“She is Like a Sister to Me”: Children’s Lived Experience With Their Dog

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to explore the relationship between children and dogs through their cohabitation, highlighting the ways children experience, interpret, and give meaning to the role of the dog in their everyday lives. Thirteen children (6 females, 7 males) aged 7–12 years from Thessaloniki, Greece, who had been living with a dog for at least the past three years, participated in the study. From September 2018 to June 2019, we conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with each child and also used supplementary means of data collection, such as photographs, drawings, videos, and diaries. The interviews were recorded and subsequently transcribed. Hermeneutic phenomenological analysis was applied to illustrate the participants’ reflections on their experiences of living with a dog. From the analysis, the three most common themes identified were that dogs: (a) facilitate routines and habits, (b) contribute to family dynamics, and (c) provide emotional support in daily life. The study findings give insight into dog–child relationships, as well as evidence regarding children’s lived experiences through the fundamental supportive role of the dog as a transitional object.

KEYWORDS:

• Child–dog relationship
• hermeneutic phenomenology
• human–animal interaction

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 For the steps of the hermeneutic phenomenological research, see van Manen (1997, pp. 30–31, 93).

2 The names of the dogs have been omitted and replaced by [D].