How Strong Is Your Child’s Bond With the Family Dog? A New Study Explores More Than Just Puppy Love

If you’ve ever seen a child curl up with the family dog after a tough day or talk to their pup like a best friend, you know the relationship between kids and pets can be powerful. But how deep does that bond go—and how can we measure it?

A recent study by Kerns et al. (2023), published in Social Development, takes a closer look at how children aged 9 to 14 form relationships with their pet dogs. Using a mix of surveys, diaries, and behavioral scales, the researchers developed a more complete and reliable way to assess these unique connections—not just the warm and fuzzy moments, but also the challenges that come with them.

What Was the Study About?

This study aimed to go beyond simple questions like “Does your child love their dog?” Instead, it introduced a more nuanced, research-backed framework for understanding six key dimensions of the child–dog relationship:

1. Affection – How much the child feels emotionally connected to the dog

2. Nurturance – The child’s desire to care for the dog

3. Emotional support – Whether the dog helps the child feel better during stressful moments

4. Companionship – Enjoying time spent together, including play and shared routines

5. Friction – Conflict or tension, such as getting annoyed with the dog

6. Pet as a substitute for people – Relying on the dog over human relationships for comfort or interaction

Many previous studies on pet relationships focused only on positive traits, like companionship or love. This new research fills a gap by also including friction and substitution—elements that help build a clearer picture of how these relationships actually work in children’s lives.

How Was the Study Conducted?

The study included 115 children who had pet dogs. To measure relationship quality, the researchers used a multi-method approach:

• Child and parent surveys, which captured each party’s perception of the relationship

• Daily diary entries, written by children to record real-time interactions with their dogs

• Cross-checking with existing tools, such as the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS), to validate results

This layered approach helped the researchers identify consistent patterns and better understand how kids experience their connection with their pets on a day-to-day basis.

Key Findings

Overall, the study found that children reported high levels of affection, nurturance, emotional support, and companionship. This confirms what many already believe—that most children form deeply positive bonds with their dogs. However, the study uncovered several insights that added depth to that understanding:

• Friction was low but present. While kids rarely reported major conflicts with their dogs, moments of frustration or annoyance did exist and were important to document.

• Substituting pets for people wasn’t necessarily negative. Some children leaned on their dogs more than on people for comfort or connection. While this trait might seem concerning at first glance, it often correlated with other strong, healthy relationship indicators.

• Children were more detailed and accurate in describing their relationships than their parents. Parents tended to generalize (e.g., “my child loves the dog”), whereas children provided more nuanced answers based on actual daily experiences.

• The new measurement tools correlated well with existing scales, which supports their reliability for future use in developmental and psychological studies.

Why This Study Matters

This research provides a more detailed way to understand child–pet relationships—something that’s been missing in the field. It’s especially valuable for educators, mental health professionals, and researchers interested in emotional development, coping skills, and social behavior.

Rather than focusing solely on whether or not a child owns a pet, this study highlights the importance of the quality of that relationship. It also opens new doors for future research on how pets can play a role in supporting children’s mental health, especially during stressful or socially difficult times.

Practical Implications for Parents

For parents wondering how their child’s relationship with the family dog might be affecting their emotional world, this study suggests a few takeaways:

• Strong bonds with pets often reflect a child’s capacity for empathy, responsibility, and emotional regulation.

• Occasional frustration with pets is normal and not necessarily a sign of poor attachment.

• If a child seems to rely more on the dog than on people for connection, it might be worth exploring their social experiences at home or school—not to discourage the pet bond, but to ensure human relationships are also being supported.

Final Thoughts

The bond between a child and a dog goes beyond walks and wagging tails. It can provide emotional comfort, companionship, and even life lessons in patience and responsibility. But, as this study shows, that relationship is multi-faceted. By capturing both the highs and the occasional lows, researchers like Kerns and her team offer a more honest and useful look at what these bonds really mean.

As we continue to learn more about how children grow emotionally and socially, their relationships with pets may be more important than we ever realized.

Reference: Kerns, K. A., Koehn, A. J., Van Vleet, M., Weigel, J. L., & Mehl, M. R. (2023). Assessing children’s relationships with pet dogs: A multi-method approach. Social Development, 32(1), 243–263.