The Family Times March 2018

pet pages

Dog Emotions By: Nicole Iuzzolino

You know your dog is happy when they wag its tail. You know they want something when they pull the “puppy eyes” trick. However, dogs have more emotions than just happy and sad, and Psychology Today proves this. They state that researchers now know that dogs have the same brain structure that produce emotions in humans. They state that, “Dogs also have the same hormones and undergo the same chemical changes that humans do during emotional states”. This means that dogs primarily go through the same emotional stages that humans do. But dogs do not have emotions as complex as us, theirs are on a more basic level. When another group of researchers studied the brain activity between dogs and humans, they found similarly interesting results, which was published by Current Biology Today. When the humans and dogs were presented with positive sounds, such as laughing, there was greater neural activity, and it was the complete opposite for negative sounds, such as crying. Studies have shown that dogs are able to have emotions such as optimism, anxiety, happiness, fear and depression. They can even feel jealous and have PTSD from trauma just like humans. Sometimes though it is hard to tell what emotions dogs have, so you have to look out for some of their key signs. Doctor Jill Sackman, an expert in behavioral medicine, gives a few examples. A dog that licks its lips and turns its head away is representing a nervous emotion. They even get jelous was another dog gets a reward that they wanted.

Dogs are very smart and interesting animals, and when dog owners say they think their animals are people, they are not exactly wrong. Dogs have very similar emotions, and brain structures to people.

Now next time you with your dog, remember that they have feelings just like you.

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