People find relationship with their dog more satisfying than with best friend, study shows

Dogs are not simply “fur babies” or best friend but a blend of both, researchers have found in a study they say highlights the special status of pets.The study suggests owners rate their relationship with their dogs as being as satisfying or more satisfying than their closest human relationships. However, the researchers did not find the owner-dog bond was stronger in people with weaker human relationships.“Our results showed that it [the bond] does not replace human relationships but offers something different, a unique combination of characteristics to complement what we receive from the human side of our social network,” said Borbála Turcsán, first author of the study from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary.Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, the team described how they used social media to recruit 717 dog owners over two periods, from April 2011 to February 2013, and from January 2022 to December 2023. About 20% of participants had children and about 80% had a romantic part...