People become attached to lots of inanimate items, and can feel emphathy for robots [1] [2], though perhaps not as strongly as with living creatures. US Military soldiers can develop an emotional connection with bomb disposal robots. [3]

I definitely sympathize with this dog-like robot slipping on ice:

https://youtu.be/W1czBcnX1Ww?t=1m23s

Even though it's clearly a robot with no attempt to make it look or act like a dog.

I can definitely believe that people can become attached, even fall in love with, their robot dogs.

[1] https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/human-empathy-for-robot...

[2] http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/05/02/robot_hum...

[3] https://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/military-robots...