A dog may feel grief over the death of another dog living in the same household. This is what emerged from a study by the State University of Milan, conducted with the University of Padua and published in ‘Scientific Reports’, a journal of the Nature group.
The group coordinated by Federica Pirrone, a researcher in Veterinary Ethology at the Milanese university, interviewed over 400 people who had a dog dead, while there was at least one other at home. 86% observed negative changes in the surviving dog’s behavior after the other’s death, but only when the two dogs were linked by a particularly friendly relationship or even a parent-child relationship. These animals were more attention-seeking, ate and played less, and were, in general, less active than usual.
“From an ecological point of view – explains Pirrone – both affiliation and parental ties are important components of the natural social organization of free dogs and this also applies to house dogs. Social animals such as domestic dogs have a strong tendency to cooperate and synchronize their behaviors to maintain cohesion and be able to benefit from the advantages deriving from living together. This coordination – underlines the researcher – can be interrupted when a member of the group dies. Therefore the interruption of a social routine which, by virtue of of the strong affiliation that had arisen between the dog pairs in our study when both animals were alive could explain the changes observed in what survived after the fatal event. “
The owner’s reaction does not affect the animal
“Our study, for the first time in the scientific panorama – highlights Ines Testoni, director of the Master Death Studies & The End of Life of the University of Padua – simultaneously investigates the behaviors similar to mourning in dogs and the mourning of owners. Surprisingly, we noticed that the different ways of relating to animals and of representing their life / death by the owner did not appear to be related to the changes in the behavior of the dogs after the death of the conspecific. This is important – notes the expert – because it indicates that the owner, in describing these variations, was not simply projecting his pain onto his dog, and it is therefore more likely that the reported changes are real. “
The surviving dogs appeared more fearful after the death of the conspecific, and the emotional state of the owner may have weighed on this emotional change. The level of fear was in fact greater in surviving dogs whose owners showed more evident signs of suffering, anger and psychological trauma following the death of their pet.
Further studies, already underway at the research group, will show whether through these reactions the dogs are really responding to the death of a companion of their own species, or if the behavioral changes are only triggered by the loss, that is, by the simple separation from the latter. . “It is a goal that we set out to achieve quickly – Pirrone assures – Today millions of families in the world live with more than one dog. Knowing the behavioral reactions and emotions aroused by the death of a fellow dog is therefore fundamental because we it will allow us to recognize the emotional needs of many animals, who are actually at risk of suffering from the loss of a companion “.