Some Stil Doubt Dogs Have Emotions?? - Page 2

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/canine-corner/201303/which-emotions-do-dogs-actually-experience

YR, so, YOU are the one that happened to! I was going to mention that story. I remembered it from when you posted it a long time ago.

As far as dogs being able to reason, I believe they can. I have just been reading about Buddy, the first Seeing Eye dog to come to the States, and the article states how Seeing Eye dogs are capable of 'intelligent disobedience' - refusing to obey a command if it will cause harm to their owner. This can be trained, but I have often heard of the dog disobeying without being trained. E.g., a friend had her service dog on a down-stay in the exam room at the doctor's office , while a nurse performed a procedure on her that was painful. Her dog broke her down-stay, wedge herself between the exam table and the nurse, and deliberately backed the nurse away from the table!

Hired Dog since you like to be seen as an expert on intelligence perhaps you know that Albert Einstein was a singular genius while his brother Norman was a functional idiot .. there is a continuum of intelligence and intellectual ability from great to little within a species be it dog, human, dolphins, or elephants.  Dogs vary greatly in their abilities and intelligence with much depending on education, maturity and experience  .. the same could be said of humans and those commenting on this forum.  As far as the emotional range of humans I see ego and self worth based on nothing but boast and brag as being a human weakness I seldom see in dogs or other animals.  

Of course mindhunt..mine are able to solve advanced quadratics and practice law as well. Animals shut down because EXPERIENCE shows them that the alternative is painful. Animals learn to critically think, like crossing a street because not doing so will result in death, its called survival and I think I may have mentioned that. Yep, animals suffer PTSD, I have seen dogs in the Middle East as well as here that have come back from there because they are weak nerved, aka, nerve bags that should have never been selected for that type of work, but, thats another story. Yep, some dogs like some other dogs, some dont, that does not mean that dogs have feeling as a human. Yes, they feel some of the same emotions we do, but, in no way can they feel them as we do or understand what they mean. I interact with my dog daily since I work with him daily and I am fully aware of what "richness" he offers, thank you.

Indeed Bubba, however, the basis of it all is genetics. You can work with what your parents gave you, but, no more. Since dogs CANNOT fathom what an ego or self worth is, I doubt you will see it in dogs, ever. I will share this with you though, every single human I have ever met or spoken to who decided that their life was based on dogs, who shunned their own species, who put dogs above everything else, much like some people in this and other forums do, has always been butt hurt in life by other humans and decided that dogs are better because they cant express any feelings like a human is able to.....Me...I have indeed been hurt by my fellow humans, but, I got up, cleaned off, became a better human and STILL stuck with my own species, take care.

Hired Dog, inspite of all the evidence, you still like to believe dogs are instinct driven and dumb.  Your sarcasm says it all, how sad for your dogs.

Mindhunt, I assure you, my dogs are much happier then yours.

Maybe it's how we relate to and with our dogs that determines how we view their emotions  (or not). I expect an owner who keeps his dog in a kennel 24/7 taking it out for only an hour or 2 every day has a different  type of relationship with that dog than the owner who lives and sleeps with a dog next to him/her 24/7. I've had both; personally I felt a much stronger attachment and understanding of my house dogs than I ever did the kennel dogs. Those were the dogs that would never have been sold regardless of their failures. The dogs we refer to as our "heart dogs".

Somehow I doubt it Hired Dog but hey, whatever......

Hmmmmmmm lol

There have been studies done that have verified that dogs have the ability to reason on a basic level, I think it was called situational reasoning. Different types of dogs scored differently on the tests given, as did different types of canids (wolves & foxes were also tested, although the testers felt that since that wild canids were raised by humans their results were skewed). Herding dogs & poodles (standard) scored significantly higher than other breeds. Average dogs had the reasoning capacity of about a 4 year old child. Herding dogs (GSDs were one of the herding breeds tested in this study) had the reasoning ability of about an average 6 year old child. This to me is very interesting, since about 6 years old is when children are thought to begin deductive reasoning. But we expect our police & herding dogs to be able to make basic judgement calls. That would require at least the ability to learn cause & effect. 

The more we learn about them, the more similar we are. MRIs have shown that dogs & other animals brains 'light up' in the same areas ours do when exhibiting similar emotional behaviors, so they probably feel them the same way we do. Doctors used to think that babies & animals didn't really feel pain, that has been resoundingly disproved by science, as any mother could have told you.

We have much yet to learn, until one of us can say we know everything....& can prove it....I'll give our animals the benefit of the doubt!      jackie harris