Even DOGS get jealous! Pups display envious behavior if they only imagine their owner is dealing with another pooch, the study finds
- Scientists studied 18 dogs and their owners to see how jealous the dog becomes
- They saw their man near a fake dog and were then divided by a screen
- Even when the dog could not see their owner, they showed signs of jealousy
- This proves that dogs have the ability to suggest that their owner caresses and becomes envious of another pooch
Dogs are dedicated companions who offer unwavering loyalty to their people, but new research has exposed the full extent of their inner green-eyed monster.
Anecdotal evidence from owners is now backed up by scientists who have found that pets get jealous when their people touch another dog.
But research has also found that dogs can become jealous by simply suggesting that their owner make another dog, even if they can not see the interaction.
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Anecdotal evidence from owners is now backed by scientists who have found that pets become jealous when their people touch another dog (stock).
“Research supports what many dog owners firmly believe – dogs show jealous behavior when their human companion interacts with a potential competitor,” said Auckland University lead author Amalia Bastos.
“We wanted to study this behavior more closely to determine if dogs, like humans, can mentally imagine a situation that evokes jealousy.”
Scientists are interested in studying jealousy in animals because it is linked to a degree of self-awareness, which is a complex cognitive trait not seen in all species.
As part of a study, 18 dogs and their owners were recruited and admitted to a room. In the room was a fleece cylinder or a very realistic artificial dog.
Research has found that dogs can become jealous by simply suggesting that their owner make another dog, even if they can not see the interaction (stock)
The pets, who are still at the forefront, saw their owners stroking the fake dog and then a screen is put up between pet and person so that the dog cannot see the competitor or their owner.
Researchers observed the dog behavior at this point and saw that the pets pulled hard to the forefront and expressed explicit signs of jealousy, such as making growls and looking rebellious.
This, according to the researchers, means that although the dogs could not see their human overwhelming love and attention on a competitor, they had the mental ability to imagine it and consequently become jealous.
For the membrane-filled cylinder, the dogs were much less jealous, indicating that their jealousy was reserved only for things they considered a threat.
“These results support claims that dogs exhibit jealous behavior,” Bastos said.
‘They also provide the first evidence that dogs can cause social interactions spiritually through jealousy.
“Previous studies have confused jealous behavior with play, interest, or aggression because they never tested the dogs’ responses to the owner and the social competitor in the same room, but did not interact.”
“There is still a lot of work to be done to determine the extent of the similarities between the thinking of humans and other animals, especially in terms of the nature of emotional experiences of non-human animals,” she adds.
“It is too early to say whether dogs like us experience jealousy, but it is now clear that they are responding to situations that are jealous, even if they are out of sight.”
The full findings are published in the journal Psychological Science.