Do dogs feel emotions like us? This seems to be such a big topic for discussion at the mo and very topical for me (as im just editing the bit of my book that covers frustration). Like human psychology, in the past us dog scientists have been more comfortable trying to look at dog behaviour without guessing what goes on inside the black box. At last though it seems technology and training is helping us to explore whats going on and make theories about cognitive processes and (dare I say it) even emotions. Yet it still feels that there is something holding us back from accepting our canine companions as true sentient and soulful beings? So hormone studies reveal that dogs secrete similar hormonal outputs to us in frustrating and also rewarding contexts. And MRI scans are also helping us learn that dogs use similar parts of the brain when in similar emotional contexts. Why then is anthropomorphism still considered such a dirty thing? For me personally, I feel (yup -FEEL. God im a hippy) proof is in the pudding and by pudding I mean the resulting behaviour. Ill use an example from one of my own dogs. When Archie, my rescue pit bull, gets in a state which I would describe as frustrated - he behaves in the exact way I feel like behaving when I am frustrated. His muscles tense. He fixates on the object or task causing the emotion. He vocalises (sounding not dissimilar to me when im frustrated) whining and eventually growling. If the expectation is not met successfully he will break something (as I would like to when I am frustrated by something not working out) - sometimes the thing causing the frystration, sometimes an innocent bystanding object like a pillow. Then his expression slowly changes, he runs it off (as I often have to) and shakes it out. Then he sits and looks pissed off - his attention still not totally switched off from the task or object which caused the frustration. This totally anthropomorphic interpretation of events is usful. It makes me feel emphathy and importantly, helps me understand and thus treat this frustration more effectively.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Nov 2013 17:18:37 +0000
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