Do dogs have feelings? Most people can read emotions in their dog quite easily. For example, you come home and your dog dances around wagging her tail, and you think to yourself, “Lady is happy to see me,” or “Lady really loves me.” Or perhaps you’re out on a walk and, at the approach of another canine, your dog freezes in place, his hackles raised, and gives a low throaty growl. We interpret this as “Rex does not like that dog. Seeing him makes Rex angry.” In such situations the emotional state of our dogs seems quite obvious. For this reason it is difficult for many people to understand that the existence of emotions in dogs was—and in some places still is—a point of scientific controversy.
Have you ever looked at your furry friend and wondered “what’s going on in that adorable head?” As a dog lover who’s spent countless hours observing my own pups I’ve always been fascinated by their emotional lives. Do they really feel guilty when they chew up my favorite shoes? Are they actually happy when they wag their tails? Let’s dive into the fascinating world of canine emotions and uncover what science has to say about what emotions dogs really feel.
The Historical Debate: Do Dogs Have Emotions At All?
It might surprise you to learn that the idea of dogs having emotions was once super controversial in scientific circles! Hard to believe right?
Back in the day, famous philosopher René Descartes viewed dogs as merely biological machines – kinda like furry robots that respond to stimuli without actually feeling anything. He basically suggested your dog was just a fancy chassis filled with biological gears and pulleys. Harsh, dude!
His follower Nicholas de Malebranche took this idea even further, claiming animals “eat without pleasure, cry without pain, act without knowing it: they desire nothing, fear nothing, know nothing.”
As a dog parent, I know this seems completely ridiculous. When my Golden Retriever Max greets me at the door with his whole body wiggling, there’s no way you could convince me he’s not experiencing joy!
What Modern Science Tells Us About Dog Emotions
Thankfully, science has come a long way since Descartes’ mechanical dog theory. Modern research confirms what dog lovers have known all along – our canine companions definitely have emotions!
Scientists have discovered that dogs possess the same brain structures and chemical processes that produce emotions in humans. They even have oxytocin, the same hormone that’s associated with feelings of love and bonding in humans.
But here’s where it gets interesting…
A Dog’s Emotional Range: More Limited Than You Might Think
Research suggests that a dog’s emotional capacity is roughly equivalent to that of a 2 to 2.5-year-old human child. This means their emotional range is more limited than adult humans.
The core emotions that dogs can experience include:
- Joy/happiness: That tail-wagging, body-wiggling excitement
- Fear: The trembling, hiding, or freezing when scared
- Anger: Growling, snarling, or snapping when threatened
- Disgust: Turning away from something unpleasant
- Love/affection: The warm attachment they form with their humans
- Contentment: That peaceful state of satisfaction
- Excitement: The bouncy, energetic state when stimulated
- Distress: When they’re uncomfortable or upset
- Shyness/suspicion: Hesitation around new people or situations
- Anxiety: Restlessness, pacing, or destructive behavior when stressed
What Emotions Dogs DON’T Experience
This might be hard to accept for some dog parents, but according to researchers, dogs don’t experience complex social emotions that require self-awareness and understanding of social norms. These include:
- Guilt: Despite those “guilty” looks when you discover a mess
- Pride: They don’t feel accomplished after mastering a trick
- Shame: Your dog doesn’t feel embarrassed in that silly costume
- Contempt: Dogs don’t look down on other dogs or humans
The “Guilty Look” Explained
Have you ever come home to find your shoes chewed up and your dog giving you those sad “guilty” eyes? Many of us interpret this as our dog feeling remorse for their actions.
But here’s the truth: what we’re seeing isn’t guilt – it’s fear.
Your dog has learned through experience that when you come home and there’s a mess, you might get upset. What looks like guilt is actually your dog’s fear of your reaction. They’re not feeling bad about what they did; they’re worried about what might happen next.
As Dr. Stanley Coren explains in Psychology Today, “Your dog has learned that when you appear and his droppings are visible on the floor, bad things happen to him. What you see is his fear of punishment; he will never feel guilt because he is not capable of experiencing it.”
The Development of Emotions in Dogs
Just like human babies, dogs don’t have their full emotional range from birth. Their emotions develop over time:
- At birth: Only basic excitement (calm to frenzied)
- First few weeks: Excitement develops positive/negative aspects (contentment vs. distress)
- Next couple months: Fear, anger, and disgust emerge
- Around 6 months: Joy becomes apparent
- Around 9-10 months: True affection/love develops
- By 4-6 months of age: Dogs have developed their full emotional range
This timeline is much faster than in humans, where complex emotions like guilt don’t appear until around 3.5-4 years of age.
How Dogs Express Their Emotions
Dogs may not have words, but they’re masters of body language! Here’s how they typically express different emotions:
Happiness/Joy
- Relaxed body posture
- Tail wagging (usually loose and sweeping)
- “Smiling” face with relaxed mouth
- Playful bouncing or prancing
- Soft, bright eyes
Fear
- Tucked tail
- Lowered body posture
- Ears pinned back
- Whites of eyes showing (whale eye)
- Trembling
- Hiding or attempting to escape
Anger
- Stiff body posture
- Raised hackles
- Showing teeth
- Growling or snarling
- Direct staring
- Forward-facing ears
Love/Affection
- Seeking physical contact
- Leaning against you
- Following you around
- Soft gazing
- Relaxed body when near you
Anxiety
- Pacing
- Panting when not hot
- Excessive licking or yawning
- Inability to settle
- Destructive behaviors
Can Different Dog Breeds Experience Different Emotions?
While all dogs share the same basic emotional capacity, the way they express those emotions can vary widely between breeds. This is partly due to their physical characteristics and partly due to their breeding history.
For example:
- Retrievers often show joy very expressively with full-body wiggles
- Huskies are known for their dramatic vocalizations of various emotions
- Border Collies might express anxiety through intense staring or circling
- Greyhounds often show contentment by quietly lounging rather than with exuberant displays
This doesn’t mean different breeds feel different emotions – just that they might express them in ways unique to their breed characteristics.
How Understanding Dog Emotions Makes Us Better Pet Parents
When we understand what emotions our dogs actually experience, we can be more effective pet parents in several ways:
-
We can avoid projecting human emotions onto them
Not attributing complex emotions like guilt helps us avoid misunderstanding their behavior. -
We can better address their actual emotional needs
Recognizing fear vs. disobedience helps us respond appropriately. -
We can create appropriate training approaches
Understanding that dogs respond to positive reinforcement rather than “feeling bad” about mistakes. -
We can better recognize when they’re struggling
Identifying anxiety or fear early helps us intervene before behaviors escalate.
The Good News About Dog Emotions
While dogs may not experience the full spectrum of human emotions, they absolutely feel the ones that matter most in your relationship. The joy they feel when you come home, the contentment they experience cuddling beside you, and yes – the love they feel for their human family.
As Dr. Coren puts it, “Your dog can indisputably feel love for you and derive contentment from your company, and that’s really the crux of the matter, isn’t it? Like the Beatles sang, ‘all you need is love.’ Thank goodness our dogs provide it in spades.”
Final Thoughts
Understanding the emotional world of our dogs helps us connect with them on a deeper level. While they may not experience shame when wearing a silly costume or pride when winning a dog show, they do feel the emotions that form the foundation of our bond with them – joy, love, and contentment.
So next time your dog greets you at the door with unbridled enthusiasm, rest assured – that happiness is 100% real. And while they might not feel guilty about raiding the trash, the love they feel for you is absolutely genuine.
And honestly, isn’t that what matters most?
I’d love to hear about your experiences with your dog’s emotions! Have you noticed your furry friend expressing any of these core emotions in unique ways? Drop a comment below and share your stories!
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The History of Dog Emotions: Soul or Machine?
In the dim, distant past it was presumed that dogs had very rich mental lives, with feelings much like those of humans and even the ability to understand human language almost as well as people. However, with the rise of science things began to change. Mankind was now beginning to understand enough about the principles of physics and mechanics that we could build complex machines. In addition, we were learning that living things were also governed by systems that followed mechanical rules and chemical processes.
In the face of such discoveries, religions stepped in to suggest that there must be more to human beings than simply mechanical and chemical events. Church scholars insisted that people have souls, and the evidence they gave for this was the fact that humans have consciousness and feelings; animals might have the same mechanical systems, they argued, but they did not have a divine spark and, therefore, did not have the ability to experience “true” feelings.
Studies of Dog Feelings in the Past
Since much of the science of the time was sponsored by church-related schools and universities, it is not surprising to find that the researchers would not assert the existence of higher levels of mental functioning such as emotions in animals. To do so might have caused the church authorities to feel that the scientists were suggesting that an animal such as a dog might have a soul and consciousness, and flying in the face of church doctrine could lead to a lot of problems.
The most prominent person to adopt this line was the French philosopher and scientist René Descartes. In a highly influential set of analyses, Descartes suggested that animals like dogs were simply some kind of machine. He would thus describe my Beagle, Darby, as simply being a dog-shaped chassis, filled with the biological equivalent of gears and pulleys.
This machine doesn’t think, but it can be programmed to do certain things. Nicholas de Malebranche, who extended Descartes’ ideas, summed up the idea when he claimed that animals “eat without pleasure, cry without pain, act without knowing it: they desire nothing, fear nothing, know nothing.”
You might argue against this by noting that if you challenge a dog it clearly becomes angry, and this is proven by the fact that it snarls or snaps. Alternatively, it might become afraid, and this is proven by the fact that it whimpers and runs away. Those classical scientists and their successors would say that the dog is simply acting, not feeling. It is programmed to snap at things that threaten it, or if the threat is too great, it is programmed to run away. You might point out that if you kicked a dog it would yelp in pain and fear. These researchers might respond that if you kicked a toaster it would make a sound. Is this a yelp of pain indicating that the toaster is afraid? Their argument would be that dogs simply act and do not feel.
Do dogs have feelings? – with Jules Howard
FAQ
What emotions do dogs experience?
The final part of the book looks at each of the emotions – fear, sadness, annoyance, anger rage, revulsion/disgust and joy – and provides evidence of how dogs experience these feelings. Dogs In Translation is a landmark publication that fully acknowledges dogs as sentient beings.
Do dogs have feelings?
Anyone who has lived with dogs, and really loves them, knows that dogs have feelings. They feel happiness, fear, frustration, anxiety and jealousy, to name a few. Our dogs are profoundly affected by our feelings, too. They can sense when we are sad, excited or nervous.
How many emotions does a dog have?
Owners had to mark which of them are characteristic for the dog during the respective emotional state. The eight emotions include the six primary emotions (sadness, fear, disgust, surprise, anger, joy) according to Ekman (1992), and two secondary emotions: shame/guilt and jealousy.
How long does 1 hour feel to a dog?
Dogs have a higher metabolism than humans, and thus experience time more slowly. Our 60 minutes translates to about 75 minutes for them.
Can dogs get their feelings hurt?
Dogs certainly are affected by their owner’s emotions, especially if they’re sad. In that regard, they can sense our mental pain but they do not feel our physical pain in the sense we usually speak of it.
What emotions does a dog feel?
Dogs have basic emotions like joy, fear, anger, disgust, and love. They do not have complex emotions like guilt, pride, and shame.Mar 14, 2013
Do dogs feel when you love them?
Yes, dogs can feel affection and love, though they may not interpret hugs and kisses in the same way humans do. Dogs often show their love through body language, such as wagging their tails, leaning into you, and seeking your attention.