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Fast company: A man, his dog.  Researchers say that dogs and their owners have similar personalities.  Image: Cassidy Hough.

By Cassidy Hough

Dogs learn a lot more than tricks from their owners, according to a new study.

They pick up their personalities, according to William Chopik and Jonathan Weaver, authors of, “Old dog, new tricks: Age differences in dog personality traits, associations with human personality traits, and links to important outcomes.”  The paper by the Michigan State University assistant professors of psychology is based on their 6-month study of dogs and their owners.

It is published in the Journal of Research in Personality and inspired by their observation that like people, dogs have personalities.

More than 1,600 dogs and their owners were involved in this study, Chopik said.  Owners answered online questions about their personalities, as well as that of their dogs.

The researchers discovered that a dog will change its personality over time to be more like its owner.  If a person is friendly, their dog is likely to be friendly.

The same goes for physical activity. If you’re active, your dog is likely to be as well, Weaver said.

And it works the other way too.  As an owner becomes less active, so will their dogs, Chopik said.  This is dangerous because they also found that inactive dogs are more likely to be diagnosed with chronic illnesses, such as blindness, deafness and arthritis.

For the overall well-being of your dog, Chopik suggests being affectionate and playing with it often.

The researchers also found that you can teach an old dog new tricks.  Their studies have shown that age 6 is the best time to teach your dog tricks.

Many owners can understand why.

“When we got Sadie at eight weeks old, she was a total spaz,” said Olivia Lage, a Lansing, Michigan, resident and owner of a now 8-year-old dachshund named Sadie.  “It was pretty difficult to train her.

“Now that I think of it, it probably would have been much easier to get her to cooperate once she was older,” said Lage, after learning about the study.

She said that Sadie has undergone some noticeable personality changes throughout her life.

“She worships my dad, who is a super laid-back guy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she calmed down for his sake,” Lage said.

Chopik and Weaver now want to find out exactly why dogs and their owners share personality traits.

Part of it must be credited to owners purposefully picking dogs that best suit their lifestyle, Chopik said.

For example, Weaver and his wife did some research before adopting their beagle, Ernie.

“We have 2 young children, so we needed a dog who was essentially very relaxed and calm and not fearful of people,” Weaver said.

To form the best relationship with your dog, Chopik suggests doing research before adopting to make sure the breed you want will be able to easily adapt to your lifestyle.  You should also be conscious of the fact that your actions could affect your dog’s health and well-being, Chopik said.

Chopik and Weaver plan to do the same study on cats.

Sara Statchura, also of Lansing, has owned seven cats and hopes that this study will help her to better understand their behaviors.

“All the cats I’ve had in the past have acted similar, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that was because they were adapting to my personality,” Statchura said.

Their goal is to find out where personality comes from. But Chopik and Weaver also hope to help animal shelters figure out how to get animals into the hands of people who would be an appropriate match.

People return dogs days after adopting all the time, according to Joanie Toole, chief of the Oakland County Animal Shelter located about 30 miles north of Detroit.

“I really wish people would do some breed research and see what would fit in their lifestyle,” she said.

“I think it would prevent 99 percent of adoption returns.”

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