Pet Pattern in Dogs

A study, by Beatrice Kennedy of Uppsala University in Sweden, looked at almost 209,000 owners and their dogs and circa 124,000 cats and their companions (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/dec/10/dogs-owners-found-share-resemblance-diabetes-risk). Interestingly, she found that dog owners and their pets had a 38% increased risk of sharing type 2 diabetes (this is the blood sugar-elevating endocrine disorder that is linked to being overweight in humans). It seems not unreasonable to speculate that, when type 2 diabetes occurs, both members of the owner/ dog partnership have a tendency to overeat and/or to take little exercise. This is, of course, probably more down to the choices made by the human member of the duo. No such link in diabetes risk was evident in owners and their cats (cats don't rely on owners for exercise and choose what they want to eat). There are a few factors that might complicate the study. Most pets (especially in families) have more than one owner and some people (especially in the UK) have more than 1 dog or cat. Both these factors would complicate the correlation somewhat.