Do You Love Your Dog More Than Your Family?

Do you love Fido as much as your Dad?
WSU professor looking for study participants to determine how attached people are to their pets.

By Joe Giessler

Staff Writer

Monday, April 07, 2008

FAIRBORN — A survey developed by a Wright State University professor hopes to show that dog owners have an attachment to their animals equivalent to family and close friends.

Larry Kurdek, Ph.D., said he has always been a dog lover but that devotion was increased in recent years. Kurdek was diagnosed with colon cancer two years ago and has since seen an increased awareness and reliability in his two dogs.

"I have told my dog things I have never told anyone," said Kurdek, who focuses on developmental psychology.

Kurdek has already conducted the survey in college-age respondents, but now needs other volunteers to confirm the findings.

Kurdek is most interested in finding the difference between the human to human attachment and human to dogs. He said the results of the survey could answer the age-old question of why one person is a "dog-person" and another is a "cat-person."

He surveyed around 900 college students who live with at least one dog full time. Of those respondents, the majority had similar attachment between their dog and their father or siblings. While this may seem intense, such a relationship is actually on the low-end of attachment theory. True "dog-people" can have an attachment close to that of their mother, best friend or significant other, which is a much higher form of attachment, he said.

The college survey also showed females had a higher level of attachment to their dogs than males, contrary to the cultural stereotype of man's best friend, Kurdek said.