Question: do dogs have feelings

Sive Finlay answered on 14 Nov 2013:

Hi bergin,

It’s very difficult to know for sure but I think they do. Feelings and emotions are very subjective and personal. Unless there are some very obvious visual cues (crying, laughing etc.) it’s very difficult to know what another person is feeling let alone an animal – you can’t exactly ask!
Dogs do have feelings in the sense of behavioural or physiological states which we can observe. So we know they’re feeling hungry if they start pushing an empty bowl towards us and we know they feel scared when their tail is between their legs. Some people argue that being hungry or scared are physiological responses rather than true feelings. However, some recent research (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/opinion/sunday/dogs-are-people-too.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0) showed that areas of the brain which are active when we feel love or enjoyment seem to work in a similar way in dogs’ brains.
So dogs do seem to have “straight forward” feelings such as fear, hunger or happiness. Who knows how deep their emotions might go!
Sive