Puppy love can be powerful.<\/p>\n
But Renata Roma is reminding pet owners that human relationships with dogs have just as many ups and downs as relationships between people.<\/p>\n
With National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day coming up this weekend, the PhD candidate in Brock\u2019s Department of Child and Youth Studies (CHYS) wants people to understand that dogs have different personalities that can change over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cDogs are as complex as people, so if you want to have a dog, be prepared to have lots of enjoyable moments but also moments of distress,\u201d says Roma. \u201cThose moments don\u2019t mean the relationship is not going well \u2014 it\u2019s just part of your relationship with your dog.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former therapist says she grew interested in studying the interactions of dogs and people after introducing a therapy dog into her sessions working with children with autism.<\/p>\n
She began researching the subject in earnest while completing her master\u2019s degree and is now fast approaching her PhD dissertation defence under the supervision of Associate Professor Christine Tardif-Williams in CHYS.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to see how dogs can positively influence people\u2019s well-being, and if attachment or synchrony in terms of having similar or complementary personalities would help people have more well-being in a relationship with a dog,\u201d says Roma. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t want to look only at the positive side.\u201d<\/p>\n
She says that in the online discourse, where boundless love for dogs is celebrated, some challenges of human interactions with dogs are often overlooked, which may leave some people feeling unprepared for managing difficult situations.<\/p>\n
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Renata Roma has spent several years on a research team studying relationships between dogs and young people.<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cI have my own dogs, so I know that we love them, but they can be annoying; it\u2019s the same thing that happens with people we love,\u201d she says. \u201cSo, I wanted to work with both aspects of the relationship, synchrony and lack of synchrony between the person and the dog.\u201d<\/p>\n