Are People Who Don’t Like Dogs Sociopaths?

Dogs are great, right? They’re sweet and loyal and affectionate. And boy, are they cute! Even the goofy-looking ones are cute. The mere mention of a dog is enough to bring a smile to many people’s faces.

Not everyone finds dogs so charming, though. Some folks are really not into them, which can be genuinely shocking to those who are obsessed. After all, dogs are “man’s best friend.” They have evolved alongside us for tens of thousands of years, and anyone who has known the love of a dog knows there’s nothing quite like it. For many people, that relationship is among the most nurturing and emotionally significant of their lives. So, when they meet someone who feels differently, it can be tempting to view that aversion as not just a preference but a moral failing.

Is it, though?

The dog-averse certainly don’t think so. There’s even a r/Dogfree subreddit for people who have chosen to live dog free and feel judged by dog lovers who view their stance as something truly horrific, even going as far as to accuse them of being psychopaths or sociopaths. To answer this right off the bat, at least one expert thinks that label goes a little too far.

“I don’t think it’s fair to say someone isn’t a kind person, or that they lack empathy or compassion, simply because they don’t like dogs,” says psychologist Dr. Sam Zand of Anywhere Clinic.

And yet, our preferences do shape — and are shaped by — who we are and what we value. Maybe it’s unfair to write non-dog people off entirely, but doesn’t an extreme negative reaction to such a sweet and loving creature tell us something? Let’s get into it.

Where dog aversion really comes from

To a dog lover, a dislike of dogs can feel like an instant red flag. But there are many legitimate reasons someone may not be a pup person. Maybe they suffered a traumatic experience, like an attack or a scare that permanently affected their perception. It could be that they simply didn’t grow up around dogs so they never became super comfy with them. Maybe they find dogs to be unpredictable or feel like dogs don’t like them. Or maybe they don’t feel regulated enough in their own nervous system to comfortably co-regulate with a dog or pets in general.

“If it’s a dog-specific dislike, rather than pets in general, there’s often some kind of fear attached,” Dr. Zand says. “We really need to understand where that reaction came from. And the reasons can be very different for different people.”

Of course, you could ask someone why they don’t like dogs, but they might not want to answer. Or they might only give you a partial answer, depending on how safe they feel with you and how they expect you to react. In either case, people are not obligated to defend their preferences, especially if doing so makes them feel exposed and vulnerable.

You might believe that if you knew the reason, you’d be more understanding — and maybe you would be. But there’s no guarantee. Once someone shares that information, they’ve taken a risk without knowing whether it will be met with empathy or judgment. And unless you’re hoping to adopt a dog together, it’s really none of your business anyway.

Why dog lovers take non-dog people personally

When someone else’s preferences trigger a strong emotional reaction, it’s worth pausing to ask yourself why, especially if and when those preferences don’t actually affect you. After all, a person can like you without liking dogs, just as you can dislike someone who happens to love them. These things are not mutually exclusive.

“I think there’s such a strong affinity and sense of compassion among people who love dogs that it’s hard for them to understand when someone doesn’t feel the same way,” Dr. Zand says. “People become biased by their own preferences.”

He compares this to someone who loves snakes and struggles to understand why others fear them. “There’s also the whole dog-versus-cat thing,” he says, “where cats are seen as more fight-or-flight and dogs as more affectionate. That’s not always accurate, but that dichotomy pushes people to choose a camp.”

Dichotomies — black/white, good/bad, dog/no dog — can be useful mental shortcuts. They help us organize the world quickly and feel like we understand it. But they also strip away nuance and in doing so, they can be more alienating than illuminating.

As Dr. Zand points out, this tendency has been intensifying. “Right now, societally, we’re very divided,” he says. “This mirrors a lot of what’s happening elsewhere, where we’re encouraged to pick teams.”

And once we’ve picked a team, reactions to the “other side” tend to become stronger, more emotional, and less charitable, often far beyond what the situation actually warrants.

Making the leap from ‘doesn’t like dogs’ to ‘bad person’

If someone is not a dog person, that doesn’t make them bad, just as liking dogs does not make them good. History — and daily life — offer no shortage of examples of cruel or destructive people who adored their pets.

Most people know this, at least intellectually. Still, jokes suggesting otherwise are common and often socially accepted. I was reminded of this when a psychologist I contacted as a potential source for this story responded to my interview request by saying that she was herself a dog lover and that anyone who didn’t like dogs was “obviously crazy.” When I expressed concern about her statement, she stopped replying to my emails.

In another context, if I had approached the topic of this story differently, she might not have said what she did. Maybe she assumed I would agree with her, or that I’d recognize it as a joke and we’d share a laugh before getting down to work. But the truth is, I felt caught off guard by her flippant response. And it struck me how easy it is — even for someone trained to know better — to dismiss and belittle another person’s preferences, especially when they differ from their own.

She may have been joking, but those jokes don’t always feel harmless. “Getting called ‘psychopath’ and ‘a bad person’ for disliking dogs is tiring,” writes one Reddit user, who responds by judging dog lovers just as harshly in return.

That escalation is understandable, but it’s also a symptom of the same problem.

Psychopathy, for the record, has nothing to do with dogs. When people use terms like “psychopath” or “sociopath,” they are actually referring to an antisocial personality disorder. Dr. Zand defines this as “someone who lacks remorse and often grew up in a fear-based environment where they weren’t given love, comfort, compassion, support, safety, or security. They learn early on that no one is there for them but themselves.”

Conflating that diagnosis with a pet preference isn’t just inaccurate; it trivializes real trauma. And when harmful ideas are framed as jokes, they have a way of slipping into our subconscious, shaping how we see others. First we laugh, then we categorize, and eventually we dismiss.

Sitting with difference

If disliking dogs isn’t a reliable indicator of someone’s character, then why does it provoke such a strong reaction in so many people?

According to Dr. Zand, that reaction often has less to do with dogs than with self-judgment. “Judgment usually reflects self-judgment,” he says. When we feel secure in who we are and what we value, we’re less likely to feel threatened by difference. But when our sense of identity is tightly bound to certain beliefs or preferences, encountering someone who doesn’t share them can feel unsettling.

It’s at this point that we stop being curious about the person in front of us. We stop asking where someone else might be coming from and we start filling in the blanks with assumptions that often say more about us than about them.

“It’s hypocritical to put people in camps and make them feel bad when really what we’re talking about is being empathetic, affectionate, and connecting,” Dr. Zand says. For that reason, the question isn’t whether disliking dogs is a red flag. Instead, we need to ask whether we can sit with difference — especially when it challenges something we cherish — without turning it into a verdict on someone else’s humanity. 

You know who would be great at that? A dog.