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A video of a dog appearing to want attention after a woman is seen kissing a toy doll has gone viral on TikTok, amassing some 4.3 million views.
The video, shared by the TikTok account @miniaturepinscherlili, shows a miniature pinscher moving its right ear towards a woman next to it as she is seen kissing the doll. The clip was shared with a post that simply read: "Kiss Time 2 [kiss emoji]."
As adorably attention-seeking as the dog in the latest video may appear to be, do dogs really get jealous?
A September 2012 study published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One found that "dogs exhibited significantly more jealous behaviors"—such as snapping, getting between the owner and object, pushing/touching the object/owner—when their owners "displayed affectionate behaviors towards what appeared to be another dog as compared to nonsocial objects."
The study said: "These results lend support to the hypothesis that jealousy has some ''primordial' form that exists in human infants and in at least one other social species besides humans."
A January 2015 study in the peer-reviewed journal Behavioural Processes, which saw dogs be presented with scents (that of a familiar human, strange human, familiar dog, strange dog and themselves), provided "important clues about the importance of humans in dogs' lives."
The study found that only the "familiar human" scent activated the caudate nucleus, which is the "reward center" of a dog's brain.
The study said that while the olfactory bulb (the part of a dog's brain that processes smells) was "activated to a similar degree by all the scents, the caudate was activated maximally to the familiar human," and suggested that "not only did the dogs discriminate that scent from the others, [but] they had a positive association with it."
The dog in the latest viral video has melted the hearts of TikTokers.
In a comment that got 3,276 likes, user donkeyhotay_ wrote: "Aww. That baby loves you. This is wonderful. [floating hearts smiley face emoji]."
User jayden wrote: "this is how much attention i need," while Tina simply said: "That ear [crying floods of tears emoji]."
User sylviashirleygrace said "@Your baby loves you so much so sweet [floating hearts smiley face emojis]" and user8012826218459 added: "This is adorable[floating hearts smiley face emoji]."
Newsweek has contacted the original poster for comment. The latest video has not been independently verified.
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
About the writer
Soo Kim is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. She covers various lifestyle stories, specializing in Read more