The dog wears a tiny sweater, enjoys premium food in its personalized bowl, and even receives a minced meat cake on its birthday. This increasingly common scene reflects how many dogs are pampered like true human babies.
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In the United States, Canada, Australia, and much of Europe, between a third and half of households have at least one dog. In Germany, the number of households with dogs continues to grow as the birth rate declines, a trend that is repeated in numerous countries. Faced with this phenomenon, researchers pose a disturbing question: is there really a connection between these two phenomena?
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Pets as family: the new demographic trend
The answer could lie in our social changes. Hungarian researchers, in a study published in the journal European Psychologist, point out that more and more adults have little contact with young children in their daily routine. In Western and East Asian societies, pets have begun to fill the emotional void that traditional family bonds used to occupy. Dogs, in particular, are considered genuine family members, and many owners come to see them as their own children.
This transformation is not random. According to the researchers, dogs adapt their role according to the life circumstances of their owners: they become roommates for single young people, the “first child” of newlyweds, playmates for families with young children, emotional substitutes when children become independent, or loyal companions who combat the loneliness of widowed individuals.
On the other hand, as society ages and more people face an epidemic of isolation that threatens our health and mental well-being, dogs also become vital members of the family who will take care of us in their own way.
Why dogs are the perfect “furry babies”
Experts argue that people have channeled their innate biological impulse of care towards domestic animals, originally directed towards children. But a question arises: why do dogs manage to so effectively occupy the role of “furry baby” in our hearts?
The answer lies in surprising functional similarities. Laura Gillet and Enikő Kubinyi, researchers at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, analyzed multiple studies on this relationship and found revealing patterns. “Dogs can develop attachment bonds with their caregivers that are remarkably similar to those established by young children,” explain the experts.
However, there is a peculiar evolutionary advantage: while human babies grow towards independence, dogs maintain their dependence throughout their lives. This characteristic paradoxically makes them more “reliable” companions for those seeking to satisfy their long-term caregiving instincts.
Dogs have physical and behavioral characteristics that powerfully activate our protective instincts. Their permanent juvenile traits – big eyes, shortened snouts, playful behaviors – trigger deeply ingrained caregiving responses in our biology.
This connection is evident in extraordinary behaviors. Many owners invest considerable resources in the well-being of their pets, sometimes prioritizing the needs of the animal over their own. “This devotion to domestic dogs shows remarkable parallels with the concept of intensive motherhood,” the researchers point out.
The numbers support this trend: in Germany, over 21% of households live with a dog, a proportion that has remained stable in recent years. The pet products market reached 7 billion euros in 2024, reflecting the economic importance of this emotional bond.
Conscious distinction, not blind substitution
Contrary to popular belief, researchers emphasize that generalizing about dogs as “substitutes for children” would be oversimplifying reality. Most decisions to adopt a dog are made with a full awareness of the fundamental differences between the human-dog and human-child relationships.
Paradoxically, many owners choose dogs precisely because they are not like children. This deliberate choice suggests a sophisticated understanding of the different emotional rewards that each type of relationship offers.
Furthermore, social and economic pressures to have children lead many young adults to dismiss this option, instead directing their time, money, and care towards their canine companions. The economic factor is decisive: for example, in the United States, raising a child has become increasingly expensive, with expenses having increased by 35.7% in just the last two years.
On the other hand, a revealing thought experiment exposes the limits of the dog-child equivalence. When faced with the hypothetical dilemma of choosing between saving a human life or a hundred canine lives, the overwhelming majority of respondents prioritize the human being. This preference intensifies dramatically when the life in question is that of a child.
Furthermore, abandonment statistics reveal crucial differences in commitment. In the United States alone, approximately three million dogs enter shelters annually, representing more than 3% of the total canine population.
Cultural differences in the dog-human relationship
The human-dog relationship presents fascinating cultural nuances. In the United States, pet owners adopt explicit parental roles, referring to themselves as “mom” or “dad” of their “furry children” in intimate family contexts. However, with colleagues or strangers, they use more neutral and distant terminology.
This linguistic duality reveals the social complexity of the phenomenon: while in some cultural environments the humanization of pets is socially acceptable and even expected, in other contexts a more marked distinction between species prevails.
In contrast, many cultures maintain considerably more distant relationships with their pets, suggesting that the phenomenon of “dog as child” is not universal, but rather a product of specific sociocultural circumstances.