YOUR DROOLING IMAGE STUDY FINDS DOGS DO LOOK LIKE OWNERS.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

She wore the angular look of the ex-ballerina, much like her sinewy Saluki.

He bore the jowly brunt of the big man, much like his muscular mastiff.

A doglike coincidence?

Not at all, say researchers, who claim to have proved the dog-eared maxim that dog owners do, in fact, resemble their Fidos.

``Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's mellow, so am I,'' joked Toby Grable, 44, a 290-pound, extreme paintball clown from Arleta, scratching his South African mastiff, Bruce, a mere pup pushing 130 pounds. Both share wide-set faces and furrowed brows.

``Big guys like big dogs - I can't see myself owning a Chihuahua.''

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have concluded that when people pick a dog, they tend to choose one that looks like them.

But while purebreds proved the closest match to their owners, mixed- breed look-alikes went to the dogs.

``As far as I can tell, no one has addressed this basic question: Do dogs look like their owners?'' said psychology professor Nicholas J.S. Christenfeld, co-author of the study just published in Psychological Science.

``In every case (the match) is slightly different - in some cases, a goofy smile, in others, a certain forward and friendly look. It's kind of hard to put your finger on.''

The UCSD researchers chose three San Diego dog parks and randomly photographed 45 dogs and their owners. They then asked 28 undergraduate judges to study mug shots of dog owners and a choice of two dogs.

In two out of three picks, judges matched dog owners and their pedigreed pets. Of the 25 purebred dogs, students linked 16 owners and missed nine.

Mutts were less conclusive. Out of 20 curs, there were seven matches, four ties and nine misses.

Conclusion: Dog owners tend to select purebred animals that, at some level, grow up to look like them. Mongrels, plucked willy-nilly from the pound, can grow up to look like anyone.

Both findings suggest that dog owners find best friends who resemble them, rather than grow to resemble each other - like married couples - over time.

A visit to the Sepulveda Basin Off-Leash Dog Park in Encino this week found some uncanny connections on both ends of the leash.

A white-haired man walks his Samoyed, its fur as bleached as the Siberian snow. A goateed gent lazes by his beagle, whose muzzle has begun to turn gray. An auburn-haired woman fawns over her Pomeranian, whose locks look like they've been borrowed from his owner.

Sometimes the resemblance is a hard-to-define je ne sais quoi.

``We do have long, thin faces,'' said Linda Good, 67, of Sherman Oaks, a former ballerina whose sharp features bore a remarkable resemblance to Nandi, her purebred Saluki.

``I wish I were this skinny. But he is idealized. I used to be in ballet, so I admire his long-legged bones.''

Bill Clark said he's always believed that dog owners resemble their animals. He and his Samoyed, Babe, were made for one another.

``No doubt about it,'' said Clark, 59, of Chatsworth, with an uproarious laugh. ``We're both pretty sweet, and we both have white hair. This dog suits me - he matches me in every way.''

Michael and Alene Sebel concurred. Their dog, Chacha, is a spunky golden retriever-chow mix, a perfect fit for Alene.

``Alene resembles her with her hair, her smile, and they're both hamming in front of the camera,'' said Michael Sebel, 39, of Reseda.

But Bob Hyams, who has a generous schnoz, can't agree with his wife, Celia, whether he shares the beak of his German shepherd, Sandy III.

``I don't look like my dog,'' said Hyams, 74, of Van Nuys, in a thick cockney accent.

``No, your nose and eyes are the same,'' Celia, 63, insisted. ``(But) the dog has a much better temperament - (you're) getting grouchy with old age.''

Tien Nguyen doesn't think he looks like his dog, Job, a Doberman-Dalmatian rescue dog, either.

``I think it's more a personality mix,'' said Nguyen, 41, of North Hills. ``If you love animals, you let animals pick you, not the other way around.''

Though Jonathon Norton, 23, raised an eyebrow about a match between him and Oliver, a sheltie-whippet mix, his girlfriend apparently didn't.

``Maybe it's the eyebrows,'' said Norton, who just moved this month to the San Fernando Valley and intends on making it in Hollywood. ``She's starting to say I look like him. She said I whine, like my dog.''

In the breeze under a pepper tree, in the small-dog section, sat 81-year- old Len Cowen, a goateed dog-park regular with a fondness for Greek fisherman's caps.

``This is Beagletown, this is Beagle City,'' declared Cowen of Van Nuys. Next to him sat Jake, his 6-year-old beagle-basset hound mix with some plumpness to his rump.

``He's starting to get a little white along the muzzle'' - just like me,'' he joked. ``Girth? We're both getting girthy, earthy-girthy.''

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com

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(1 -- 12 -- color) Dogs...

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MATCH GAME

A new study found that many dogs resemble their owners, but is that really the case? See if you can match each pet, below, with his or her owner. Then turn to Page 4 in the Business section to see if you were right.

Photos by Tina Burch/Graphics by Gregg Miller