Spite?

I've often wondered if dogs, or any animals for that matter, can be spiteful. Maggie has finally broken her stent of "you're leaving- I'm peeing on the floor" behavior (no- nothing wrong with her... ok, I take that back... nothing medically wrong with her-- no UTI's or anything like that... just nervous energy combined with a bit of separation anxiety.... I like to think of it as 'spite', though... anthroporphism at it's finest!). We've witnessed Maggie create a circle of chew toys and bones then sit in the center of the circle-- just to stand guard over 'her' toys... (once again-- it's a dominance thing.... she reminds me of a little kid at times, though).

Though the aforementioned examples aren't true examples of 'spiteful' behavior, what happened this past Friday very well might be.

A bit of background to set the stage....

Meet Junior. Junior is a year old basset hound.

He's adorable, extremely playful and definitely not your typical lazy basset hound. The girls love to 'torture' him with playing dress up or trying to cuddle him to death-- his tolerance seems limitless. Happy-go-lucky, floppy-eared, (at times annoying) lovable puppy.

Maggie and Junior have a love/hate relationship. She's a curmudgeony old three year old that tries to discipline the pup any chance she can get. The dynamic between these two is quite amusing.

Lately, we have been keeping Maggie off of the couch for her knee isues (something that she doesn't seem to understand) yet Junior is still allowed to carry out his usual couch-hogging behaviors.

Junior's got certain toys that are his favorite-- one of which being a cheap stuffed hedgehog. Lately the hedgehog (as pictured below) has received a lot of excessive attention from Junior-- we've been trying to limit 'play time' between him and Maggie (since 'play time' usually consists of Junior gnawing on her legs)....

This hedgehog (mind you- hedgehog #2.... #1 was decapitated by one of our foster dogs) has survived a few chewing injuries with multiple stuffing-repair surgeries and up until yesterday was just missing a nose, an ear and a squeaker.

Back to my thoughts on why dogs are spiteful...

Yesterday, I set foot in the doorway to witness hedgehog massacre of 2011. The massacre occured directly in front of Junior's crate. Maggie never plays with stuffed animals and has never ventured into the realm of plush toy destruction. Perfect case of anthropormorphism-- yes, I know... there's probably a behavioral reason why she decided to shred his favorite toy while he was crated and could do nothing about it.... but honestly... the thought of things playing out in a dramatic scene in which she is taunting him and eviscerating the stuffed love of his life seems more appealing.

Soon we'll be getting stuffed hedgehog #3.....