When Pat Connor first met Jay, she knew they had a special connection. But the true test of their relationship would come after he met Bailey, the beagle and golden retriever mix she’d rescued four months earlier.
“Because Bailey hadn’t been with me very long before I met Jay, she wasn’t as clear a boyfriend meter as the dogs I’d had previously,” Pat said. “Still, I was eager to see how they’d react to each other, especially since dogs are great judges of personality and character.”
With five million smell receptors to our 220, it’s true that dogs may do better than we do at sniffing out who’s right for us. That’s because they’re non-verbal, says Deborah Wood, author of The Dog Lover’s Guide to Dating: Using Cold Noses to Find Warm Hearts (Howell Book House, 2003).
“Dogs get beyond the surface things we can’t help but look at because we’re human,” she says. “They don’t look at clothing, economic success, or whether somebody’s a smooth talker. They’re more attuned to the gentleness and the soul of the person.”
Read your dog’s cues.
To get to this information, you must first know how to read your dog’s behavior for clues as to who you’re dealing with. For example, Pat could tell that Bailey liked Jay since she’d sort of “dance around him.”
“I could tell she wanted to go to him,” she says, “it just took her a while to overcome her shyness.” Eventually, however, she did. And her tail started to wag whenever she saw him - a good sign, say experts.
If, however, unlike Bailey, your dog barks or growls every time your new beau approaches, there could be a problem. “If you have a dog that’s generally friendly but really doesn’t like this person, your dog could be trying to tell you something,” says Wood. “I’d pay attention.”
Use your dog as bait for new insights.
Once you know where your dog stands on your love interest, where does your love interest stand on your dog? After all, if you’re like the 66 percent of dog owners recently surveyed by the American Kennel Club, you might not want to consider dating someone who doesn’t like your animal.
