We’ve all come across the strange phenomenon of a doggy and human who look alike. And no matter how many times this happens, it is always a wagnificent spectacle! But why on earth is this happening? We teamed up with Parcelpet to find out why.
We asked you, our owners and borrowers to send in your snaps to conduct a little in-house test to answer that very question.
First of all, we needed to establish whether or not you really can match a dog to their human. We gave a panel of judges a pile of human and hound selfies (see below) and asked them to match them accordingly. The findings? Unsurprisingly, we found that our judges were able to match both doggy and human with adequate accuracy!
Both Emma and Barney have dark hair. Additionally, Barney’s floppy ears mimic the way Emma’s hair falls.
With this pawsome finding under our belt, we then had to do some digging (and not the kind your pooch likes) to discover how and why this is happening. We also asked one adjudicator how they produced such accurate results;
“…sometimes it was their hair that gave it away, and other times there might have been a facial similarity like wrinkles. To be honest, more often than not it was just that there was something about that person and dog”.
However, due to our poll findings this may not particularly surprise you. 67% of people who voted in our poll told us that they saw some sort of similarly between them and their pet.
No prizes here for guessing how these 2 were matched!
So, why are we buying, borrowing and adopting dogs that look like us?! There are a few explanations:
The scientific one - it’s all to do with evolution. Throughout time we have selected mates who share similarities with ourselves (due to gene compatibility etc.). Perhaps this pattern has been pulled forward and is still influencing the way we choose our pups.
The convenience one – say you had short legs and weren’t really keen on long walks. The last thing you’re going to want to do is buy a Great Dane! Perhaps little humans choose little doggies because it is more suitable?
Stefano and his dog Leo look like they could share the same barber…
Now that would be convenient!
The psychological one – prepare to have your mind blown for this one. Perhaps, deep deep down, we know that when we are choosing a doggy that we share some sort of similarity with them. Perhaps we believe that our doggies make a nice representation of ourselves!
So maybe the bigger question still lies unanswered. To be honest, we think that it probably varies from person to person. But, one thing that we are sure of is that dogs and humans who do look alike should be celebrated!
