Dogs can become so attached to particular toys they display behaviour that would be associated with addictions such as gambling and internet gaming in humans, researchers have said.
According to a study of 105 dogs published in Scientific Reports this month, when certain dogs were deprived of their toys, they became so fixated on what they’d lost that their blood pressure increased and they ignored everything else.
The Austrian veterinary researchers behind the study described this behaviour as a compulsive engagement with a specific activity regardless of any negative consequences.
Before this study, there was only anecdotal evidence to suggest that dogs had addiction-like behaviour towards toys that was similar to human addictions, the researchers said.
Stefanie Riemer, one of the authors of the study, said: “It’s a very commonly known phenomenon in kind of the dog world that dogs are called ball junkies.”
“The term ‘junkie’ suggests addiction, but is it merely a figure of speech, or does it hold some truth?” pondered Riemer, a behavioral biologist at Vienna’s University of Veterinary Medicine.