“If ever you overhear someone comparing you to a dog, chances are it’s not a compliment. Yes, there’s the famous loyalty of dogs, their unbridled enthusiasm for life, their boundless love and devotion, their fierce protectiveness—qualities that any of us would be lucky to possess at even a modicum of their standard manifestation in the canine. Typically, though, it’s meant as a slight and a reference to some especially animalistic aspect of our four-legged friends. That assertive woman people call a “bitch,” for instance (a term that has always struck me as being dubious; some of my kindest, gentlest companions in this world have been female dogs), or the lowlife “cur” who cheated you in that game of poker the other night.

As much as we might quibble over the virtues and vices of Canis domesticus, however, and over whether human nature is any better or worse than dog nature, even dog fanciers don’t usually want to look like a dog. The hair of a poodle, the jowls of a bulldog, the bug eyes of a pug, the wrinkles of a Shar-Pei, the profile of a collie, the street-sweeping udders of a lactating mongrel … none of these traits are considered beautiful when incarnated in our own species. Still, if we look in the mirror, each of us can expect to find a certain doggy je ne sais quoi staring back at us. Those of us who own a dog, anyway. And we don’t resemble just any old dog, either. Rather, we look somehow, in a can’t-quite-put-your-finger-on-it kind of way, like our own dogs.” *

Cenk Uygur (http://www.twitter.com/cenkuygur) and Gina Grad (http://www.twitter.com/GinaGrad) discuss.

*Read more here from http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/08/pets_look_like_their_owners_dog_and_their_people_have_similar_eyes.html