Do dogs think you are their parents?
Whilst researching I found two pieces of research that could point you towards believing dogs think we are their parents.
The first study in 2013 looked into the relationship between dogs and their owners and found that it’s a very similar bond to that found between children and their parents. The scientists at the Vetmeduni’s Messerli Research Institute, Austria found that dogs were very similar to young kids:
During the research the scientists were able to show that dogs were much more confident and self-assured when in the presence of their owners, just like kids are. In other words, the dog owner acted as a safety net and security for the dog.
Another part of the experiment involved leaving the dog alone in a room with a piece of their owner’s clothing. The dogs would paw at the item and try to be nearer to it. Again, this is like a toddler or young child needing the security of having their parent near by.
The second study from 2015 looked into canine social behavior. One of the researchers being the study, Attila Andics, told the Mic.com website that:
I’ve seen my dog behave in this exact same way!
Despite the findings of both of those studies, they are not absolute proof that dogs think you are their parents. However, they do show that dog’s exhibit behavior that closely mimic the way we see human children behaving with their parents.
I personally believe dogs do see humans as parents. My view on this is based on the way in which my own dog behaves around me, rather than any real scientific reason. For example, there are certain behaviors he exhibits towards me which are akin to a child and parent, such as:
Another reason why I believe dogs think humans are their parents is because it’s unlikely that they will remember their own mother. If you think how young a puppy is when you typically take it home, it’s not going to remember its mother surely?
I can only compare it to how children who are adopted as babies or young toddlers won’t have any recollection of their birth parents. I am guessing it would be the same with puppies who leave their mother at 8 weeks of age.
This make sense to me, because if you take the belief that 1 human year is the same as 7 dog years, that means an 8-week-old dog equates to 2.5 human years.
Whilst human babies and puppies are different, if you did take a two and a half year old child from its mother, it’s unlikely it would remember as it grew older. It’s possibly the same with dogs too?
But what do scientists say about dogs remembering their mothers….?
Sense Of Smell
One of the ways they know you is with the sense of smell. Many studies say that dogs have more than 200 million receptors in their nose, whereas humans have only about 5 million! Because of this factor, their olfactory glands are 100,000 times more sensitive than ours.
As a result, dogs will be able to remember different sorts of scents compared to humans, and they’ll be able to remember scents that you give off. This ability is the main reason why cops and airport authorities train dogs to identify traces and sources of contraband substances. So don’t be surprised when your dog brings the treats that you kept away from them.
When it comes to the recognition of humans, dogs can decipher the odor-causing secretions from one person to another. Try to remember the first time when you brought your puppy inside your home. Most probably, your puppy spent the first few hours roaming inside and outside all the rooms and sniffing all the things that came into their sight.
They do the same thing when you take them to a new place, like for a walk. Your dog will be much more excited and hyperactive because they have a sensory overload. They are using their sense of smell to understand and identify their surroundings, and in a couple of days, they’ll know all the nooks and crannies of your house.
So don’t think that you’ll win while playing Hide and Seek with your dog because we both know very well who’s going to be the winner.
You might not know how crucial it is to let your dog sniff their surroundings. Remember this: When you go out for a walk with your dog, do not pull their collar when they are trying to grasp the environment.
Many animal behaviorists say that not allowing dogs to exercise their noses and other senses is a form of sensory deprivation. Doing so robs them of the information they need to understand what is happening around them.
Not allowing your dog to sniff the things around them can be very stressful as they need the odors to figure out things around. Sign Up FOR “PUP NEWS”
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Facial Recognition
As per the research done at the University of Helsinki, researchers discovered that when they showed dogs s of their owners, they held their gaze on their owners’ eyes compared to other s. This finding was reinforced by another study conducted at the University of Padua, Italy. In that research, they obtained the same results. The dogs gazed at their owners for much longer than watching a stranger.
The scientists covered the face of the owner to ensure that this was due to sight rather than the sense of smell. This time, the dogs were much less interested in watching the people.
These two studies show that dogs can recognize their pet parent’s faces, meaning they will be able to know whether you are happy, sad, or angry.
Do Dogs View Humans As Dogs? ( Sounds Weird )
When I was little and living on the East Coast, I remember going to the local shelter with my mom to pick out a pet dog. It was the first dog I was going to have since the German Shepherd mix we’d had (since before I was born) passed away.
Teeming with excitement, we picked out a hefty yellow-and-black dog that the shelter described as an American Akita mix (but we’ll never really know). Mom named her Angel for how gentle she was with the family, and we brought her home that day.
Maybe shelters at the time just weren’t what they are today, but Angel came with quite a surprise: puppies.
A few weeks after bringing her home, the new dog we adopted had nine puppies in our living room. I remember having to leave for school while she was in labor, and coming home to a tiny zoo. For several weeks, my seven-year-old self was on cloud nine surrounded by puppies and volunteering at every opportunity to help.
When they were old enough, my parents put an ad in the paper, which is what you did at the time, and sent the puppies off on a “free to a good home” basis.
We did keep one, though: a male with beautiful markings akin to those of Beagles and Foxhounds. Mom named him Spot, and the rest of the puppies each went off to their respective homes over the course of a month or two.
We raised him alongside his mom and, much to my dismay at the time, finally had a chance to breathe.