Parenting styles and choices are known to influence the way that children develop and grow. Researchers are now discovering more about a similar relationship between owners and their pets. How you “parent” your dog has an impact on the kind of dog it grows up to be.

The researchers studied 48 dog owners and their dogs, asking them to complete a pet parenting style survey before joining in three behavioral tests in the lab, assessing attachments and interactions between the dog and their human owners. Then researchers put the dog owners into three categories: authoritative (high expectations, high responsiveness), authoritarian (high expectations, low responsiveness), and permissive (low expectations, high responsiveness). The three behavioral tests covered attachment (how the dog responded to its owner during close interactions), sociability (how the dog responded when a stranger and its owner changed places with one another in the testing room), and problem-solving.

Dogs with authoritative owners had the highest rate of secure attachment and were highly social and sensitive to social context, compared to dogs with authoritarian or permissive owners. What’s more, the only dogs to solve the problem best came from the authoritative group. So researchers came with the conclusion that an owner who’s highly responsive to a dog’s behavior and needs tends to lead to a more social, secure, and smart dog.

The study matches up in some ways with previous research into parents and kids, specifically that children with authoritative parents are more likely to show secure attachment. It is thought to be because of the reliable support they get. “This research shows that the pet dog-human caretaker bond may be functionally and emotionally similar to the bond between a human parent and their child,” says behavioral scientist Lauren Brubaker.

For now, though the study is enough to show that there is some kind of relationship between the approach we take as dog owners and the way that those dogs then behave, there are even numerous other factors in play. “We still need to conduct more research in this area,” said the researchers in their published paper.

Being perfect is something many of us want and try to achieve. It makes us feel we’re correct and that our hard work has paid off. However, as much as perfection and being perfect is not all a perfect thing.

Perfection is all about being without mistakes and criticism. Wanting or trying to be perfect can make it hard to admit a mistake. Nevertheless, it is important to admit mistakes and work to fix them. Not being able to take criticism and fix mistakes is being proud, not perfection.

Perfection is a double-edged sword. In our lives, we want perfection. Perfection holds us responsible; it’s the mistakes and imperfection that keeps pushing us harder and further at what we do. It’s the perfect motivator. But it’s also the perfect killer. For example, the movie “Black Swan” showcased how perfection can kill us. Working and training and stress hurt our body, mind, and so much more that we can’t do it any more.

But perfection can also have the opposite effect. The movie “High Strung” showed that perfection doesn’t exist, but practicing and pushing ourselves can bring us great rewards. In “Black Swan,” the main character tried to be perfect but he also compared himself to someone else who he thought was better than him. This added more pressure and self-doubt, which can cause unhealthy ways of achieving perfection. The main character of “Black Swan” didn’t know when to stop, whereas the main character of “High Strung” did, or at least didn’t focus so much on the comparison, and instead focused on the competition and the ones she cared about.

Perfection is something we can’t live without and can’t live with. The only way to keep the sword from cutting us is if we know when to stop. Some days are going to be good days and others will be bad. We have to take whatever day it is — perfect or imperfect — and hope that’s enough.