The science behind the human-dog bond
Attachment bonds
The strength of bond between a dog and their owner can be incredibly powerful and has been likened to the attachment bond between a parent and their child. But what is the science behind this attachment bond, and can it really be equated to the parent-child relationship? This blog post takes explores the research in this area.
WARNING!!! This blog post is unapologetically geeky! Sometimes it’s good to let the science take centre stage.
Attachment Theory in humans
The human-companion animal bond can be described using attachment theory, based on the work of John Bowlby (1969). Bowlby’s observations as a child psychiatrist enabled him to understand the link between a mother and infant. He proposed that caregivers provide infants with safety and security, and infants with a secure attachment bond to their caregiver have an increased chance of survival.
As such, attachment is adaptive and infants are biologically programmed to form attachments because it will help them survive. In particular, Bowlby found that infants have a universal need to be in close proximity to their caregiver especially when they are stressed or threatened, show distress when they are separated from their caregiver, return to their caregiver as a safe haven for comfort and use their caregiver as a secure base from which they can explore the world.
These four characteristics of attachment (proximity maintenance, separation anxiety, safe haven and a secure base) are central to attachment theory (Mcleod, 2023), and are relevant to other relationships across a human’s lifespan, such as romantic relationships during late adolescence and adulthood (Zilcha-Mano, 2012).
Strange Situation Test
Mary Ainsworth and colleagues looked at attachment bond further and developed methodical approach for assessing human attachment known as the ‘Strange Situation Test’ (Ainsworth & Wittig, 1969).
This test examined the balance of attachment and exploratory behaviours in human infants in controlled conditions of high and low stress. From the test, Ainsworth categorised three patterns of attachment behaviour triggered by the separation and reunion with the attachment figure (in this case, the infant’s parent). These patterns were described as:
Secure - the child shows signs of distress on separation and greets the parent on reunion.
Insecure avoidant - the child shows no distress on separation and ignores the parent on reunion.
Secure resistant - the child is distressed on separation and cannot be settled on reunion with their parent.
How does this relate to the human-dog bond?
But how does this human adult-child attachment relate to human-companion animal bond?
Topal et al (1998) aimed to see if the strange situation test methodology and observed patterns of attachment behaviour in humans could be applied to domestic dogs. Through adapting Ainsworth’s methodology to human-dog dyads, Topal and colleagues were able to demonstrate similarities in human adult-child and human-animal attachment behaviour.
In particular, the tendency of dogs to stand by the door during separation from their owner, even in the presence of a stranger, mirrors the ‘searching response’ of human infants in the absence of their parent, described by Ainsworth & Wittig.
Taking the research further
Taking the human-dog attachment research further, the Department for Ethology at Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary, considered whether similar patterns of attachment behaviour could be found in tame wolves (Lenkel et al, 2020). They found that intensively socialised wolves used their handler as a secure base and showed higher levels of stress and contact seeking behaviour when their handler left them compared to a stranger, in much the same way as a pet dog and a human child. So it would appear that the human-companion animal bond closely mirrors the human-human attachment bond.
Attachment can be both ways
What is especially interesting in considering the human-companion animal bond is that the attachment can be bidirectional.
Zilcha-Mano (2012) demonstrated that owners of dogs and cats with a secure attachment, benefit from the close physical proximity of their companion animal, with the cat or dog serving the two main regulatory functions of an attachment figure: providing a safe haven and a secure base.
They also showed that the ability of a companion animal to provide a safe haven and a secure base is determined by the attachment style of their owner, in just the same way that Ainsworth demonstrated attachment styles in human adult-child relationships.
This is supported by Berget and Ihlebaek (2011), who highlight that the strength of the attachment bond between a person and their companion animal is believed to influence the person’s ability to deal with stressful situations.
Furthermore, a secure human-companion animal bond is associated with health benefits to the human, including improvements in mental, social and physiological health (Friedman & Son, 2009), with animal-assisted interventions providing an important element in complimentary therapy alongside traditional medicine.
Applying this knowledge to rescue dogs
A better understanding of attachment behaviour can be applied to improve the welfare of shelter and foster dogs. Research by Thielke and Udell, from Oregon State University (2019), was the first study to apply attachment theory to rescue dogs living in shelters and foster homes. They observed that dogs in shelter homes had a significantly lower secure attachment bond with their human handler than would be expected in pet dogs, whilst dogs living in foster homes showed similar attachment behaviour to pet dogs.
They identified that some shelter dogs display what is termed as disinhibited attachment, whereby the dogs made no attachment to a human handler much in the same way as children who have spent a significant proportion of their childhood in institutionalised settings fail to form emotional bonds with an adult.
However, interestingly they noted that a secure attachment is not necessarily beneficial to shelter dogs and dogs with disinhibited attachment may be more adaptable to the shelter environment. By being more relaxed in the presence of strangers, these dogs may be more likely to get picked to go for a walk by the shelter staff and may be more likely to get selected for adoption if potential adopters could see how calm the dog was in close proximity to them as strangers.
However, problems may then arise for these disinhibited dogs further down the line if they subsequently fail to form attachment bonds with their new owners, and ongoing behavioural support should be given to new owners to help them understand attachment issues and equip the new owners with the skills required to establish an attachment bond with their newly adopted dog.
References
Bowlby J. (1969). Attachment and loss: Vol. 1. Loss. New York: Basic Books.
Bowlby, J. Attachment and loss: Retrospect and prospect. American Orthopsychiatric Association, (1982). 52: 664-678.
Mcleod, S. (2023). Attachment Theory: Bowlby and Ainsworth’s Theory Explained. [Online].
Zilcha-Mano, S. et al. Pets as havens and secure bases: The moderating role of pet attachment orientations. Journal of Research and Personality. (2012). 46(5):571-580. [Online].
Topal, J. et al. Attachment behaviour in Dogs (Canis familiaris): A new application of Ainsworth’s (1969) Strange Situation Test. Journal of Comparative Psychology (1998), 112(3): 219-229. [Online].
Ainsworth, M.D.S. & Wittig, B.A. (1969). Attachment and exploratory behaviour of one-year olds in a strange situation. In B.M. Floss (ed.), Determinants of infant behaviour (Vol 4, pp.111-136). London: Methuen.
Berget; Ihlebaek (2011). Animal Assisted Interventions; Effects on Human Mental Health – A Theoretical Framework. Psychiatric Disorders – Worldwide Advances.
Lenkei, R. et al. Adult, intensively socialised wolves show feature of attachment behaviour to their handler. Nature: Scientific Reports (2020), 10(1). [Online].
Theilke, L, Udell, M. Characterising human-dog attachment relationships in foster and shelter environments as a potential mechanism for achieving mutual wellbeing and success. Animals. (2019), 10(1): 67. [Online].
Friedman, E; Son, H. The human- companion animal bond: how humans benefit. Vet. Clinic of North America: Small Animal Practice. (2009). 39(2): 293-326. [Online].