Do you look like your dog?
Scientists say yes.
One study found that a stranger could match a picture of a person and her dog 80% of the time. And a Japanese scientist found that the secret was in the eyes. By just looking at eyes, people made correct matches 75% of the time.
So I got curious and asked some of you to send me pictures of you and your dog so we could do a similar experiment. And then I challenged you to match the person with his or her dog just by looking at their eyes. If you missed it, check out the Do You Look Like Your Dog Experiment.
In my highly unscientific experiment, five brilliant S’Waggers were able to match 60% of the people to their dogs. Not bad, considering we didn’t have a set of flawless pictures taken with the same camera against the same background.
Do you want to see the correct matches?
Do you think these people look like their dogs?
My spam folder ate a submission from Dawn. So here’s a bonus pairing for you to think about.
So what do you think? If I had the money to bring everyone to Ithaca, line them up on the same background, and take professional pictures would you have been able to match the people with their dogs?
Well even without all that Jason, Jan, Ms. Taleteller, Janet, and Jen (lot’s of J’s, huh?) all got three matches correct. And Jan won the Amazon gift card prize in my random drawing from the folks who got the most correct matches. Congratulations, Jan.
Thank you to everyone who tried our little experiment. And extra thanks to everyone who submitted pictures:
- Peggy Frezon – visit her (and Kelly, Ike, and Zeke) at The Writer’s Dog and the Guideposts blog, Pawprints On My Heart.
- Janet Keefe – blogs at Wag ‘n Woof Pets. Go say hello.
- Dawn Ross – check her out at American Dog Blog and Pet Auto Safety Blog.
- and the mysterious jedistocky who sent his striking portrait with Ruby that I used to show how a dog and her person can look alike.
I don’t know about you, but I’m going to spend a lot more time on walks trying to figure out if the dog walkers look like their dogs.
Your Turn: Has anyone ever said you look like your dog? Do you ever wish you looked like your dog?
Where’s The Puppy?
This is such an interesting concept. I’m going to start paying more attention to see if I can see similarites between people and their dogs. I definitely haven’t been told I look like the fluffies, but I wouldn’t mind having some of their beauty 😉
I often find that women with the biggest dogs are the most petite. Which kinda goes against the whole “look like our dog” thing.
If you wear a long white gown, however, you might find you look much more like a Pyr. 🙂
Well, I’m never going to own a pug, that’s for sure!
What happens to people that own two (or several) wildly different looking dogs? What does that say? That you actually look like a portrait done by Picasso? LOL!
Not sure I look like a corgi face, but I could do a lot worse so I’m OK if I do.
Or maybe you’re a split personality?
I still don’t get how we’re able to do that, it’s pretty amazing. Since I took the quiz I have been taking a closer look at people and their dogs; I think it’s all pretty subconscious because I’m unable to see it when I’m right next to someone and their dog lol.
Nifty results!
I wish I looked like Elka…she’s nice and skinny! I frequently dress in black, though, and people have commented that we “match”.
It is true that Elka is like the supermodel of the dog world. Anyone would be flattered to be compared to her.
Maybe you need a really elegant, long, flowing black coat to get those comparisons going more often. 🙂
Well done to the folks that got the matches right! I’m sorry I didn’t have time to play along! (Love the shot of Ruby and her owner!)
Yes, people did sometimes say I looked like Abby – they would comment when we were out walking that we both had such long, skinny legs. I definitely took it as a compliment since she was gorgeous! Abby wore way more eyeliner than I ever would though, so I don’t think we looked alike beyond similar body types. No one has ever said I look like Rita though. Maybe I need to dye my hair dark! (Or tri-colored…)
One of the reasons I found this research so interesting was because of the high probability of people making matches looking just at the eyes. Maybe you don’t need to dye your hair after all to look like Rita. Check out those eyes instead.
I conclude that most people that think they look like their dogs have Golden Retrievers, so most humans must look like Goldens. Don’t know if Mom looks like us or not since we all seem to have different looks.
Hmm, well I don’t think I look like Honey so maybe it’s time to adopt a different kind of dog. 🙂
This is pretty interesting!
When you come across portraits of people with their dogs, do you see similarities?
I don’t see physical similarities that often. Maybe I am just unobservant. I do know that the dogs we have now all have fairly round eyes like the people who picked them out (not me.)
I have a basset hound and although I don’t have the droopy eyes or long ears, I can see similarities in our personalities – we love naps and cuddles : )
It was a fun little experiment, well done to Jan!
Oh no, I’ve go soft brown eyes and a soppy spaniel expression !
My hairdresser did tell me one time I had to have my hair cut as it was hanging down like spaniels ears, does that count ?
Hey, you could do worse than to look like Princess Leah. 🙂
yep, I’m very hairy – just like my daddy LOL
I think my husband is the one of us who looks like leggy, lean Silas. I am pretty pale, though.
I remember reading a theory ages ago about why people start to look like their spouses. Of course, I don’t remember what it was. Maybe the same thing works for dogs.
Well, that was fun, and 60% does seem pretty good! I was thinking that when I looked at the guesses I got matched with #4 more often than Sheba. Another golden retriever, and that Zeke is awful cute! Whatever that might mean. 🙂
I’m surprised nobody got them all right … I was sure I did, lol! Much as I’d love to look like any of my dogs, especially Beryl or Asher, I don’t. But that’s cool 🙂 We all love each other no matter what we look like.