Is your partner picking a fight? At least the dog's on your side

Dogs that watch their owners argue will try to ‘console’ the person they think is the victim while avoiding the aggressor, a new study suggests.

Researchers also found that the pets showed stress-related behaviour when witnessing the row, even though it wasn’t aimed at them.

The team studied 23 dogs of different breeds, including a Siberian husky, border collie, poodle and dachshund. They then asked two members of each household to pretend to quarrel in their own home while their pet watched.

The owners both tried to grab an object placed between them, before the ‘aggressor’ started yelling at the ‘victim’, taking possession of the item, staring angrily and waving their arm. 

Afterwards, in the ‘post-conflict stage’, both owners sat down without looking at each other. The researchers videoed the scenes so they could analyse the animals’ behaviour.

‘During the conflict stage dogs gazed more at the victims than the aggressors, and stayed close to them, which are so-called affiliative behaviours,’ said lead researcher

Dr Mariana Bentosela, from Buenos Aires University in Argentina.

‘During the post-conflict stage, dogs preferred to approach the victim first rather than approaching the aggressor.

‘Also, they showed a lower rate of contact with the aggressor, which can be interpreted as avoidance.’

Dr Bentosela and her team suggested that dogs see humans as part of their group and that alleviating the victim’s discomfort, may be a ‘conflict management strategy that favours group cohesion’ and is an ‘essential part of their bond with humans’.

Dogs watching the arguments also showed more stress-related behaviours such as crouching, ears down, breathing rapidly through their opened mouth, tail down or yawning.

It could be that the dogs were experiencing ‘emotional contagion’ from the humans or be afraid the aggression would be redirected at them, the researchers wrote in their study, published in the journal Ethology.