Do you want to get a dog? It may be in your genes if you will own one or not. A new study suggests that genetic variation in your DNA heavily influences if you will get a dog since it will decide on your dog ownership characteristic feature.
This verdict on dog ownership heritability was inferred with the help of the information obtained on 35,035 twins from the Swedish Twin Registry.
"We were surprised to see that a person's genetic make-up appears to be a significant influence in whether they own a dog. These findings have major implications in several different fields related to understanding dog-human interaction throughout history and in modern times," Tove Fall, a professor at Uppsala University in Sweden, was quoted as saying by PTI.
The study showed that while studying the genetic make-up of one twin on whether they have the gene to own dogs, the similar gene was always found in the other twin, thus proving that owning a dog is in the genes and is not always based on a random decision taken on a whim.
The study also showed that the rate of dog ownership was higher in identical twins than in non-identical ones.
"These findings are important as they suggest that supposed health benefits of owning a dog reported in some studies may be partly explained by different genetics of the people studied," said Carri Westgarth, a lecturer at the University of Liverpool.
A lot of research material has shown that having a dog or a pet in the household improves the mental and physical health of the owners. Researchers now want to study how the choice of owning dogs is affected by genes.
