{"id":4856,"date":"2026-08-24T04:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T04:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mastorrencito.com\/en\/who-does-your-dog-love-more\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T05:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T05:05:09","slug":"who-does-your-dog-love-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mastorrencito.com\/en\/who-does-your-dog-love-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Who does your dog love more: you or them?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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THE TEST THAT MIGHT START A TINY COUPLE’S CRISIS \ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n

<\/h1>\n\n

There’s a question that sooner or later comes up in every home where two people and a dog live together:<\/p>\n\n

\u00abBut\u2026 who does he love more?\u00bb<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

You both say it makes no difference to you. That the dog belongs to both of you. That love can’t be measured. That there’s no competition at all.<\/p>\n\n

Lies.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

You both notice who gets the first greeting when you come home. Who he looks for when he’s scared. Which side of the bed he sleeps on. And, above all, what happens when you both call him at the same time.<\/p>\n\n

Because we can be sensible, emotionally balanced adults\u2026 until our dog chooses to sit next to the other person. \ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n\n

I’ve always been crystal clear about this<\/h2>\n\n

Of all the dogs who have passed through Mas Torrencito, every single one has been mine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

They’ve all loved me more. Or, at the very least, they’ve all known perfectly well who the pack leader was.<\/p>\n\n

Manuela was mine. Don Markos was mine. Mastitwo is mine. Mamas is mine. Even the ones who could split their attention knew that, when it came down to it, I was the center of the universe<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n

All of them.<\/p>\n\n

EXCEPT ONE.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\n \ud83d\udc36<\/span>\n MASTO<\/strong>\n <\/div>\n\n

Masto belongs to Mireia. It’s that simple.<\/p>\n\n

It’s not that we don’t get along. It’s not that he doesn’t love me. He respects me, he’s fond of me, and if Mireia isn’t around, I can pass as reasonably acceptable company.<\/p>\n\n

But the moment she shows up, it’s over.<\/p>\n\n

He only has eyes for Mireia.<\/strong> He follows her, watches her, waits for her, chooses her. If the two of us were hanging off a cliff and Masto could only save one, I’d spend those last few seconds saying my goodbyes. \ud83d\ude02<\/p>\n\n

And no test is going to change that.<\/p>\n\n

Do dogs really love one person more?<\/h2>\n\n

There’s no scientific \u00ablove-o-meter\u00bb that can tell you your dog loves you 63% and your partner 37%. And dogs don’t always hand every important role in their life to a single person, anyway.<\/p>\n\n

They might look for one person when they need security and a different person when they want to play. They might obey whoever sets boundaries best, sleep next to whoever radiates calm, and beg for food from whoever has a worryingly generous hand with the ham.<\/p>\n\n

What science has actually found<\/h2>\n\n

No researcher can sit your dog down in front of a screen and ask him to rate the family members. But we do know that a dog’s bond with the people in his life leaves observable traces.<\/p>\n\n

Your dog may use you as a \u00absecure base\u00bb<\/h3>\n\n

In 2013, a team at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna gave several dogs a task involving objects they had to manipulate. The dogs kept trying for longer when their owner was present, whether that owner was encouraging them or just staying quiet. When the owner was replaced by a stranger, the effect disappeared.<\/p>\n\n

Researchers called this the \u00absecure base effect\u00bb<\/strong>: the presence of the attachment figure gave the dog the confidence to explore and tackle the task. In other words, sometimes he isn’t proving you’re his favorite person by jumping all over you \u2014 he’s proving it by feeling braver when you’re around. See the study by Horn, Huber and Range<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Eye contact builds bonds too<\/h3>\n\n

Another study, published in Science<\/em> in 2015, observed an oxytocin-related loop during interactions between dogs and their owners. Longer gazes from the dog were linked to rises in oxytocin in their person, and within the experiment, that interaction could in turn reinforce the dog’s own response.<\/p>\n\n

That doesn’t mean every time your dog looks at you he’s reciting a love poem. He might just be waiting for you to open the fridge. But it does give a biological basis to something we all recognize: looking at each other, touching, and interacting strengthens the bond<\/strong>. See the study by Nagasawa and colleagues<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

But the choice can depend on the moment<\/h3>\n\n

And here comes the detail that might save a relationship: a choice experiment published in 2017 found that dogs don’t always automatically prefer their owner<\/strong>. Context, location, how long the interaction lasts, and familiarity can all change who they go to.<\/p>\n\n

So a single scene doesn’t settle the case. If he ran to your partner today, it might mean love\u2026 or it might mean you’ve been on the sofa for two hours and she just walked in with a bag. See the study on choice and context<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

At Mas Torrencito we’ve already touched on another part of this story: science has found similarities between some dogs and their owners<\/strong><\/a>, both physical and in personality. Maybe we don’t just end up looking alike \u2014 maybe we also learn to seek each other out in different ways.<\/p>\n\n

That’s why this test doesn’t just try to find out who he picks most<\/strong>. It also looks at what he picks each person for<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n