While Tinder and Bumble will get you an introduction, and so too traditional dating sites, there’s nothing like a dog to do your bidding, says Dr. Helen Fisher. But only if you’re a man.
Dogs, and especially cats, are not date bait for women – men are just not as responsive to women with a pet dog as women are to men with a dog, says Fisher, chief advisor to match.com.
Having a dog puts men at the head of the pack: “Dog owners in general are seen as happier, friendlier and more caring, and for men with dogs, it signals that he is nurturing, compassionate and a good caregiver – much more than a owning cat.”
Fisher, a senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute, has done research that concludes dogs are good for your love life. So while women look for signals of men’s ability to parent, men are more attuned to signals of fertility in a woman which translate to energy, youthfulness, laughter, good skin, buoyant personality, swooshy hair, bright eyes… “Both sexes are busy sending the courtship signals that are adaptive and for men it’s dogs!”
When Michael McNeil walks Max, his sweet and furry Bernese Mountain Dog, he can count on Max getting lots of attention and him getting phone numbers! “It’s like the dog makes me a safe person, and trustworthy.” The 28-year-old single engineer says he’s met more woman that he’s clicked with while out with Max than on Bumble.
Apparently, there’s love to be leashed. “A man with a dog is willing to show up and care for the dog, get home to feed it, and has the resources and the willingness to care for a very needy individual. It gives a very honest, logical social signal that he’s interested in long-term relationships and children.”
Not only man’s best friend but a kid’s best friend too? Fisher adds that interacting with a dog boosts oxytocin levels so expect a guy with a dog to have a highly-stimulated oxytocin system making him not only more capable of attaching to the dog but to you too.
Studies galore point to Rover’s power of animal attraction, with one study in particular from University of Bretange Sud in France showing how dogs facilitate social interaction – and getting phone numbers from women. In the study, 240 women were approached: when approached by a Frenchman without a dog, his success rate was around one in 10. But when a dog joined him, his chances of getting their phone number more than tripled.
These furry friends sure have benefits! One 2015 study reports that profile pictures posing with our pet makes us appear more likeable and approachable, while a Dognition survey reports that 82% of people feel more confident approaching an attractive person if they have a dog with them.
And what you have at the end of your leash makes a difference! A puppy or adult lab gets lots of looks, while a Rottweiler isn’t going to win you any dates. Hey, if that’s the case, get yourself a Labrador puppy!
Pets are definitely moving up in the family pack, so much so that a new study shows that dog owners are skipping out on social commitments to be with their four-legged furry friend instead.
More than 80% of those surveyed by Link AKC say that time spent with their dog:
improves their mental and emotional health.
60% report stress relief,
and close to 90% report that their dog makes them a better person.
Now, how many of us can say that about our human BBF?
improves their mental and emotional health.
60% report stress relief,
and close to 90% report that their dog makes them a better person.
Now, how many of us can say that about our human BBF?
Premiere dog expert Dr. Stanley Coren isn’t surprised that we’d rather hang out with our pets: “After all their dog will not act offended if they break off in the middle of a sentence to respond to their iPhone. Their dog will also not make any social demands upon them, but at the same time will provide them with unconditional affection and companionship.”
But in choosing our pooch over our pals, we’re losing our social skills and missing out on the rewards of human interactions, says Coren, a globally recognized author, psychologist and expert on dog-human interaction.
So while it’s fine to confide in Fido – AKC reports that 81% talk to their dog with 72% telling their them secrets that they wouldn’t share with any person – it’s still best to employ your dog to get a date, and not be your one and only mate.
***
National Puppy Day is March 23 and while pet ownership can be a boon, plan before you get a puppy, especially in your later years.
Having a pet in retirement has been linked to a variety of benefits, yet often, retirees only think of the expected responsibilities like vaccines and food, and forget about the additional commitments like what to do with your pet when travelling and how to ensure your pet is taken care of if something happens to you, says Nicole Ewing, a TD wealth advisor.
Don’t be barking up the wrong tree! Take Ewings advice:
· Physical Activity – Dogs require regular walks but certain breeds require additional exercise. You need a plan in place to get your dog excised if you can’t do it at some point. Whether hiring a local dog walker, enlisting the help of relatives or sending your dog to daycare.
· Estate planning – Some animals, like parrots, can live for up to 20 years! In the event that your pet lives longer than you, establishing a trustee in your will who can care for the pet once you’ve passed away is a great idea. If you don’t name a beneficiary to become the primary caregiver, your pet may end up without a home after you pass.
· Travel – Planning on being a snowbird? Well that can cost if you leave your pet behind to be cared for. If you prefer to travel with your pet, be sure to research pet importation requirements for your destination before you go.
· Shelter – If you need to downsize into a condo or are planning to move into a retirement facility, consider the restrictions and pet policies as these may limit your options.
http://torontosun.com/life/relationships/looking-for-a-date-get-a-dogMy opinion: That reminds me of being in the Office Assistant program at MacEwan. We all had to do a presentation on a topic, and this woman Allycen did one about pets. She said something about how all these people came up to her when she was walking her dog. She also mentions about stress relief, how it's good for your physical health if you walk your dog.
Mar. 26, 2019 "Young singles now a majority": Today I found this article by Lisa Bonos and Emily Guskin in the Star Metro:
Austin Spivey, a 24-year-old woman in Washington, has been looking for a relationship for years. She’s been on several dating apps — OkCupid, Coffee Meets Bagel, Hinge, Tinder, Bumble. She’s on a volleyball team, where she has a chance to meet people with similar interests in a casual setting. She’s even let The Washington Post set her up.
“I’m a very optimistic dater,” Spivey says, adding that she’s “always energetic to keep trying.” But it can get a little frustrating, she adds, when she’s talking to someone on a dating app and they disappear mid-conversation. (She’s vanished too, she admits.)
Spivey has a lot of company in her frustration, and in her singledom. Just over half of Americans between the ages of 18 and 34 — 51 percent of them — said they do not have a steady romantic partner, according to data from the General Social Survey released this week.
That 2018 figure is up significantly from 33 percent in 2004 — the lowest figure since the question was first asked in 1986 — and up slightly from 45 percent in 2016. The shift has helped drive singledom to a record high among the overall public, among whom 35 percent say they have no steady partner, but only up slightly from 33 percent in 2016 and 2014.
There are several other trends that go along with the increase in young single Americans. Women are having fewer children, and they’re having them later in life. The median age of first marriage is increasing. And according to a 2017 report from the Pew Research Center, among those who have never married but are open to it, most say a major reason is that they haven’t found the right person.
Of course, not everyone who’s under 35 and single is looking to change that. Caitlin Phillips, a 22-year-old student at the University of Georgia, is open to love if it walked into her life, but she’s not actively looking for it. “I’m too busy, honestly. I travel a lot and I have a great group of friends that I hang out with,” Phillips said in a phone interview, adding that she’s working in addition to studying for a degree in journalism.
Ford Torney, a 26-year-old man in Baltimore, does want a steady partner — he just hasn’t found the right connection yet.
Torney says he occasionally feels isolated in his social circle, because most of his friends are married or in serious relationships. He has to remind himself, he says, “that most people my age aren’t married, and I just have an outlier in terms of my social group.” Among his guy friends who are single and around his age, most of them aren’t looking for relationships, he says.
The GSS survey reflects similar trends from the federal Current Population Survey as analyzed by the Pew Research Center. The CPS data asked about living with a spouse or partner as opposed to simply having one. The Pew analysis found 42 percent of American adults who did not live with a spouse or partner in 2017, up from 39 percent in 2007. It also found an increase in the share of adults under 35 who didn’t live with a spouse or partner over that period, from 56 percent to 61 percent.
According to the General Social Survey data, 41 percent of Democrats are without a steady partner, compared with 29 percent of Republicans. Black Americans are more likely than white Americans to not have a steady partner: 51 percent vs. 32 percent, respectively.
The share of non-partnered Americans is also higher among those unemployed — 54 percent, up from 44 percent in 2016. Just under a third — 32 percent — of employed adults don’t have a steady partner.
The General Social Survey was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago using in-person interviews of a random national sample of 2,348 adults from April 12 to Nov. 10, 2018. Results on the partner question is based on a subsample of 1,181 interviews and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
Laura Lane, co-host of the podcast “This Is Why You’re Single” and co-author of a book by the same name, says in an interview that her brother and his girlfriend got together when he was looking for a job and living with his parents.
But Lane has also seen unemployment affecting a person’s confidence and, in turn, torpedoing their efforts to find a steady partner. In her early 20s, she dated someone who had recently finished graduate school and was wondering what he was going to do with his life.
“He was very much struggling with his sense of self,” Lane recalls, and as a result their budding connection didn’t turn into something solid. “Now he has a start-up and is doing great.”
Lane says a lot of people who write in to her podcast looking for love advice are unhappy with their lives — and they think another person will fix that.
“You really have to find that yourself,” she says, adding that nothing really clicked, romantically, for her or for her co-host Angela Spera “until we had something personally exciting that we were doing. I think it was an energetic thing where we attracted people into our lives.”
They’re both in happy relationships now.
Jun. 16, 2021 My opinion: I have been listening to a lot of those self-development and dating videos: You have to be happy and fulfilled with yourself so you can be with someone else.
You have to also find the right person.
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