If you refer to your Shih Tzu as your “child” and can’t stand criticism for it, read what we have to say below. After all, this could serve as a defense the next time someone claims that a pet isn’t a child!
Treating a Shih Tzu like a child: Using magnetic resonance imaging, scientists sought to understand how dogs perceive their owners. For a Shih Tzu, are we just the ones providing food, parents, or fellow dogs? By placing dogs in MRI machines and measuring their thoughts, it might be possible to find an answer to this question.
Also, discover:
- How to tell if your Shih Tzu loves you?
- Should you let your Shih Tzu sleep in bed?
- What Shih Tzus dream about when they sleep.
Whether sweaty or clean, your scent is very pleasing to your pet.
One of the most concrete proofs that your pet is madly in love with you comes from a study by Emory University in the United States. The study used the Shih Tzu’s sense of smell, considered its most powerful and important sense, to reveal what brought the most pleasure to Shih Tzus.
The idea was to expose the dogs to various smells and measure the reaction in the brain region related to positive experiences for each presented smell. The smells presented to the dog included its own scent, that of a familiar person, an unfamiliar person, a known dog, and an unknown dog.
The person presenting these smells to the dog was unfamiliar and had not previously interacted with the dog or the smells. The study revealed that the dog can differentiate between the scent of the presenting person and that of its owner in its brain, and it becomes happy when smelling its owner, even when the owner is not present. Interestingly, when exposed to the smells of its owner, the dog’s brain region related to reward would activate.
Of all the smells, it prioritized the scent of its owner over any other object. The dogs that participated in this study were all raised near people but were of different breeds and ages, revealing that this behavior is not specific to a breed.
For them, we are family. For us, their lives may be more important than someone else’s.
To measure the love we feel for our Shih Tzus, another survey asked people if they would save a stranger from death or their dogs. The result revealed that a large number of people would save their dogs, considering them family members.
For some, they are children, while for others, they are considered siblings or best friends. In any case, this survey points to the fact that we do not see the Shih Tzu as just an animal but as one of us.
So strong is this relationship that a survey revealed that owners do not change the quality of their dogs’ food, even in times of crisis. We prefer to use discounts and coupons rather than buy lower-quality food.
Some studies indicate that Shih Tzu behaves with the owner in the same way a child does with parents. Another study by the University of Vienna revealed that Shih Tzus look at their owners in the same way a child looks at parents.
In other words, when they are hungry or afraid, for example, they look at their owners to solve these problems and provide emotional support. The owner acts as a secure base and allows the Shih Tzu to explore new situations. Is it okay to treat the dog as a child?
Sometimes, having a dog that treats us as its parents can lead us to act with them in a way similar to how parents act with their children. This, coupled with the fact that most dogs have intelligence similar to that of a two-year-old child, contributes to them being treated like babies.