Pet-parenting | France Inter

It is well known: “A dog is man’s best friend”. However, many people no longer consider their dog as their best friend, but as their child. This is how the animal takes up more and more space in the family sphere; according to an Opinion Way study, 62% of French people share their nights with him and 53% of them even celebrate their birthdays. This attachment is controversial, to the point that Pope Francis sees it as a denial of humanity and the end of civilization! “Pet-parenting” (or pet-parenting, in French) also has its abuses: toys, clothes and other strollers can make people forget to treat the animal as such, and resemble mistreatment.

About her dog Colonel, veterinarian, journalist and presenter Hélène Gateau says: “Even if he doesn’t come out of my womb, I have the feeling of having an attachment extremely close to that of a mother with her baby”. A statement which earned him numerous attacks on social networks.

The one who defines herself as a “dog mum” makes it clear that she does not consider her dog to be a human being: “The relationship with a dog, as a species different from ours, fulfills me, interests me, enriches me on a daily basis. I didn't want a little human, I wanted a little dog. On the other hand, he comes to fill in my life what is akin to a maternal fiber. Everyone creates their family in their own way.” In the United States, there is even a term for couples without children who own a dog: DINKWADs (Double Income, No Kids, With a Dog).

“Doggy blues”

Without wanting to diminish, she says, the bond of attachment that some people may have with a cat, she believes that the relationship with a dog is closer to the relationship with a child. “There is the education and socialization of the animal, the training of cleanliness, which we find in dogs and in children, less for the cat. And the cat is a species which, well although it is domesticated, it retains a wild side which is less obvious in dogs.” She also observes that some people experience a sort of “doggy blues” when they have just acquired a puppy and bring it home.

She also discusses the benefits of dogs on social life, on the fight against a sedentary lifestyle, cognitive decline or “the feeling of incompleteness that a woman can feel when she does not have children”on the stimulation of happiness hormones, but also the inevitable and painful mourning of the four-legged companion…

• Hélène Gateau, Why I chose to have a dog (and not a child)Albin Michel, September 2023