Scientists reveal that dogs show jealousy and envy when their owner pays attention to other dogs.
Dogs can also feel jealous, and it is not surprising that they feel vulnerable and even envious when their owner takes care of another dog or devotes more attention to it. Those who live with these animals have always suspected this behavior, but now scientists have corroborated it. According to an interesting recent research that is explained below, jealousy is not exclusive to humans, since dogs are capable of experiencing it, and can show it with barking, growling, wagging its tail in an ostentatious way and even trying to get between the beloved person and potential canine rival.
Jealousy is a dog thing, too!
Dogs can be jealous when their owner cares for another dog.
The revelation will not surprise those who share their life with a dog : dogs (yes) can feel jealous, an emotion that is usually linked more to human feelings, sibling rivalries and even the third party in a love triangle. " Dogs engage in typically jealous behaviors and may even try to break the connection between their owners and potential canine rivals , when they detect it as a threat," says psychologist Christine Harris , from the University of San Diego and specialized in emotions, who has studied this feeling of insecurity in dogs.
The research team coordinated by Harris has analyzed the behavior of 36 dogs of different breeds and mongrels. The scientists were able to verify that the dogs feel indifferent when their owners read aloud a book with pop-ups (three - dimensional, designed for human babies), which emits noises and melodies. However, their behavior tends to change dramatically when their owners' attention is directed towards stuffed animals in the shape of dogs . When the owners pretend to take care of this stuffed animal, their dogs bark, wag their tail ostentatiously, and some even growl or try to get between the doll and its beloved human companions.
The dog may be jealous for us
"We can't really speak for dogs, but it seems that with this behavior, the dog seeks to protect a social relationship that is important to him - the same feeling that motivates jealousy, " adds Harris. The results of his research have been published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE .
Dogs exhibit more jealous behaviors (growling, barking , getting between the loved one and their potential canine rival, pushing while competing, etc.), when their owners show protective attitudes towards what appears to be another dog (80%), than when they do it with inert objects such as a book that emits noise (12%).
The dog can feel jealous for his master : envy for fear of becoming the third in a peculiar love triangle, with canine and human vertices. Jealousy appears when attention is paid to another dog perceived as a competitor, a sentiment that suggests dogs may have a more complex emotional life than some skeptics would like to admit.
Can dogs be as jealous as some people?
This possibility of experiencing strong emotions, moreover, could dismantle the idea that jealousy is only experienced by the most sophisticated humans : dogs, like many people who share their lives with them already suspected, can become very jealous. Ie if the dogs talk and cogieran -handed to his master with another dog, might well say, "Hey, I've seen you with another!"
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"I do not doubt that the feeling of jealousy in humans is a complex emotion, but knowing that dogs are also jealous makes us understand that this feeling has to do with the existing bond with the loved one , with trying to break the connection between her and the one who is perceived as a rival, "adds the scientist.
So, can dogs feel jealous the same way as people? "Just as we no longer doubt that mammals that share the same neural base with dogs feel complex emotions, such as shame or guilt , it is interesting to know that dogs can also feel jealous", concludes ecologist Marc Bekoff, of the University of Colorado, and author of reference manuals in the world of canine behavior, such as' Why do dogs ride us and bees get depressed ?