Question: I read an article that said animals don't have the same emotions as humans. The article stated that they don't feel love, happiness, sadness, or remorse and that we are only trying to place human feelings in animals that only have instinctual reactions to what goes on around them. I don't believe this. As a professional trainer, do you think dogs have emotions?
Kerry L., Detroit.
Answer: For the sake of this discussion, I will refer to pets that are warm-blooded. Scientists have told us for years that we are misreading our pets' reactions and that our pets do not share emotions with us, that they only respond to incentives and outside stimuli. Recent studies are starting to debunk this behaviorist theory. I need to make it clear that I am not a scientist and I don't possess the scientific mind to be one. My job requires creativity and often deals with intangibles that cannot be explained scientifically. Having said this, I know for a fact that dogs and cats have emotions. I also know that many pet owners attempt to incorrectly place complex human emotions on their pets. I believe our cats and dogs do have the ability to feel some of the same emotions that we do, but in different ways. Dogs do not suffer the same remorse that we do. Take, for example, a dog who loses a leg. Rarely does the dog sit around, longing for the times when it had four legs. They tend to take what life gives them and make the best of it. The same can be said for young children.
I have trained thousands of dogs over the last thirty years and I've dealt with hundreds of human owners. In nine out of ten cases, the owner misses the dog much more than the dog misses them. Young dogs have the ability to change masters with very little remorse, provided their basic needs are met such as loving attention, exercise, and food. I would say this holds true for dogs up to around three years of age. After three, dogs, being creatures of habit, have more difficulties adapting to new environments when compared to their younger counterparts. I agree with the scientists who say that owners tend to read too much into their pets' reactions and that animals are often motivated by outside stimuli.
However, to say that they don't possess the ability to have emotions or that their sole motivation is either food or reproduction is short-sighted. As a field trainer, I rely on the pack instincts that say you should curry favor from the alpha. Seeking an alpha's approval is a key issue when training canines. Predatory animals such as dogs have a different outlook on things than, say, prey animals such as horses. Non-verbal signs and cues from the trainer are an important part of this communication with dogs. Word-based language is our thing, not theirs. In field training, we don't carry little bait pouches to entice our dogs to do our wishes, as they do in other dog training venues. Many breeds such as the English Setter are not food-motivated. Even the breeds that are food-motivated, such as my Chesapeake Bay Retrievers, don't respond well to food motivations when around game and guns. So what motivates them? The desire to please the alpha. I am quite sure that my dogs' devotion to me is based in love, not dog food.
Charlie Linblade
Mighigan Wing Shooters Hunt Club
Michigan Pheasant Hunting
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