Need a Date? First, Get a Dog

Something happens whenever Aaron Morrill takes his large and fluffy mutt, Donut, for her daily walk, and it’s something that always catches him a bit by surprise.

Women gather.

They flock to Donut — “a particularly cute dog,” he says — and he often finds himself surrounded by a gaggle of young women who want to know how old she is (4), if he raised her from a puppy (yes) and if they can pet her (sure).

“They see you with a dog and all their defenses go down,” said Mr. Morrill, 59, a businessman in Jersey City, N.J. “They assume you must be a decent human being. How could you have a dog and be a bad person?”

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Gay men and women with pets can communicate the same character traits to potential mates, who will evaluate and appreciate them in a similar manner, said Daniel J. Kruger, a research professor at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor who studies human mating strategies. “The kind of benefits you see in terms of increasing the perception that someone is reliable and caring — I think those are generalized across everybody,” he said.

There’s ample research to demonstrate that the messages sent by dog ownership influences others’ judgment and behavior.

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