犬{いぬ}も食{く}わない having a connotation of getting involved in a lover's spat?


In SAO Progressive (2nd movie), Asuna and Kirito are arguing, and Kirito asks
Argo to weigh in. Argo responds "犬｛いぬ｝も食｛く｝わない物｛もの｝に関｛かか｝わる気｛き｝はないよ～", which
is officially translated as "Don't pull me into your couple's quarrel." And
then Kirito and Asuna, in tandem, react stunned/indignant seemingly at being
called a "couple" (asuna says "へーッ？！" [translated as "Huh?"], and kirito says
"いぬ？！" [which gets translated as "Couple?"]).

Clip: <https://i.imgur.com/sGvYSbf.mp4>

[![Couple's Quarrel
image](https://i.stack.imgur.com/50epx.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/50epx.png)
[![Indignant to being called
couple](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Yx91f.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Yx91f.png)

But here's the thing: the actual phrase doesn't seem to be coded to references
couples in particular to me. To also throw a weird wrench into the mix,
[jisho.org says](https://jisho.org/search/inumokuwanai) that it simply refers
to something that everyone would avoid/dislike, but then goes on to use, as an
example, a lover's spat.

So I'm wondering: is a lover's spat something that's strongly coded
into/implied by the expression, or can it be used much more widely, and
doesn't particularly imply a lover's spat?




Some monolingual dictionaries (e.g. 三省堂国語辞典 第八版) list 夫婦げんかは犬も食わない as an
idiom, and this is where 犬も食わない is used almost exclusively other than about
foods.




Some monolingual dictionaries (e.g. 三省堂国語辞典 第八版) list 夫婦げんかは犬も食わない as an
idiom, and this is where 犬も食わない is used almost exclusively other than about
foods.

