How To Know If Your Partner Is Right For You: Ask Your Pet

divinecaroline.com:

When Pat Connor first met Jay, she knew they had a special connection. But the true test of their relationship would come after he met Bailey, the beagle and golden retriever mix she'd rescued four months earlier.

"Because Bailey hadn't been with me very long before I met Jay, she wasn't as clear a boyfriend meter as the dogs I'd had previously," Pat said. "Still, I was eager to see how they'd react to each other, especially since dogs are great judges of personality and character."

With five million smell receptors to our 220, it's true that dogs may do better than we do at sniffing out who's right for us. That's because they're non-verbal, says Deborah Wood, author of The Dog Lover's Guide to Dating: Using Cold Noses to Find Warm Hearts (Howell Book House, 2003).

"Dogs get beyond the surface things we can't help but look at because we're human," she says. "They don't look at clothing, economic success, or whether somebody's a smooth talker. They're more attuned to the gentleness and the soul of the person."

Read your dog's cues.
To get to this information, you must first know how to read your dog's behavior for clues as to who you're dealing with. For example, Pat could tell that Bailey liked Jay since she'd sort of "dance around him."

"I could tell she wanted to go to him," she says, "it just took her a while to overcome her shyness." Eventually, however, she did. And her tail started to wag whenever she saw him - a good sign, say experts.

If, however, unlike Bailey, your dog barks or growls every time your new beau approaches, there could be a problem. "If you have a dog that's generally friendly but really doesn't like this person, your dog could be trying to tell you something," says Wood. "I'd pay attention."

Read the whole story: divinecaroline.com

Comments

[walk0nwalls]

I asked my pet.

He vomited up a chew toy.

Now what do I do?

[sonoffestus]

Do not even think of moving in!

[nobozos]

When the economic crisis hit, I moved to my sister's cabin in the mountains of Idaho to save money.
Between us, we have five rescued dogs, and a neighbor's rescued dog who decided she lives here now makes six.
How people treat our weird eclectic mix of previously abandoned (and highly sensitive to human cruelty) animals is a major indicator of how decent a human they are, we've discovered.
Now to us, it's a no-brainer. If the dogs like them, they're good people. If the dogs don't, we start getting suspicious.

[Bystander]

The picture made me think there's another Proposition in California's future.

[sonoffestus]

They CAN marry, they're not gay. CA is so into the man/woman thing.

[Supercruize]

Dogs just love me- i don't know why, but each time i am around dogs, they either want to play or sit near me, even the most antisocial ones. Guess i am the perfect partner? Huh? ... think not.

[Vickster]

There are all kinds of reasons why a dog may avoid someone or even react with hostility. It could be that the dog simply doesn't feel good. Or the dog may be picking up on his owner's energy, especially if the owner is nervously wondering if Fido will like her new man. Then again, the new man could be afraid of dogs, or, like most people, he doesn't know how to meet a dog for the first time. And how a dog reacts to the latter depends on his socialization and his temperment.

Dogs are good at tuning into energy (nervousness, fear, serenity, etc.). What they don't have is an ability to judge a person's character. Their brains don't work that way.

[kellygrrrl]

I have Golden Retrievers. The male LOVES every single human he has ever met. The female is a little more cautious. But she seems to judge more on someone's afffect. If they are moving quickly or talking loudly, she's not so eager to get near them.

[stayinsouth1981]

Baby, the golden retriever will take the robber to the family jewels and encourage him to look for more goods! They love nearly everyone, it's in their nature.

[RIPRNC]

My wifes dog hated me when we first met. Now it follows me around the house and waits for me to sit so it can crawl into my lap, even when my wife sits next to me. Whatever that means...

[ChaiKat]

Animals are very intuitive, and quite frankly, if my cat won't go near someone I have to wonder why. How people treat animals is a good way to judge how they truly are. If you have a problem with that, then that's your opinion, but to say someone is stupid to believe that is pretty asinine on your part.

[The Patriot]

tvmistake - dogs can evaluate good and evil on a level we can't even understand. Read Clifford Simak's "City" or google the term "Seizure dog".

Critical thinking allows for things like "wow, the dog i get along with and love is totally aggressive towards this new guy i'm dating, wonder if i ought to be wary about that?"

BTW - love your creative use of the word "retarded" followed by a cry for critical thinking. Excellent trolling.

[wadenelson1]

And if she's got more than two dogs, and they sleep on the bed, don't even bother to ask.

[kellygrrrl]

I Sleep with Dogs!!!!!

[tvmistake]

This might be the most retarded thing I've ever read. Deciding whether to be with someone based on the reaction of a dog is just asinine. "And that's when I knew I couldn't marry him. My dog, with his exponentially greater number of smell receptors, just didn't care for him. I think he could smell his soul or something." Of course nothing is too absurd for some people to believe. When will our schools start teaching critical thinking?

[JimBozo]

Don't be too quick to make judgments. Dogs have incredible powers. I know someone who breeds and trains boxer dogs. One of hers is well-documented as being able to detect whether a human has cancer or not. It's pretty spooky, actually, but a literal, proven, fact. If a dog can be that discerning, how tough can it be to detect whether a human is an a*hole? Hell, I can almost do that, myself.

[Tatiana]

How do they do that? Detect cancer?