And if you have a puppy, you know that they can be clingy. They look to their owners for guidance and praise and, of course, treats. Now, this is understandable in a scientific sense. You are the pack leader.
Meaning you are a pack leader, Noel, at your home there.
But an Oregon State University study suggests that family dogs also take cues from the smaller members of the pack.
They are synchronizing their behavior with the children to an extent that is higher than what we would expect from chance, meaning that when their child is walking or orienting in a particular direction, the dogs are matching this.
IScientifically speaking, this seems to mean your dog loves your kid. Now dogs do tend to mirror their adults more closely than children.
And we think there’s great potential to improve this bond between children and dogs by encouraging children to take more responsibility for caretaking activities and also give them opportunities to train their dogs.
Researchers have found that dogs synchronize their movements with the children in their families, about half as much as they do the adults in their families.
