The domesticated dog as a substitute for children - remarks about a not beloved problem

Based on an intensive analysis of literature, the study explains and critically comments a specific field of the human-dog bond. Basic structurally and functionally given facts as mentioned introductory are followed by reviews of the topics child schema and motherliness, as continued by the problem that dog and child are equated socially, whereby several socio-emotional causes for this development are discussed. The final summarizing commentary emphasizes that the content of the mother-child bond extends far beyond of that one of the human-dog bond, i. e. a plain transfer of ideas of the first to the latter - as made by several authors - is not possible. Thus, the problem substitute for children is only one of many variations of the human-dog bond, whereby it becomes obvious again that the domesticated dog depends deeply on its master because the dog was and still is object of a specific socioemotional relationship promoted and controlled by man.