Relational

Not everyone in the world, or in human history, finds dogs adorable; to lots of people, they're as dirty and unsafe as rats. Even where dogs are tolerated as working animals, playing with dogs is often the kind of thing kids do, but not adults. But today more and more people idealize and romanticize their dogs, including anthropomorphizing their behavior and expressions to make them miniature humans. Years ago, I worked in a church nursery with two year olds, and I surprised myself by liking their company more than I liked people my age, because they were so uncomplicated and easy to please. The idea of psychological neoteny suggests that where people have to repeatedly re-learn the world, they stay in a state of arrested childhood where everything is about play. Loss of control is tolerable in small measures, but very aversive if too exaggerated, and I think the obsession with dogs is another symptom of anxiety over loss of control. And I wonder if stuffed animals are next.