A Dog’s New

BFF:
A Content Analysis of Books
about the Human and Canine
Relationship.

Jennifer D’Angelo
INTRODUCTION

 Increase in dog ownership.

 Dog owners view their dogs:

 Children
 Companion
 APA(2008)

 Research Question
 Purpose/Thesis

 The purpose of this study is to examine the

changing relationship between humans and
rescued adult canine companions through a
qualitative content analysis of books.
Literature Review

 History of Human Animal Relationships.

 History World (2007)
 Encyclopedia Britannica (2007)

 Animal Adoption by types of Organization.

 “Pounds” vs. No-kill “Shelters”
 SBACA (2008)
 PetsConnect! Inc. (2001)
 Humane Society of the United States.
(2008)
Literature Review

 Who is Likely to Own a Dog?

 AVMA (1997,2007,2008)
 Pew Research (2008)
 Humane Society of America (2008)

 Memoirs on Human-Pet Relationships.

 Doty (2007)
 Kopelman (2006)
Theory of Self

 Symbolic Nature of Human-Canine

Relationships
 Mead (1934)

 Canine “Social” Identity

 Irvine (2004)
 Sanders (2001)
 Saucier (2001)

 Meaningful Human-Canine Relationships

 Mead (1907)
 Irvine (2004)
Methodology

 Content Analysis.

 Sample Population Technique and Criteria.

 Total Sample Population of 23.

 Random Sample of 7 books.

Methodology

 Coding Themes
 Year of book publication
 Type of Adoption
 Relationship (view) to the dog
 Author’s Occupation
 Author’s Sexual Orientation
 Author’s Marital Status
 Author’s Family Lifestyle
 with children
 Without children
 Race
 Location
 Country of Origin
 City/State
 Rural/Suburban/City
 Training, Obedience, and/or Socialization Methods
 Findings

Table 1:
Years in which memoirs were (Frequency/Percentage)
published
1997 1/ 4.33%
1998 1/ 4.33%
2000 1/ 4.33%
2004 2/ 8.7%
2005 2/ 8.7%
2006 4/ 17.4%
2007 8/ 34.8%
2008 4/ 17.4%

Total (N): 23
 Findings

Table 2:

Type of Adoption Frequency/Percentage

Stray 10/ 43.5%

Private Adoption 6/ 26.1%

Shelter 5/ 21.7%

Rescue 2/ 8.7%

Total (N) 23
 Findings
Table 3:

Author’s Education Level Frequency/Percentage

College Degree or Higher 13/ 56.52%

Did Not Mention 7/ 30.43%

No Degree 3/ 13.04 %

Total (N) 23
Discussion

 How do these owners describe their

relationship with their dog?
 Doty (2007)
 Grogan (2008)

 Increased Individualism

 Finding Alternative ways to have a family

QUESTIONS?