Is That What They Mean By Puppy Love? The Men Who Use Their Dogs To Get Dates

FOR single men, a dog can provide companionship and affection and, it would appear, a steady stream of potential dates.

One in five male pet owners admits using their pet as ‘date bait’.

And it is by no means a bad plan – as the same survey found a third of women have been attracted to someone because of their pet, with dogs proving the most tempting.

By contrast one in four men said the pet alone guided their feelings for someone. But they are unlikely to find a woman trying to lure them that way – just 6 per cent admitted they had used their pet to attract potential dates.

Researchers at the University of Nevada - Las Vegas teamed up with pet store chain PetSmart to quiz 1,210 single pet owners via online dating site Match.com, Psychology Today reported.

They set out to explore whether pets figure in modern dating strategies.

The survey found that nearly half of the women and a quarter of the men judged dates based on how they responded to their pet.

Just over 75 per cent of women and 60 per cent of men evaluated dates based on whether their pets like the person.

Meanwhile, three quarters of women and juts over half of the men said they would not date someone who did not like pets.

Date Bait?

The survey found dog owners were more likely than cat owners to use pets as indicators of a date’s attributes. For example, more dog people than cat people said the responses of their pet to a date was important.

Dog owners were also more likely to say that the way a date treated their own pet mattered and to believe that person’s pet revealed a lot about their personality.

Anthropologist Peter Gray, who led the project, sent out a survey consisting of 21 questions.

Participants were 60 per cent female and 40 per cent male, with 72 per cent being dog owners and 42 per cent cat owners.

The study is set to be published in an upcoming copy of the journal Anthrozoös.

It also found that a pet can promote a person’s caring nature, with 64 per cent of women and 49 per cent of men saying they were more attracted to a person if they owned a rescue animal.

The survey also revealed the sexiest pet a man can own.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of women said a dog is most attractive.

Pictures from Rex Features