Research has shown that owners often choose dogs that look similar to them. Data also suggests that the dogs we choose to share our life with tend to have similar personalities.
One study asked owners to rank themselves and their dogs in five personality traits – neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness.
Owners ranked themselves and their dogs as having similar personalities in all five categories. To help combat the errors of self-reported data and projection by the owners, family members familiar with both the owner and dog were asked to rank each independently. In the third-person ranking, dogs and their owners were similar in four out of five categories.
The strongest association between dogs and their owners took place in neuroticism and extraversion. Neuroticism compared how sensitive and nervous a person was versus secure and confident. Extraversion looked at how outgoing, sociable and energetic a person/dog was versus solitary and reserved. The weakest association was in the openness category – or how inventive and curios versus consistent and cautious.
Another study compared personality type to the likelihood of owning certain breeds – traits displayed by the owners were generally found in the dog and increased the likelihood that ...