Whether you're a pet parent or a pet sitter, it's not a very good idea to treat your dog like a baby. But it is a good idea to treat our furry friends like you would a 5-year-old child. That means teaching them boundaries, manners, and discipline.
The takeaway: It's totally fine to treat your dog like a child, just don't forget that they're a dog and may need a specific and separate set of rules and boundaries in order to cohabitate with others.
Here's the thing, though — when it comes to raising cute, helpless, and needy creatures, raising a puppy is way harder than raising a baby.
It makes sense that pet parents are having similar feelings for children as they are with their dogs - both are dependent on you for protection and both are easy to love. The bond between a mother and her child and an owner and her dog stem from a similar need to care for another.
As writer M.A Wallace puts it: “We love [dogs] because they aren't human, then spend their lives treating them like people. We don't really want them to be animals — wild, free, ultimately unknowable — we want them to be like us, but more static and predictable. Something we can control.”
They instinctively want to protect the youngest family member. For years, dogs have been pack animals, which is one of their wired responses to hierarchy. A dog releases dopamine in the presence of a child, so you know that even their biology makes it enjoyable to play with babies.
Dogs also show attachment to their owners, as babies do with their parents, Buchsbaum explains; both expect social engagement from the caregiver, and both respond to eye contact. Dogs can be surprisingly good judges of character.
Well, turns out, dogs love that! Studies show that dogs bond easily with humans who form high-pitched speech patterns. Just like babies, pups respond to easy and positive language interactions.
Dogs still prefer to follow adults than children
Dogs also stay within the same proximity of their adult owners nearly 73 percent of the time (39.7% among shelter dogs). “We still have a lot to learn about the dog-child relationship” Udell says.
Playing with your pet increases the levels of the feel-good chemicals serotonin and dopamine in your brain. Maybe that's why people recover from a stressful situation more quickly when they're with their pets than with their partners or friends, a study done by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found.
From feeding on time to taking care of their health, raising puppies is almost similar to that of babies. Here's how... Ask pet owners and they will tell you how raising a puppy requires as much attention and care as does a baby.
The most challenging time of raising a puppy is the adolescent period. Dogs become “teenagers” and seem to forget everything they have ever been taught. This period is individual to each dog, but it may begin when he's about eight months old and continue until he's two years old.
Female dogs tend to be easier to housebreak, easier to train, and more connected with their owners—but in certain circumstances they can be more demanding of attention. Aggression can be a problem in any dog of any breed, however it is usually more apparent in non-neutered males.
Like their human counterparts, dogs develop favorite people over time based on positive experiences and positive associations with that person. Some people use tasty treats and other rewards to create strong bonds with pets, but the best way to build a healthy relationship with your dog is through play.
Yes, your dog knows how much you love him! Dogs and humans have a very special relationship, where dogs have hijacked the human oxytocin bonding pathway normally reserved for our babies. When you stare at your dog, both your oxytocin levels go up, the same as when you pet them and play with them.
Do Dogs Like When You Talk to Them? Yes! Research published in Animal Cognition found that both puppies and adult dogs are attentive to the high-pitch voice we use with babies and the more even-toned language used with adults.
There is no significant difference between male or female dogs in terms of protective behaviors. Territorial or protective behaviors are more pronounced in unaltered dogs than in neutered dogs, and breed plays a role as well.
Dogs Prefer Adults — Particularly Women
Dogs don't, as a rule, dislike men, but most dogs are cared for by women, and are thus more comfortable around them. A single woman is more likely to have a dog than a single man; in a couple, the woman is more likely to handle the dog's care.
If you have lots of people in and out for gatherings or like to take your dog into public places, a female may be the best choice. If you have several dogs or intend to add to your canine family, a male may be a better fit. Females tend to have more problems with anxiety and phobias.
Do dogs like baby voice? It turns out dogs do like baby voice—at least for a while. A 2018 study out of the University of York found that dogs preferred the company of people who used PDS or DDS when discussing dog-related topics. The canines were less interested in humans using regular speech.
When you kiss your dog, you may notice signs that indicate they know that the kiss is a gesture of affection. As puppies, this is not something that dogs would recognize, although they would feel you doing it. However, as they get older they associate the kisses and cuddles with you being happy with them.
Dogs can hear, smell, and see babies, but they don't really know what a baby is, so it is shocking when dogs treat babies differently than adults. While your dog may not care much about adults, you might notice that your dog seems especially interested in babies.
Since dogs are highly emotional and intelligent creatures, they're usually quick to realize that their human is both their provider and defender, much like a parent. Once a dog develops a bond with their owner, they see them as family. So, yes, a dog could very well consider you as their parent.
So, yes, a puppy can definitely think of you as his “mother” — that is, his provider and protector — and develop as strong an emotional bond with you as if you were blood-related. Your puppy will also quickly learn to pick you out among strangers, both by sight and through his powerful sense of smell.
The Advantages of Dogs Replacing Kids
For a start, in the first year of their life a dog is estimated to cost you (roughly) between $1000 and $7000. Comparatively, kids come in between $10,000 and $50,000. In terms of time, dogs are less demanding and usually (but not always) lower maintenance.