Do dogs love?
I've been thinking about dog behavior a lot lately, as much of my former ideas about dogs have taken a completely different direction, so i wanted some feedback.
People tend to push human emotions onto dogs and I am trying to figure out what emotions dogs feel. Is love a human emotion pushed upon dogs because we want them to love us back? Or do they really love?
Are they just drawn to certain people because that person controls the resources (food and social interaction) and treats them nicely and rewards them for doing good things? Are they an animal that was domesticated because it was easily pliable into a being that would strive to please humans so it could be trained, not so much because it loves? Well, I'm not very knowledgeable about dog domestication, but I've always wondered why the Dog.
Some examples of emotions dogs don't have would be pride, shame, humping (well...as a disgusting and vile thing that humans tend to make it out to be but it really is just dogs playing and just dogs being dogs, they don't think it is disgusting and it doesn't mean much other than play to them.... But i could be wrong). I was at the dog park and someone told me to get Toki off his dog (Toki was humping). I respect other people's ideas, so I did it. I asked why he doesn't like my dog humping his male dog and he said his dog wasn't defending his honor. ..Um... dogs don't have honor!!! That is the kind of human emotion I am talking about that is pushed upon dogs.
I've read that when a person cries, the dog will "comfort" the person, but it actually is the dog concerned that their "leader" is weak and they don't want that. They are not actually comforting the person, they are trying to make them stronger, so... to me, they don't really mind the emotions of the human, but are more interested in the pack as a whole or in their own self interests. To sum it up, in the article I read, "comforting" is basically a human emotion pushed upon a dog. Dogs don't comfort people. I don't know how reliable that article was, but it did get me thinking.
On the other hand, I would think that a complex animal such as the dog is capable of loving because there is a lot more chemicals inside their heads, like oxytocin. ("complex" might be the wrong word here, perhaps more developed, further evolutionized, i don't know the best word). If, after all, all love is, is a chemical reaction, and if oxytocin is present in their brains, then that would be my answer. The end. Dogs do love.
I always try to apply any emotion to how it would benefit the dog if it were in the wild 10,000 years ago next to humans in the paleolithic era. If social interaction is a resource for such a social animal, then there would have to be some level of "love" I would think. Having a social emotion towards the individuals in the pack would keep the pack together if it came down to survival. Being larger in numbers equals survival, and having a symbiotic relationship with another being can equal survival as well.
I always end up going back to playing devils advocate, that they don't love. I love to debate both sides before I make up my mind
as a side note, Toki just farted as I was finishing this up. It was a really long fart, like out of a fart joke :P
-julia
People tend to push human emotions onto dogs and I am trying to figure out what emotions dogs feel. Is love a human emotion pushed upon dogs because we want them to love us back? Or do they really love?
Are they just drawn to certain people because that person controls the resources (food and social interaction) and treats them nicely and rewards them for doing good things? Are they an animal that was domesticated because it was easily pliable into a being that would strive to please humans so it could be trained, not so much because it loves? Well, I'm not very knowledgeable about dog domestication, but I've always wondered why the Dog.
Some examples of emotions dogs don't have would be pride, shame, humping (well...as a disgusting and vile thing that humans tend to make it out to be but it really is just dogs playing and just dogs being dogs, they don't think it is disgusting and it doesn't mean much other than play to them.... But i could be wrong). I was at the dog park and someone told me to get Toki off his dog (Toki was humping). I respect other people's ideas, so I did it. I asked why he doesn't like my dog humping his male dog and he said his dog wasn't defending his honor. ..Um... dogs don't have honor!!! That is the kind of human emotion I am talking about that is pushed upon dogs.
I've read that when a person cries, the dog will "comfort" the person, but it actually is the dog concerned that their "leader" is weak and they don't want that. They are not actually comforting the person, they are trying to make them stronger, so... to me, they don't really mind the emotions of the human, but are more interested in the pack as a whole or in their own self interests. To sum it up, in the article I read, "comforting" is basically a human emotion pushed upon a dog. Dogs don't comfort people. I don't know how reliable that article was, but it did get me thinking.
On the other hand, I would think that a complex animal such as the dog is capable of loving because there is a lot more chemicals inside their heads, like oxytocin. ("complex" might be the wrong word here, perhaps more developed, further evolutionized, i don't know the best word). If, after all, all love is, is a chemical reaction, and if oxytocin is present in their brains, then that would be my answer. The end. Dogs do love.
I always try to apply any emotion to how it would benefit the dog if it were in the wild 10,000 years ago next to humans in the paleolithic era. If social interaction is a resource for such a social animal, then there would have to be some level of "love" I would think. Having a social emotion towards the individuals in the pack would keep the pack together if it came down to survival. Being larger in numbers equals survival, and having a symbiotic relationship with another being can equal survival as well.
I always end up going back to playing devils advocate, that they don't love. I love to debate both sides before I make up my mind
as a side note, Toki just farted as I was finishing this up. It was a really long fart, like out of a fart joke :P
-julia
Comments
And I would also argue that dogs have the ability to feel shame. Nola feels shame (or something very similar) when she is unable to control her bladder (this is not a behaviour issue, but a medical issue).
I think all higher beings (especially mammals) have a broad range of emotions that they feel. And because we are just starting to understand how to communicate with our domesticated animals better, we are just starting to realize how broad of a range those emotions really are.
I would love to have the chance though.
I guess I answered my own question at the end, I think that dogs do have many different emotions, and whether or not they are the exact same as humans is yet to be determined, I do think, to some degree, that many of them feel something similar, if not the same, as humans do.
Of course, I did have a point I was getting to. My cat Steevo has no excuse. I give him NOTHING. I may have raised him, but I am not the one who feeds him. He's afraid of toys(especially fishing poles), so I can't play with him, he doesn't like to be held(though I swear he secretly must love it, because he knows it's coming), and he doesn't like to be pet.
All of this I do not do for him, and he is my shadow. I just realized it recently- I'm NEVER without him. I mean, literally, he only leaves to eat and use the litter box, and he only does this when I leave the room as well. He sits outside my door for hours on end if I don't let him in. When he wakes me up at 3 AM, he can lick my face, but I cannot cuddle or pet him, or he gets mad and leaves. If this mindless devotion is not love, then I don't know what love is.
Though, I dunno about two being bonding together means it is love across all species, like snakes and them rodent things that mate for life, I don't know if that is love, but I think it just might be with dogs and cats and maybe a few other mammals.
Thanks for the feedback!
I also believe they have several other emontions, though it's probably best not to compare them exactly to the human ones (or the human definitions of those feelings at least) IMHO.
I used to live with a KBD and she could certainly feel honor, and she could be very offended if something happened that didn't "respect" her. She'd give the famous stink-eye and ignore us all day. Litterally. She will still do that, if for example her owner pets the cats and not her, she will look very annoyed and refuse to make eyecontact and pretends to be deaf. It's rather funny actually