09 May Dog Jealousy: Causes, Symptoms, & Treatment

It has long been said that dogs are man’s best friend, and according to a new study in the United States, dogs seem to be trying to keep this intimate relationship and are “jealous” of it. Two things are essential for dogs: food and attention; So it’s perfectly normal for them to show behaviours that they want to have all of this for themselves. In fact, the feeling we know as dog jealousy is defined differently from our jealousy in humans. Their jealousy is a kind of resources protection. The point is, your “voice, touch, and attention” are three things that dogs take for granted and naturally want all of these resources to be their own. 

Reasons for dog jealousy

The dog jealousy symptoms are different: Basically, jealousy behaviours are caused by these factors:

• New daily schedule:

You should always have a specific daily schedule for your dog and stick to it. Changing the schedule makes the dog feel insecure and causes jealousy. It’s also very true in human relations; Every morning at 4.30 am, you texted your friend and said “I love you”, don’t do this for a day to feel insecure and is jealous. So don’t change the program.

• Change house, neighbourhood or city
• A new person enters your home
• A new pet arrives at your home
• The birth of a baby

Experimenting:

All mammals have the same nervous system, so they’re able to express similar emotions. There’s a part in the brain that controls emotions such as excitement, anger, sadness and jealousy. This part causes dogs to experience a simple jealousy feeling.

Christine Harris, a researcher and psychiatrist at the California University, Berkeley, has designed an experiment on dogs’ jealousy feelings. In this experiment, 36 small dogs were monitored, and their owners were asked to dislodge their dog and do these three things:

• Pretend to show love to a fake dog that moves and wags its tail,
• Pretend they love an empty pumpkin with a lamp inside
• While they are indifferent to their dog, they start reading a children’s book aloud.

At this point, the researchers monitored the dogs’ behaviour toward their owners. Harris found that 80% of dogs respond to their owners, touch and push their owner when they express love to a fake dog. In fact, dogs don’t like this and are jealous. Dogs show this behaviour almost twice as often as when their owners loved pumpkins four times as long as they read children’s books.

One-third of the dogs tried to put themselves between their owner and the fake dog, and a quarter of the dogs attacked the fake dog. Only one of the dogs reacted to the pumpkin and the book and barked at them. However, in this experiment, the dogs tried to behave so that they could regain the love and attention they had previously received.

Signs of dog jealousy

Jealousy in dogs has different symptoms. These signs and symptoms are different in each breed, and their severity depends on the type of training. Some of these symptoms include:

• violence

Your dog may show jealousy of you or a rival pet by biting, grunting, barking and showing violence.

• Attention

Your dog may attract your attention by licking and petting you. Your dog wants to show himself by doing various tricks that you will see him.

• Sudden actions

Dogs in these situations may do sudden actions to attract attention or even show dissatisfaction.

• Leaving the place

If your dog is weak, he may leave the room or the place; Because it bothers him. Hiding, not being in that place or ignoring you are the ways to show jealousy in dogs.

•  Self-harm

Some dogs may injure themselves to attract attention. Scratching and biting a part of their body are the most common symptoms of jealousy in dogs.

• Ignoring food

If your pet keeps his food dish intact, it shows that he’s dissatisfied with the presence of a competitor in that place and has shown his jealousy.

Dog jealousy treatments

• Command training

Try to keep your dog entertained. So prepare your dog’s favourite tricks, then start learning new commands and games. With learning, his mind and body are involved in positive activity. Commands like (don’t! And sleep!) Are great. One of the advantages of sleep command is that we teach the animal over time that “you can spend time alone and enjoy yourself. It’s perfectly normal. You don’t have to be with me forever.”

• Pay attention to behaviour.

A dog often does a lot of behaviour; we thought he was funny, and we paid a lot of attention to him. When you come home from outside, and your dog runs towards you, overcome your temptation and don’t hug him. Go very normal and get to work. Once he has done the right thing, you can pay attention to him and pet him. The important thing is that you shouldn’t give any treats, encouragement or caresses to your dog for free. Only give them to your dog whenever they have done the right thing. Always tell your dog to sit down and stay before eating and treating! 

• Find new friends

Dogs have a special feeling about their home and yard, as well as you. So take your dogs to new places like the beach or the park and introduce them to a new dog friend. Let him play with his friend in these places. Love your dog.

• Giving a sense of security

In fact, by showing jealousy, dogs want to regain their lost security. Your dog may bark and scare your friend when you meet them. You can give your dog a sense of security by petting, loving and playing.

• Don’t differentiate between pets.

If you have more than one pet, try not to discriminate between your pets. Pets also need attention and love. Failure to do so can cause your dog to become upset and jealous. When feeding pets, try to use separate containers to feel that you have differentiated between them. It’s better never to let your dog feel that you are differentiating between him and other animals.

Naturally, no dog likes to see his owner playing with another dog. Your dog may show jealousy by pushing the animal to the other side or wagging his tail. If you have more than one pet, be sure to pay equal attention to them so that one pet doesn’t feel inferior. If you feel the behaviour is getting out of control, see a vet or behaviourist for guidance. Mishka’s specialized team will be with you at all steps of grooming, training and caring for your beloved dogs.