Study Finds Dogs Get Jealous When They Imagine Their Owners Are Interacting With Other Animals

Dogs are devoted companions who offer unwavering loyalty to their humans, and even New research has revealed the full extent of her inner green-eyed monster.

The owners’ anecdotal evidence is now backed up by scientists who have found that these pets become jealous when their human pats another dog.

But the study, published in the journal Psychological science, also found that dogs can become jealous by imagining their owner teasing another dog, even though they cannot see the interaction.

“The research confirmed what many dog ​​owners firmly believe: Dogs exhibit jealous behavior when their human companion interacts with a potential rival,” explained Amalia Bastos, lead author of the study, from the University of Auckland, adding: “We wanted to dig deeper into this behavior. To see if dogs could, like humans, mentally represent a situation that causes jealousy.

Scientists are interested in the study of jealousy in animals because it is linked to a certain degree of self-awareness, which is a complex cognitive trait that is not observed in all species.

As part of a study, 18 dogs and their owners were recruited and brought to a room. In this room, there was a cylinder of fleece -fibre- or a very realistic artificial dog.

The animals, still on a leash, saw their owners stroke the fake dog and then a screen was placed between the animal and the person so that the dog could not see the rival or its owner..

Researchers looked at canine behavior at this point and saw the animals pull hard on the leash and express telltale signs of jealousy, such as growls and a restless appearance.

This, the researchers say, meant that even though the dogs couldn’t see their human pouring love and care into a rival, they had the mental capacity to imagine it and, as a result, became jealous..

For the fiber-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 behave jealously,” Bastos analyzed.

They also provide the first evidence that dogs can mentally trigger jealousy-inducing social interactions.

“Previous studies have confused jealous behavior with play, interest or aggression because they have never tested the reactions of dogs towards the owner. and the social rival who is present in the same room but does not interact ”.

And I add: “Much remains to be done to establish the extent of the similarities between the minds of humans and other animals., especially in terms of understanding the nature of the emotional experiences of non-human animals ”.

It’s too early to tell if dogs experience jealousy like us, but it’s now clear that they are reacting to situations that prompt them, even if they happen out of sight.

KEEP READING: