By Stephen Beech, Talker News

Dog owners rate their bond with their pet as more satisfying than their relationships with their friends, partner and even their children.

Owners also feel that their dog loves them the most while also being their best source of companionship, according to a new study.

Researchers in Hungary set out to explore the precise role dogs play in human social networks by comparing human-dog relationships with human-human relationships using 13 relationship scales.

Instead of placing the dog-owner relationship into predefined categories previously used in such studies – such as ‘family member’ or ‘pet’ – the research team introduced a new, multi-dimensional approach that better captures its complexity.

They said the framework not only helps us understand how dogs fit into their owners’ social lives, but may also reveal where people turn to dogs to fill emotional gaps, and why, for many, the bond runs so deep.

More than 700 dog owners rated 13 relationship characteristics regarding their dogs and four human partners: their child, romantic partner, closest relative, and best friend.

Researchers say their findings show that the owner-dog relationship can be interpreted as a mix of child and best friend relationships, combining positive aspects of the child relationship with the lack of negative aspects of friendship, blended with high levels of control over the dog.

While owners often rate their relationship with their dog as superior to any human bond, the study also found that more support in human relationships correlates with more support in dog-owner bonds, suggesting that dogs complement human relationships rather than compensate for their deficiencies.

Similar to children, dogs scored high in nurturing and relationship security and, like best friends, had low levels of antagonism and conflict with their owners.

But there was also a greater “power imbalance” toward the owner in the relationship with dogs than with any human partner.

Study senior author Professor Enik? Kubinyi, of Eötvös Loránd University, said: “Unlike in human relationships, dog owners maintain full control over their dogs as they make most of the decisions, contributing to the high satisfaction owners report.

“Compared to humans, the relationship with dogs involves few conflicts and minimal negative interactions.” The power asymmetry, having control over a living being, is a fundamental aspect of dog ownership for many.

“The results highlight that dogs occupy a unique place in our social world – offering the emotional closeness of a child, the ease of a best friend, and the predictability of a relationship shaped by human control – revealing why our bonds with them are often so deeply fulfilling.”

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, also examined how dog and human relationship ratings relate to one another and found that strong human relationships correlated with stronger bonds with dogs.

Study co-author Doctor Dorottya Ujfalussy said: “We expected that people with weak human relationships would rely more on their dogs for support, but our results contradict this.

“In our sample, people did not seem to use dogs to compensate for the insufficient support in their human relationships.”

The research team noted that their sample consisted of volunteers who were likely more satisfied with their relationships than the average dog owner, so the study may not fully capture the experiences of vulnerable people who rely more heavily on their dogs for emotional support.

Study first author Dr. Borbála Turcsán said: “Dogs offer different kinds of emotional and social support depending on the needs of their owners.

“Some people seek companionship and fun, others need trust and stability, and some simply enjoy having someone to care for.”