Hungarian university study: Dogs are both children and best friends in the human social network

A new study by the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), published on Tuesday in Scientific Reports, reveals that the role dogs play in the human social network is best described as a blend of a parent-child bond and a best-friend relationship. The research highlights how the emotional connection between humans and their dogs combines affection, trust, and low conflict—elements that typically characterise our closest human relationships.

The ELTE researchers set out to explore the position dogs occupy in our social lives. Using 13 relationship characteristics, they compared dog-owner bonds with four types of human relationships: those with a child, a romantic partner, a close relative, and a best friend.

Dogs are our children and best friends

According to the study, the human-dog relationship shares the nurturing love typically directed toward children, paired with the harmony and lack of conflict found in close friendships. At the same time, the dynamic is marked by a clear power imbalance, with the owner holding the dominant role.

Interestingly, the research also found that people who receive high levels of support from human relationships tend to report greater support from their dogs as well—suggesting that dogs complement, rather than compensate for, human social bonds.

More than 700 dog owners participated in the study, evaluating their relationship with their dog and four human partners across 13 dimensions. Respondents rated their dogs highest in terms of overall satisfaction, companionship, and the feeling of being loved. Dogs received scores similar to children when it came to care and reliability, while their relationships were as low in conflict as those with best friends. However, the dog-owner bond showed significantly more power inequality than any of the human relationships.

Significant power inequality in human-dog relationships

Enikő Kubinyi, head of ELTE’s Department of Ethology and the MTA-ELTE Lendület Companion Animal Research Group, noted that owners exercise near-total control over their dogs—making all decisions and setting the rules. This degree of control and the dog’s resulting dependency may help explain why owners rate the relationship so highly, she said.