys for which they answered questions about their personality and the types of dogs they own. To an extent, like I said above, people tend to pick a type of dog that will fit their lifestyle. Are you the private type, you don’t have friends over much? Then territorial/protective breeds like Akita’s are O.K. Conversely, do you love people? Then you’ll probably get a dog like a lab, that loves people too.
The study proclaimed that extroverts are drawn to the pastoral dogs: German Shepherds and Collies. I imagine it’s because they’re high-energy breeds and thus they need high-energy owners. People who have that are, I imagine, often more extroverted as well. Now to see what the study says about me: it claims that hound owners are emotionally stable.
When we got Chihiro they told us that she was an Australian Shepherd mix (which would put us in the former category), but there is no question in our minds that she is more hound, probably beagle, than anything. Her nose is never off the ground when she’s outside, and when she finds something, be it slug or mole, she has a clear summoning bark (three short barks, a pause, three more barks, until we arrive).
Perhaps hound owners need to be emotionally stable because their dogs aren’t. Chihiro’s a bit neurotic, but she’s nothing compared to the hound my husband had growing up. That dog had so many mental issues she freaked out even when it rained (just rain, not thunder, mind; if there was a storm it might as well have been the end of the world). I’m still not entirely convinced of how much you can learn about yourself, or others, from dog breeds, but it’s a fun line of thought nonetheless.
Do you think that your breed of dog says a lot about you, or are people trying to read too much into things?
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*(The above image by Maggie Smith is from freedigitalphotos.net).