A recent poll by Rover, an online network of dog sitters and walkers, found some interesting results when it comes to the love dog owners have for their pups. Although it’s no surprise to us, the study gave evidence that the majority of dog owners like their dogs more than other people. Rover surveyed thousands of owners across the United States and found that 94% of them consider their dogs to be family members. Again, not totally surprising, but the other statistics were a bit more unanticipated.
PEOPLE posted further results, which showed that about 75% of dog owners don’t second-guess including their dogs in vacations, holiday cards, marriage proposals and various other announcements for major life events. If they’re going to be included in these events, it only goes to support the increase of dog photos on social media. It turns out that 65% of owners say they take more pictures of their dogs than of their friends or significant others. Of those, 29% even take it one step further and post more pictures of their dogs on social media than they do of friends, family or even themselves.
The survey results get more and more positive for the dogs, though. Of the owners surveyed, 47% of those with a significant other said it was more emotionally difficult to leave their dogs to go out of town than it is to leave their human partners. Even more surprising, 56% said they make sure to greet their dogs first when getting home – this means before saying “hello” to their families. In fact, 54% of people surveyed admitted they would consider ending a relationship if their dog didn’t seem to like their significant other.
It goes without saying that having this much love for anything could bring some self-doubt into our minds. Of the dog owners polled by Rover, a shocking 3,000 of them admitted to searching using Google to answer one major question in their lives; “Does my dog love me?” The good news is that dogs most certainly love their owners.
In short, this just seems to justify how many of us feel about our dogs already. It certainly looks like we aren’t alone, although how much we let our love for our dogs influence our lives will vary from person to person. Thankfully, other studies have shown that dog ownership makes us better people – it improves our overall emotional and physical well-being. So you really can’t love your dog too much. If anyone tells you otherwise, just remember you don’t need that kind of negativity in your life.
