April 16, 2021 – Sure, your pooch loves you and you love her. But do dogs also show some of the negative side effects of deep love, such as jealousy?
A study published in Psychological Science says yes. The researchers found that dogs will go so far as to show jealousy even if they can only imagine their owners interacting with a potential rival.
The researchers placed 18 dogs in situations in which their human companion interacted with a fake dog or a fleece cylinder. The top hat served as a control, the wrong dog as a rival.
The dogs watched as the wrong dog was put next to the owner. Then a barrier was put in place to prevent the real dog from seeing the wrong dog.
The dogs pulled hard on the leash when the owners appeared to be petting the wrong dog behind the barrier. The dogs pulled with far less force than the owners stroked the fleece cylinder.
“The research has confirmed what many dog owners firmly believe – dogs display jealous behavior when their human companion interacts with a potential rival,” said Amalia Bastos of the University of Auckland in New Zealand, who was the lead author of the paper.
In previous research, 80% of dog owners said that their pets would display jealous behavior, such as: B. Barking and pulling on the leash when paying attention to other dogs, the study says.
The new study says dogs are one of the few species to display jealous behaviors, just like a human child might do when their mother shows affection to another child.
“In humans, jealousy is closely related to self-esteem, which is one reason animal recognition researchers are so interested in studying jealousy and other secondary emotions in animals,” the study said.
Bartos said it was too early to conclude that dogs, like humans, are jealous, but “it is now clear that they respond to situations that cause jealousy, even when they are out of sight.”
A 2014 study at the University of California at San Diego found that puppies felt excited when their owners showed affection for a stuffed dog designed to bark, whine, and tail wag convincingly.
This jealous streak only appeared when owners were taking care of the stuffed dog and not when they were busy with random items.
WebMD Health News
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Psychological science: “Dogs act jealous even when they don’t see their rival.”
Public Science Library, press release, July 23, 2014.
University of California, San Diego, press release, July 23, 2014.
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