The Sunday Times has reported on an interesting development regarding the ownership of cats. Historically, single women prefer cats to dogs. Practically the entire world believes that.

However, the domestic cat as the pet of choice for a single woman is under threat from the cute French bulldog. The French bulldog is popular with single women because they are cute.

We are told that highflying women in the age bracket 35 to 45 who are childless are increasingly turning to dogs as a companion animal because they have to walk their dog in the local park. We know that that particular activity is an excellent way to bump into a man (or woman), do a bit of socialising and progress from there.

The trend from cats to dogs amongst this group of women is according to one of Britain’s top dog behaviourists, Nigel Reed. His wife, Steph, met him when she asked him to help with her dog. They now have a six-month-old baby!

Mr Reid says that several of his clients have met their boyfriends while walking their dogs. He said:

“Exercising dogs is a good way to meet a partner. But it helps if the dogs are well-behaved.”

The majority of Mr Reid’s female clients are in the age bracket 35 to 45. They are career women who have “a sense of longing” which is not being fulfilled with children. They have a need to nurture and this is expressed through their companion dog.

There appears to be a downside to the woman-to-dog relationship. Female owners tend to spoil their dogs which has resulted in a “pandemic of behaviour issues”. These include aggression and not coming when called.

It appears that female owners present to their dog the impression that they need them more than their dog needs their owner which is the wrong way round. Mr Reid has not seen a happy Chihuahua for over 10 years (another small dog popular with women).

He says that they are too stressed and they are stressed because women stroke them too much. This is received by the dog as a signal that the owner is anxious which in turn makes the dog stressed. Perhaps single women should adopt cats after all! Although, that said, even cats have a limit on how much and how often they are stroked.

Perhaps the media now can break away from the old adage of the “crazy cat woman”. Of course, there is no chance of that happening. Partly because the concept of a crazy cat woman belongs in the domain of the elderly single woman in the age bracket of about 60 to 80 years of age.