We do not approach others as blank slates. We make all manner of assumptions about them based on how they look, what they do, what they say. This is especially true when dogs are involved. Those of us who adore our dogs make assumptions about other dog owners — most of them good. It’s called a “fundamental attribution error.”
I know that sounds like something bad, but Alan Beck, ScD, who is the director of Purdue’s Center for the Human-Animal Bond, explains that it simply means we attribute certain characteristics to people with dogs. Research shows that we assume they are nicer, more caring, more successful, etc. (I had the chance to interview Beck a while back for a piece I wrote for Healthypet Magazine about people who take their dogs to work regularly.)
For example, say you see someone out for a fitness-related walk alone. You likely don’t think much beyond, “Hey, that person works at being healthy.” However, if you see that same person out for a walk with a dog, suddenly the same act of walking becomes a profoundly “good deed.” We think, “Look at that nice person taking her dog for a walk.”
A good example of this is author Elizabeth Wrenn, whose first novel “Around the Next Corner” chronicles one woman’s adventures with raising a service puppy. I interviewed Wrenn in early 2006 before her book came out. The article appeared in The Bark in summer 2006. (You can also find the full article in the writing samples section of my website.) If you’re looking for something to read this summer, I highly recommend the book. It’s very, very funny (and also sad), but well worth it.
Anyway, Wrenn herself raised a guide dog puppy as research for the novel. Often she would walk her pup near a fire station. The firefighters would fawn over the puppy all the time. Once her pup returned to Guide Dogs for the Blind, Wrenn continued her walks. Even when she said “Hi,” the firefighters did not recognize her.
Dogs do more, however, than make us look better to others. There is all kinds of research that shows how dogs improve our health — lower blood pressure and all that.
But, Temple Grandin in her book “Animals in Translation”, takes it a step further. On page 108, she says,
“A dog’s oxytocin levels rise when his owner pets him, and petting his dog raises the owner’s oxytocin, too. I’m sure that’s one reason why so many people have dogs in the first place. I don’t think anyone has researched it yet, but I expect we’ll find that dogs make humans into nicer people and better parents. Oxytocin levels shoot up right before giving birth, and research shows that those high levels spark maternal warmth and care. Oxytocin produces caring ‘maternal’ behavior in men, too. So for parents, owning and petting a dog is probably like getting a ‘good parent’ shot every day. Dogs are probably good for marriages for the same reason.”
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