How to Make Your Dog Jealous

[n2doc]

By Alex B. Berezow

My best friend from childhood had two beautiful dogs, a German shepherd named Sari and an Australian shepherd named Chloe. Living on a large pasture in the Midwestern countryside, the dogs were both mellow and incredibly well-behaved... that is, until my friend and I decided to mess with them. No, we didn't engage in dog shaming (see photo above); instead, we did something much more ruthless.

Sari, the German shepherd, had a bit of a jealous side. Even if she had been petted first, Sari had a strict zero tolerance policy toward affection for Chloe. She simply could not tolerate bearing witness to Chloe being petted. If she saw it, she would try to wedge herself into the situation and steal attention from Chloe. Realizing the mischief we could make, my friend and I would simultaneously pet Chloe -- complete with ostentatious adulation -- causing Sari to go ballistic. She would whine and bark and bite at Chloe. On at least one occasion, we instigated a fight.

Cruel? Yes. But, little did we know that, scientifically, we were way ahead of our time. A new study in PLoS ONE has confirmed the existence of jealousy in dogs. And the authors' methods were frighteningly similar to ours.

The team recruited 36 dogs and their owners. The owners were told to ignore their own dog while they (1) played with a stuffed toy dog that barked and wagged its tail; (2) played with a jack-o-lantern as if it were a dog; and (3) read aloud from a children's book. Conditions #2 and #3 served as controls. Condition #2 determined if simply showing affection to anything other than the dog elicited a jealous response; Condition #3 examined if ignoring the dog caused jealousy. The dogs were videotaped, and their behavior was assessed:



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http://www.realclearscience.com/journal_club/2014/07/23/how_to_make_your_dog_jealous_108754.html

[chrisstopher]

1. I only hope there was no government funding involved.

I've known that all my life.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Yup. We've got a pair of beagles.

If the male is getting attention, petting, snuggles, the female will always come in and shove herself in between and demand that she be the recipient, while the male is pushed off into doggie Siberia.

[lob1]

3. Dogs absolutely get jealous.

Just watch my dog when I play with my 3 year old grand daughter.

[BillZBubb]

4. Looks like dogs will put their tails up for any reason! nt.

[Kber]

5. My dog will come bounding into my lap if I call my cat.

My dog weighs 70 pounds.

[IrishAyes]

6. After my ex left and there were no kids in the house,

I got 2 more chow chows, my favorite dog breed. They had no particular jealousy problems between themselves because they were full sisters, littermates and I took them at 5 weeks. They just naturally found their own balance and didn't seem to mind sharing me. But even if they liked another person too, that person would never be allowed to stand between them and me. Nobody could. I kept them well controlled at all times, but I always felt very safe even when traveling 'alone', because they could turn on their wild dog act quickly enough. But they ate together, curled up to sleep together, and some people who saw them from a distance thought I had them chained together because they were seldom more than a foot or so away from each other.

I guess they could've been provoked to mutual jealousy, but I never believed in doing that. They were my family, to the point that when the vet finally came to the house to bury them for me, I turned away crying out that I wished he could throw me in there with them. You wouldn't want to know me for weeks after that, and I still cry when I look at their grave. They were placed as close together in death as they were in life.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. it is the same with cats. My male gets jealous when I give attention to my female who happens to be

his own sister.

[Vincardog]

8. My horse is jealous of any other animal I pay attention to.