New research by scientists at the University of Milan has concluded that dogs may feel grief over the death of a canine family companion .
Veterinarian Federica Pirrone and her team recruited 426 people who had at least two dogs, one of which had died. They were asked to anonymously fill out a scientifically validated questionnaire about the behavior of surviving dogs after death. They also had to describe the relationship between the dogs and their own reaction to the pet’s death.
The researchers tested whether humans’ memories of their pets’ responses were affected by diminished memories of their own grief during grief, to make sure that behavioral memories were not similarly affected.
In most cases, owners noticed changes in their dogs after the death of the other animal. 86% of owners said their pet felt significantly more subdued or needy.
The most common behavior, reported by 67% of these humans, was an increase in attention seeking , followed by 57% reporting a decrease in playfulness , and 46% reporting a decrease in all activity. surviving pet activity 35% of owners reported spending more time sleeping and being more fearful, 32% reported less appetite, and 30% reported increased whining or barking.
“These results indicate that a dog may display bereavement-related emotional and behavioral patterns when a close conspecific dies, and that some aspects of the latter may be related to the emotional state of the owner,” the team led by Dr. Pyrrone.
For those who have a dog, this may not be a great novelty, since they know of the rich emotional life that their pet possesses. However, the scientific exploration and documentation of these emotional lives is relatively recent.
The duel is a particularly interesting event that could give clues to animal cognition , since it is a subjective experience. Understanding how our dogs experience it would also help us better attend to their needs on an emotional level.
Grief behaviors have been seen in animals such as elephants, dolphins, and non-human primates . As for dogs, there is very little scientific literature on the subject. Rare cases have been observed in nature, and there is no documented evidence of mourning in our domestic friends.
Of the dogs that were in mourning, 93% had lived with their conspecific for more than a year, and 69% maintained a friendly relationship. Interestingly, the duration of cohabitation did not influence the behavior of the surviving dog.
The strength of the dogs’ relationship did have a lot to do with the behavior displayed by the grieving animal. If both animals got along well and the owner was very upset by the loss, the surviving dog was more likely to be more fearful, less interested in the activity and seek more attention from the human.
Despite everything that has been said, the researchers point out in the study that it is not possible to draw a firm conclusion saying that dogs suffer the death of their friends , since there are other factors that could influence the behavior of animals.
“Since the human-dog bond may have an effect on a dog’s perception of a dead conspecific [i.e., another dog], it would be difficult to attribute a specific pattern, if any, of exploration,” they write in their Article.
“Not only can anthropomorphism play a role in attributing a specific function to the behavior of dogs, but care for a deceased individual could also occur as a result of increased attention from owners. Not surprisingly, it can also considered an emotional contagion, since stress seems to spread between dogs and owners. Our results might suggest that dogs respond to the “loss” of an affiliate, rather than their “death” per se.”
Reference: Uccheddu, S., Ronconi, L., Albertini, M. et al. Domestic dogs (Canis familiaris) grieve over the loss of a conspecific. Sci Rep 12, 1920 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05669-y
