Dogs That Look Like Their Owners (Explained + Photos)

Do you ever notice that some dogs look eerily similar to their owners? It might sound like an old wives’ tale, but research has actually been conducted on this very phenomenon.

Psychologists Michael Roy (University of California, San Diego) and Sadahiko Nakajima (Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan) set out to investigate whether there was any truth behind dogs resembling their owners.

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1 Discovering 15 Dogs That Look Like Their Owners

Discovering 15 Dogs That Look Like Their Owners

Roy went to three different dog parks and took separate photos of the owners and their pooches, then asked a group of participants to match them up. And guess what? They were able to correctly match the owners with their dogs with surprising accuracy.

Nakajima’s study, which used photos of humans and their pups, yielded similar results. But what features did people use to match the dogs with their owners?

Nakajima discovered that covering facial features in photos decreased the rate of correct dog-owner matches, particularly when eyes were obscured.

This suggests that the eyes are the most important feature connecting humans and our dogs.

But why do some dogs look like their owners? According to Nakajima, it may be due to the mere exposure effect, or our tendency to prefer things that are familiar to us.

This discovery sheds light on why people with certain physical traits may choose dogs with specific features. So the next time you see a dog that looks like its owner, remember that it might not just be a coincidence.

Explore these fun photo examples below.