Even DOGS get jealous! Puppies show jealous behavior when they just imagine their owner interacting with another dog, research shows
- Scientists have studied 18 dogs and their owners to see how jealous the dog gets
- They saw their human near a fake dog and then were separated by a screen
- Even if the dog couldn’t see its owner, they showed signs of jealousy
- This proves that dogs have the ability to imagine their owner stroking another dog and getting jealous
Dogs are devoted companions who offer unshakeable loyalty to their people, but new research has uncovered the full extent of their inner green-eyed monster.
Anecdotal evidence from owners is now supported by scientists who have found that pet pooches get jealous when their human pats another dog.
But research has also shown that dogs can become jealous by imagining their owner is bothering another dog, even if they can’t see the interaction.
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Anecdotal evidence from owners is now supported by scientists who have found that pet pooches get jealous when their human pats another dog (stock)
“Research has supported what many dog owners firmly believe: Dogs display jealous behavior when their human companion interacts with a potential rival,” said lead author Amalia Bastos of the University of Auckland.
“We wanted to study this behavior more fully to determine whether dogs, like humans, could mentally represent a situation that aroused jealousy.”
Scientists are interested in studying jealousy in animals because it is linked to a degree of self-awareness, a complex cognitive trait not common to all species.
As part of a study, 18 dogs and their owners were recruited and placed in a room. In that room there was either a fleece cylinder or a very realistic artificial dog.
Research has shown that dogs can get jealous by imagining their owner is bothering another dog, even if they can’t see the interaction (stock)
The pets, still on a leash, saw their owners pet the fake dog and then a screen was placed between the pet and the person so that the dog could not see the rival or their owner.
Researchers observed the dog’s behavior at this point and saw that the pets pulled hard on the leash and showed telltale signs of jealousy, such as growling and appearing excited.
This, the researchers say, means that while the dogs couldn’t see their human pouring out love and attention on a rival, they had the mental ability to imagine it and became jealous as a result.
For the fleece-lined cylinder, the dogs were much less jealous, indicating that their jealousy is reserved only for things they see as a threat.
“These results support claims that dogs display jealous behavior,” said Bastos.
They also provide the first evidence that dogs can represent mental jealousy-inducing social interactions.
“Previous studies have confused jealous behavior with play, interest, or aggression because they never tested the dogs’ responses to the owner and social rival who were in the same room but didn’t interact.”
“There is still a lot of work to be done to determine the degree of similarity between the minds of humans and other animals, especially in understanding the nature of the emotional experiences of non-human animals,” she adds.
“It is too early to say whether dogs experience jealousy the way we do, but it is now clear that they respond to jealousy-provoking situations, even when out of sight.”
The full findings are published in the journal Psychological Science.