Abstract: Participants (N = 717) characterized their relationships with their dog and four human partners: closest kin, romantic partner, best friend, and child, using the Network of Relationships Inventory. The results showed that owners reported greater satisfaction with their dogs than with any human partner except their child. They received more Support from dogs than from any human partner except their child and experienced fewer Negative Interactions with their dogs compared to any human partner, except their best friend. Overall, the relationship with the dog provided high Companionship, opportunities for Nurturance, and minimal Negative Interactions. This may stem from the fact that the dog-human relationship features a more asymmetric power dynamic than human relationships – i.e., owners have full control over the dog’s life
Turcsán, B., Ujfalussy, D.J., Kerepesi, A. et al. Similarities and differences between dog–human and human–human relationships. Sci Rep 15, 11871 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95515-8
I dearly love my kid, but I don’t think I would rely on them for support. Certainly they would be willing to at least try to provide it, but they’re a kid. Any significant support being provided should go in the opposite direction.
Point is parents don’t judge their children ( not as much) and dogs don’t judge us. We love children unconditionally (to some extent) and dogs love us unconditionally.
Our children, they love us unconditionally only until they to grow to certain age.
That’s will most people prefer dogs generally. They are exceptions. But generally it holds true.
Man, dog people have some really shitty relationships.
I get it though, unconditional love is something else. They will always love you while never asking questions and when they do something wrong (like rolling in shit), you can say they don’t understand (they totally do)
They will always love you while never asking questions
Because they are incapable of, I get the sentiment that dogs relationship for some people mean, but you can’t project the part of sentiment they are incapable of, on them, and be happy about it.
No, dogs can definitely hate you. If they know you’re a shit person, that opinion is formed and they won’t like you. You got to be really careful with dogs, something as little as a friendly prank or tease can really hurt their feelings and they’ll go out of their way to not be around you.
Absolutely. This isn’t anthropomophisation either. Some dogs can be vindictive, jealous, mercenary etc. Sometimes they just don’t like someone. Could be smell, could be anything.
My old dog hated dreadlocks. Can dogs be racist? Probably.
That’s all that matters when you need some support
Hell yeah!
Incapable of loving? I guess it depends how idealized is your personal concept of “love”.
no not love,I was talking about the questioning part in this case.
Hmm I don’t know, it really depends what is the meaning of “asking questions”.
This, or people are bad at Symmetric relationships and need tho be the center of attention. This article does not provide this information
Do you really think this is why people get dogs?
My dog & I both know who the centre of attention is & he won’t let me forget it.No. I just said that the article does not say why.
Cats
Cats? My cat blamed me for when she got hiccups and thought I was trying to kill her.
I say this all the time. My cat is my best friend. I also have other friends but still it’s not even close. My cat wakes me up every morning at the same time, knows my entire routine, greets me at the door when I come home and curls up with me in bed. In turn I also know her routine and I make an effort to understand and provide what she needs in terms of food, games and environmental enrichment. It’s more symbiotic than any human relationship I’ve ever had.
What a puppy cat. My last cat was like that.
Hell yeah, genuinely the same over here, will straight up murder for my boy.
He’d do it for you!
Shit he murders for funsies
Love 'em (got 2), but they’re just not quite as attached to their humans as dogs tend to be.
You can have some of ours. They won’t leave us alone!
That’s the thing, tho - I could take them, and after a getting to know each other period they’d likely be fine with me. There’s no real loyalty as long as they get what they want. Dogs might adapt, but if they see their original human love even after a year or more, they’re dumping your ass for that person.
Cats can do the same thing though. I have seen it first hand.
You’re one up on me. Many years ago, I was in a situation for a while where I had to home my cat at the time with my aunt who was a bit of a “crazy cat lady.” When I came to visit a few months later, he didn’t really react to my presence at all.
That’s because cats don’t automatically like you. They have autonomy. You have to earn it. And that’s what really separates cats from dogs.
Well, that’s quite an insulting assumption of how our relationship stood. Even if he wasn’t into me as you not so subtly imply, he was most definitely into my spouse & the reaction was the same.
Maybe - just maybe - it’s possible some are different than others?
Nah.
My thinking is that he was getting the socialization with other cats at my aunt’s that he didn’t have as a solo cat in our home.
You abandoned your cat. They are not stupid.
GFY & grow up. Then hope you never become homeless. Consider yourself blocked.
I moved overseas and sent my cat to stay with a friend while I was getting settled. After about six weeks, I finally had a stable apartment and everything, so I went to pick her up. She was asleep when I got there, but woke up as soon as she smelled me, climbed up to my shoulders (not a thing she typically does), and frantically kneaded and meowed at me until I detached her so we could leave after hanging out with the friend for an hour or so. It was heartbreaking and I haven’t left her since
Sweet baby, you won’t post a picture. You won’t do it
Haha, that’s actually all I ever want to do!
If I’m away for more than like 2 days, my cat will not come to the door, will wait for me to find him, yell at me, then ignore me for 5 minutes, then he does all the loves. Spiteful little bastard
Give a stretch and a good ol cat hug
The strength of that relationship can vary, though, like this evening when our dog found poop in the yard and started rolling in it. Bathing the dog isn’t how we had planned to spend our Friday night!
That punctuation. “Including romantic partners, except children.” WTF?
I am much closer to my husband and kids than to the dogs and cats but feel more responsibility towards the pets, the kids I am growing into adults who take care of themselves, the dogs and cats we care for until they die.
This shit wreaks of AI slop.
Sorry. I should have included citation.
What AI? It is an actual study posted on Nature. I read the study on the primary source. It is the abstract. PsyPost reposts and summarises it. I should have posted the citation. SorryHere is the citation.Turcsán, B., Ujfalussy, D.J., Kerepesi, A. et al. Similarities and differences between dog–human and human–human relationships. Sci Rep 15, 11871 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95515-8
*reeks
Damn, that’s what I get for not being AI smart…
Fuck I had to correct so many AI typos for this comment.
Mommy I want a real keyboard for Christmas!
Clocks*
Thought now would be a good time to pile on
Skimming through the actual article I’m assuming it’s an AI generated summary of one section, although I’m not quickly finding even what it’s pulling from
It’s clearly CoPilot, asking ChatGPT, to pull information from Grok’s ass.
Not AI. It is me. The abstract is posted on the primary source Nature. Here is the citationPost updated to included citation. Sry. Not AI. Just human error Turcsán, B., Ujfalussy, D.J., Kerepesi, A. et al. Similarities and differences between dog–human and human–human relationships. Sci Rep 15, 11871 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-95515-8
Are dogs AI?
Dogs are certainly not naturally occurring. You could say they are an artificial construct by humans. And sure, they’re intelligent enough.
Read over the paragraph again.
Look at how many times it ignorantly uses a Capital Letter in the middle of a sentence…
Shit like that is obviously AI generated…
Someone should tell our dogs.
