New Study Shows You Better Not Play Favorites In Multi-Dog Households
While its been proven that dogs don’t feel guilty for behaviors which we often believe they do (getting into the trash or making a mess on the floor, for example), a new Austrian study now shows that our canines do experience and will respond to envy.
A group of researchers at the University of Vienna published a study that reports, in layman’s terms – dogs will get jealous if they feel that they are seeing anther dog being treated more favorably.
Photo by dregsplod
The study was composed of 14 dogs who were first – asked to “give paw” with no treats involved. The dogs happily shook hands with the researchers. However, when one dog received a treat for shaking and the dog next to him didn’t, the dog who was slighted often became agitated or stopped being willing to “give paw” altogether. If everyone got nothing, the dogs were happy, if everyone got something, the dogs were happy. As far as the treats go, they weren’t picky – small pieces of sausage and bread were used in the study. It didn’t seem to make a difference to the dogs if one got a bit of bread and the other got some meat. (when this study was conducted with Capuchin monkeys they cared! If one got a grape and the other got a cucumber, the veggie eater felt cheated!)
Photo by rob.acton
So what does this mean for us as dog owners? As a multi-dog owner myself, I always try and make things as fair as possible because…well, I guess I always thought my dogs would feel slighted if they each didn’t get a treat when they were behaving properly!
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