Your pet could be improving your love life

Men who use their dogs to pick up women might be on to something: New research has found that having a pet makes a person more attractive to the opposite sex.

For the study, researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Rutgers University, and Indiana University studied data from a 2014 Match.com survey of 1,200 people who mentioned pets in their dating profiles.

They discovered a slew of interesting information that boils down to one thing: Pets have a big influence on your dating life.

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Among the findings:

• 75 percent of women say they wouldn’t date a man who didn’t like pets
• The majority of men and women said a relationship could work with a dog person, but less felt the same way about a cat person.
• Men and women are more likely to be attracted to a person with a pet
• Men are more likely to use a pet to attract women

The findings raise an interesting question: Why do we place so much emphasis on pets when weighing a person’s attractiveness?

Lead study author Peter Gray, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, tells Yahoo Health that there are several factors at play. “The role of pets, dogs, and cats is changing,” he says. “We’re putting more money into pet food, pet services, and training, and pets are often viewed as a family member.”

Gray points out that people are also having fewer kids, giving cats, dogs, and other pets more meaning in the family dynamic. “That makes them more valuable in dating assessments,” he says.

For women, a man who has a well-kept dog can be an indicator that he would be a good father some day — as well as how he might treat other people in general, Gray says. But why are dog people considered more attractive? Gray isn’t sure, but he has a few theories.

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One is that people might just be more used to dogs. Since like attracts like, it makes sense that dog people would be more drawn to other dog people.

Dogs also require a lot more upkeep than cats due to the need for regular walks and inability to be left alone for long periods of time. “That makes them more socially diagnostic,” Gray says. “I can learn more from watching a person around dogs than cats.” And, again, a person’s ability to keep a dog alive and happy can be perceived as a sign that they can do the same with a child one day.

So, next time you spot a single guy picking up women at the dog park, don’t laugh — he knows what he’s doing.

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