Scientists find that the choice of whether or not to own a dog is built into your genetic code

Being a dog lover is not a choice, it's in your DNA.

This discovery of a team of researchers in Sweden and England sheds light on how the best friend of man appeared and discovered that being a dog owner is can be genetic.

A study on twins revealed that getting a dog is influenced by the genes of an individual and can even be inherited.

It is impossible to say which genes are involved in the study, but identical twins have agreed much more than non-identical pairs about to know whether or not they would have a pet dog.

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Previous research has shown that if we had a child pet, we are more likely to love animals and own a pet in adulthood.

But it was not clear if genetic differences between families contribute to this association.

Lead author, Professor Tove Fall, of Uppsala University, said, "We were surprised to see that a person's genetic makeup seems to have a significant influence on owning a dog or not.

"As such, these findings have major implications in several areas related to understanding dog-human interaction across history and modern times.

"Although dogs and other pets are part of the same household around the world, their impact on our daily lives and our health is poorly known.

"Maybe some people have a greater innate propensity to take care of a pet than others."

The researchers studied the heritability of owning a dog with the help of information from 35,035 pairs of Swedish registry.

He compared the genetic makeup of twins to determine if the ownership of a dog has an inherited element.

Identical twins share their entire genome, while non-identical twins share only half of the genetic variation on average.

They used this to determine whether the twins agreed to determine whether it was a genetic preference.

Their findings confirmed the view that genetics do play a major role in the choice of dog ownership.

"The relationship between the man and the dog is the longest of all pets.

"However, the origin and history of our most iconic pet may remain an enigma and a subject of significant scientific debate.

"Decades of more recent archaeological investigations and genetic research around the world have not yet solved the fundamental questions of where, when and why wolves formed the partnership." transformational with humans that ultimately resulted in the first domestic dog.

"Over the next millennia, this" privileged relationship "has developed rapidly in most of the world's cultures and is today as strong and complex as it has ever been before." .

"Dogs have long played an important role as an extension of the" toolbox "for humans. They help him with various tasks, such as hunting, breeding and protection, as well as more social activities such as rituals and friendship.

"The various roles that dogs have filled have most likely introduced a range of selective benefits for human groups with domesticated dogs."

Dr. Carri Westgarth, co-author of the University of Liverpool, added: "These results are important because they suggest that the supposed health benefits of owning a dog, reported in some studies, might be partly explained by different genetic factors in the people studied ".

The study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.