Well, it turns out that dogs and their owners really do tend to look alike. At least that's the case if the dogs are pure-breds. From WIS TV News in Columbia, South Carolina comes the story:
A new study testing the notion that dogs and their owners look alike finds the theory is true, at least for purebreds.Scientists had impartial judges try to match up pictures of 45 dogs and their owners. If more than half of the judges paired the dog with the right owner, researchers classified them as looking alike.
In the end, they found that 16 of 25 purebreds "looked like" their owners, but only seven of 20 mixed breed dogs and were matched to their owners correctly.
Researchers say the results suggest that when people select a pet they do, on some level, look for themselves and have an easier time finding what they want when they get purebred dogs. The findings don't reveal if the pet choice is based on physical attributes or personality traits, although researchers note that correct dog-owner matches weren't based on obvious traits, like curly haired people with curly haired dogs.
Do YOU look like your best friend? Send me a picture of the two of you together and I'll put it up in a future post.
Posted by Jeff at March 31, 2004 01:02 PM