Our
daughters didn’t know what to think the first time I
sent out Christmas cards featuring a photo of our dogs.
After all, I never put the kids’ pictures on our
annual holiday missives when they were young.
But
just like a proud new parent, I used computer technology
to make my own greeting cards featuring dogs we adopted
several years ago.
I
wondered: Can pet owners have a bond with pets that is
similar to that of a mother and child?
And
I am not alone in my preoccupation with my canines. It
seems millions of baby boomers are filling our empty
nests by replacing our children with pets.
The
term "pet parents" is commonly heard in our
vernacular these days.
According
to a June 2013 report in Science Daily, scientists at
the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna have
investigated the bond between dogs and their owners and
found striking similarities to the human parent-child
relationship. The Vienna scientists’ findings were
published in the journal PLOS ONE, Science Daily
reported.
Just
as humans have a need to establish close relationships
with other people, animals too have an innate need for
close ties with their own kind. But the study found that
for domesticated animals, the situation is even more
complex. Our animals have developed those same
relationships with us.
After
15,000 years of living with humans, dogs have adapted so
well they have the ability to transfer the connection
they would normally have with another dog to a human as
their main social partner. The relationship is highly
similar to the deep connection between children and
their caregivers, according to recent research.
A
study conducted by Lisa Horn from the Vetmeduni’s
Messerli Research Institute took a closer look at the
behavior of dogs and their owners by developing a test
to study the dog’s motivation to get a food reward by
manipulating an interactive toy, and whether its owner
affected the dog’s desire to work for the treat.
Horn
studied the dogs under three different conditions:
"absent owner," "silent owner" and
"encouraging owner."
Her
study concluded that a dog will work harder for a food
reward if it had its "pet parent" in the room,
whether the owner remains silent or encourages the
animal.
Through
a follow-up study, the scientists observed that when the
owner was replaced by an unfamiliar person, the dog had
little motivation to get the reward, similar to its
behavior when there was no one in the room.
The
test concluded that the dog was only motivated to behave
in a confident manner when the owner was present.
The
findings are the first evidence that the so-called
"secure base effect" found in child-caregiver
relationships are similarly found in dog-owner
relationships.
"One
of the things that really surprised us is that adult
dogs behave towards their caregivers like human children
do," Horn was quoted in Science Daily.
I
suspect this is only one reason for our deep
psychological connection to our pets. It would be
interesting to see a study that determines whether or
not we humans have the ability to be as good as our dogs
already believe we are.
(EDITORS:
STORY CAN END HERE)
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LAWSUIT
MOVES FORWARD
On
another note of interest, a federal judge ruled earlier
this month that a class-action suit against Del Monte
subsidiary Milo’s Kitchen over the sale of the company’s
Chinese chicken jerky treats may go forward. Lisa Mazur
claims that the treats poisoned and killed dogs last
year and despite a U.S. Food and Drug Administration
warning about the treats, neither Del Monte nor Milo’s
Kitchen recalled the items or put warnings on the label.
Mazur,
who filed the suit against the company in 2012, charged
her 7-year old dog suffered kidney failure and had to be
euthanized after eating the Chinese-made treats for
about a month. Mazur is seeking compensatory and
punitive damages for all eligible persons who purchased
dog treats within the past four years.
Del
Monte is one of the nation’s largest producers and
distributors of pet foods, netting $3.7 billion in
fiscal 2012, according to the complaint and the company’s
website.
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