Abstract. Men may have evolved to specialize in short-term "cad" and long-term "dad" mating strategies. We hypothesized that dog ownership would increase the long-term attractiveness of men, especially for cads, as this would signal nurturance and suggest tendencies for relationship commitment. Women read vignettes in an experiment with four conditions varying by male mating strategy described (dad vs. cad) and dog ownership (yes vs. no mention). Dog ownership and the dad vignette increased ratings of long-term attractiveness. Higher ratings of long-term attractiveness for cads were mediated by lower ratings of the character on tendencies for a short-term mating strategy.Keywords: costly signal, dogs, life history, male attractiveness, mate selection Male mating strategies DRAPER and BELSKY (1990) propose that men have evolved to specialize in either short-term "cad" or long-term "dad" mating strategies. Cads invest relatively more effort in mating and less in parenting compared to dads: they are highly competitive, socially dominant, and brave. Such traits make them attractive for short-term relationships cross-culturally (DRAPER and BELSKY 1990;KRUGER, FISHER and JOBLING 2003;LI and KENRICK 2006), perhaps because of their phenotypic and behavioral features signaling 'good genes' (GANGESTAD and SIMPSON 2000). Dads, on the other hand, invest more effort in parenting and less in mating. They attract women because they are compassionate, kind, romantic, and industrious, demonstrating the ability and willingness to invest in the relationship and potential children. These traits make them attractive for long-term relationships cross-culturally