Do dogs resemble their owners?

We're getting a third dog today. TJ (the nephew who lives w/us) wants his own.

Do dogs resemble their owners?

I recently covered a study finding that couples come to resemble each other facially over time. So what about dogs and their owners? There are a few studies on this - well actually there's three academic articles and just one study.

a. Roy and Christenfeld (2004) find that, yes, dogs do resemble their owners, but only if they're purebreds - that's the dogs now, not the owners. So, the old chestnut is true. Hooray!

b. Levine (2005), reanalysing the data collected in the first study, say no - there's problems with Roy and Christenfeld's (2004) study. This means we can't yet be sure purebred dogs resemble their owners. A new study is required. Booo.

c. The authors of the original study say yes their original study was correct (Roy & Christenfeld, 2005). Hooray! (I think?)

The world still awaits the conclusion...

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