Jealous Hound Protests Against Not Being The Center Of Attention

Have you heard the story of the jealous dog? Frankly, neither have we, although some breeds are actually famous for their jealous reactions. Some of those dogs won’t even let you pet a stuffed animal on a shelf somewhere, let alone another animal! Aren’t they enough for you? Well, this is one such dog.Show more

This rescued walker hound cannot fathom why he isn't the center of attention, relentlessly barking at another dog currently in the spotlight. His caretakers cannot help but laugh about it!
If we talk about human jealousy, then by this word we most likely mean a certain conscious emotional reaction to the subject. In the case of dogs, this is a response, conditioned by certain actions of a person. That is, jealousy is a learned behavior and not the conscious choice of the dog.

People say that, over time, dogs start to resemble their owners, both in looks and in behavior. Whether it’s the animals that start imitating their humans, or the humans start to identify themselves with their dogs, it doesn’t matter, there are hundreds of videos online where dogs show human emotion, like this hound barking at another dog for stealing his limelight.

You probably noticed that quite often, when one of the dogs comes to the owner to get a dose of affection, the other one approaches too and wedges in between. It is believed that the dog "requires its share of affection". If the dog does this regularly, you can call it a jealous dog. Quite often, such a dog is jealous not only of the owner, but also of toys, and even a cozy armchair. In most cases, of the two dogs, one is noticeably more jealous than the other. Many zoologists would put the word "jealousy" in quotation marks on the grounds that such behavior, in their opinion, has little to do with human jealousy. I will not do this, and that's why.

When a dog is jealous of an owner or a toy, we are dealing with a typical case of unstable dominance-submission relationships between dogs. A jealous dog claims to be a leader, that is, a preferential right to enjoy certain goods, one of which is the owner's caress. But these claims are not recognized unconditionally, and they use any occasion to show: "I'm more important, you have to scratch my ear, this is my ball, I have the right to sleep in the chair." When relations are firmly established and the rights are properly distributed, the leader does not feel the need for constant self-affirmation. And he or she can be very condescending to subordinates, very often allowing them to take advantage of life’s benefits. And the subordinates use them with caution, not giving the leader reasons for displeasure. In short, as we said earlier, dog’s behavior imitates man’s. In people, jealousy is also a complement of insecurity in its right to possess. The more confident the person feels, the less he is prone to jealousy.

If you love dogs as much as we do, share this video on social media or tell us a story of your beloved four-legged pal in the comment section below. And remember: dogs rule!