If you're a dog person or a cat person, chances are you’ve been guilty before of judging a person by their appreciation of your favorite pet category. Say you are a dog person, don’t you tend to mistrust someone who prefers cats or worst, hates dogs? If you are a pet person, don’t you sometimes think there’s something utterly suspicious about someone who just can’t stand them (allergies aside of course)? This might sound very trivial, but this alone actually says a lot about you, even more so than it does about the person in front of you. Oops! So, curious to discover the science (to be taken with a grain of salt) behind being a dog person? Let’s dive in.
Are you a cat person? Rest assured, we will—of course—cover the science behind being a cat person in a follow-up article ;)
The first statement which we find important to make is how we tend to look at dog people through how we perceive dogs rather than how they actually come across. Think about it, don’t you tend to think that dog people are more likely to be: trustworthy, loyal, extraverted, fun to be around (that is if you like dogs), or, to the contrary, messy, dirty, unruly, dangerous (that is if you don’t like dogs or are afraid of them)? And in the end, all of these qualities or flaws are all associated with the pet rather than the owner. If we were to look a dog people with the true nature of the owner in mind we would probably get a very different picture.
After all, dog owners get dogs for all sorts of reasons: for their kids, for company, to watch their house, for hunting, you name it. The question is though, does having a dog rub off on you? Meaning that, can having a dog make you a better person or messier person, depending on how you look at the equation? There is no denying the fact that having a dog can and will most likely change a person, be it just because it’s a responsibility in the first place, as well as a lifestyle some might say. Nonetheless, there’s only so much having a dog can change about a person. People who beat up or abandon their pets clearly didn’t get much of the “dog” personality rubbed off on them… But, whether or not these people really identify themselves as dog people, that might be the more appropriate question.
In the end, the question is more: what does claiming that you are a dog person say about you? This does shed a different perspective on what being a dog person actually is. A dog person isn’t just a pet owner, it’s someone who identifies with being a dog person, meaning someone who thinks life is better with a dog. Now, some do take being a dog person to the extreme, with notions such as thinking that dogs are even better than human beings (which can be true in many occasions but is still a slippery path) and, again, looking down on people who might not agree with their passion for dogs.
And that is exactly where the problem, when there is one, lies. Claiming to be a dog person, like any passion can be dangerous and pays its toll on yourself and others. Just like dogs can be the best creatures or dangerous at times, it’s not a all right or all wrong matter. Moderation is the key. So, if you are a dog person, do yourself and others a favor and don’t think that you’re better for being one. Focus on being good to yourself, to others and to your dog and then, only then, will you live up to the reputation of what being a dog person is indeed in the eyes of most people.
*this is demo content