‘He chose the dog over me’: the pets that ruined relationships – from pups interrupting sex to aggressive pigs

For some owners, animals are part of the family. But for their friends and lovers, they can present a serious problem

The dog was already on the scene when Jane and her partner got together – this was a man-plus-dog package. But Jane, a Brit living in Barcelona, didn’t foresee the problems. “I’m not a dog person, but I’m not averse to them,” she says, speaking to me from Catalonia. “I innocently thought they were a cute addition to one’s life, not something that would take priority over holidays, nights out, plans to live together as a couple, or where that could be. His dog was the source of all our tensions.”

The dog – medium-sized, female, part husky, part something else – was a prickly, difficult character. She barked a lot, couldn’t be left with others, and would destroy soft furnishings, and so wasn’t welcome in Jane’s tastefully furnished apartment. “It mattered less with his crappy sofa, but I paid €2,000 for mine, I did not want it ripped to pieces.”