Does my dog love me ?

[kevin1981]

I have 3 jack russells. But one of them named jessie, who is female, is my favorite. I stroke her a lot, take her for
walks and generally make a fuss of her.

When i come home from being out, she barks and gets excited with me much more than anybody else in the
family. When i sit down, she always has to sit by me. She also follows me around the house and sleeps in
my bed.

But are these behaviors because i pet her up and she knows i will make a fuss or does she have feelings
and love me ? Or maybe, it is a bit of both ?

[Gillianren]

The short answer is that we don't know. When we came home from vacation, my cat wouldn't let me out of his sight if he could avoid it, but we don't know if that's because he knows that I pay attention to him or because he actually missed me on an emotional level.

[tnjrp]

I do believe the current dominant trend in psychology, biology and possibly even in philosophy is to assume that at least some animals both cognite and emote. However it's true that we indeed don't know for certain and it's remotely possible that we will never be able to say that we can be sure. Currently we don't have an indisputedly good handle even on human cognition, including but not limited to feelings. However at the access consciousness level it appears fairly obvious that dogs, among others, display an emotion that would be described as "love" if similar behaviour was observed from a human.

[Noclevername]

My mother's dog definitely has some kind of emotions. She gets separation anxiety if left alone for long (she was a rescue, abandonded as a pup). She gets very clingy when she stays with me, and she does a "happy dance" when my sister comes over.

[ShinAce]

My dad got a lab wolfhound mix about 10 years ago. At that point i was in college but living at home. Boomer and i had plenty of time to hang out together. Fast forward five years and he moves back to texas while i stayed in canada. I went to san antonio last year for my old mans 60th and was pleasantly surprised when the dog recognized me from outside with my now long hair. Maybe he heard my voice. At any rate, it took him 15 minutes to calm down instead of his usual 30 second 'i missed you'.

I now firmly believe that dogs have tremendous memory for people and tremendous loyalty if not love.

[iquestor]

I have a mixed breed dog, Molly, who is considered by all a part of the family. She has a special relationship with each of us. She seems very intelligent and has learned on her own a lot of the words we use to indicate its time to eat, to go outside and take care of business, when we are going to our lake house, or time to go play. She has several stuffed animals that, when she hears one of us coming home, she goes and gets and greets us at the door, as if to say "I missed you! Play with me!" She also seems to know, by her behavior, when she is uncertain how we feel towards her at the moment, especially if she has done something she 'isnt supposed to do' , or if we raise our voices or seem angry -- she can be seen slinking about with her tail between her legs, not making eye contact.

I beleive that she has some level of attachement and loyalty to us, and would even call it love. It may not be the same exact set of emotions, but to me, its pretty close.

[kevin1981]

I must admit, i was expecting more stanch answers along the lines of, no, Dogs don't have feelings or love but only
act a certain way because they get something out of it.

Clearly, people with Dogs who have posted above have a connection with there's and can sense some sort of love being given off
from them. I too think Dogs have a sense of love and maybe care for certain people more than others. Though i understand why it is
pretty much impossible to verify.

Like i said though, I like to think my Dog's love me !

[Trebuchet]

The short answer is that we don't know. When we came home from vacation, my cat wouldn't let me out of his sight if he could avoid it, but we don't know if that's because he knows that I pay attention to him or because he actually missed me on an emotional level.

We've had cats that do that and others that seem to be mad that you left them and go through a whole "I'm not speaking to you" routine for a couple of hours. One of the latter was actually the most affectionate cat I've ever known. Or maybe second most.

It's probably safe to say they don't love us in quite the same way we love them, but I'd have to believe there's some sort of emotional attachment.

[Buttercup]

I think she loves you.

[Gillianren]

We've had cats that do that and others that seem to be mad that you left them and go through a whole "I'm not speaking to you" routine for a couple of hours. One of the latter was actually the most affectionate cat I've ever known. Or maybe second most.

Apparently, D handled the faire weekends while Graham was overseas very badly. It's also true that he was obviously waiting for Graham to walk in the door for about the first month or so of his deployment, despite the fact that Graham doesn't even like D very much. After we'd been home a day or two, I was joking that either D had forgiven me or else he'd just forgotten I had ever left. He's not always the brightest cat, though he does have a decent memory for people.

It's probably safe to say they don't love us in quite the same way we love them, but I'd have to believe there's some sort of emotional attachment.

My dad's cat pined to death within a year of his own death. She was a Siamese-Burmese, a one-person cat, and her person just went away. She never knew what happened, and she never recovered.

[swampyankee]

I'd like to think so, but until we can get dogs to speak English or humans to speak Canine, we'll never know. My dog certainly shows signs of being fond of me, but whether this is love or canine pack behavior, I've no clue. Of course, their behavior can be interpreted by humans as love, in that it shows many of the same features that love shows between humans.

I think it's obvious, though, that dogs (and cats) do show emotions. Certainly, they can show fear, shame (or a reasonable facsimile), anger (hackles up, teeth bared, the "I'm going to kill you" look), and certainly feel pain, both physical and emotional (they can get clinically depressed!), and loneliness.

[SolusLupus]

I must admit, i was expecting more stanch answers along the lines of, no, Dogs don't have feelings or love but only
act a certain way because they get something out of it.

That's kind of the "stereotypical emotionless scientist" response. The reality is that I can only infer emotions in an animal about how I can infer emotions in a person: through what I see of their body language and the way they act. Words can also help, such as a dog's bark, a cat's meow, or a fox's squawk. Does a person REALLY have emotions? I don't know. I'm pretty sure I have emotions.

There's nothing "magical" about emotions, however. They are a response we have to things around us, and are essentially no more magical than anything else our brains allow for us.

When an animal prefers the attention of one particular person above all else, and makes displays of affection towards them, however, there's no real reason to say that such affection is false. There's no real reason to deny it; its doubtful the animal has any real desire to "fake" its emotions towards you.

Kevie the fox is actually a good indication of emotional attachment. She's almost entirely dependent on the woman that takes care of her, to the point where she will wail and whine towards the house of the "owner", and will gekker (like a cat's hiss, more or less) towards anyone that comes close to the woman while Kevie is on her lap. She won't let anyone else get close to her, and the only person that she seems to trust, she still has flight response and backs away from him.

[kevin1981]

and will gekker (like a cat's hiss, more or less) towards anyone that comes close to the woman while Kevie is on her lap.

Jessie does this when sitting with me. If the other dogs are around and sometimes other family members, she will
growl at them. I put it down to either jealousy or she is being protective, but i don't know which one it is ?

[Noclevername]

My sister's dog was that way around the time my nephew was born; he would growl or bark at people, even family members, who got too close to the baby!

[Jim]

I work with an animal "rescue" group. We don't rescue so much as support the shelter and help get pets adopted. As part of that effort, we hold adoption events, taking several dogs from the shelter to a local business, apartment complex, or community event. My job at those events is most often walking one of the dogs.

One in particular is Benjamin, an Australian shepherd mix. Benjamin's a very good dog, but we had difficulty getting him adopted. He was at the shelter for 4 or 5 months and fostered at a kennel for another 4 or 5. Finally, about 3-4 months ago, Benjamin was adopted!

Last Sunday, I took my dog to the dog park. Benjamin was there with his new human!

I bent over, held out my hand, and called to him. He looked at me, smiled as dogs can, and walked over to me. I pet him and he leaned against my legs, much as we had done all those months before.

I prefer to think he recognized a human who had been good to him when things were bad. He was saying "Hello" to an old friend... and maybe saying "Thanks."

[Inclusa]

I work with an animal "rescue" group. We don't rescue so much as support the shelter and help get pets adopted. As part of that effort, we hold adoption events, taking several dogs from the shelter to a local business, apartment complex, or community event. My job at those events is most often walking one of the dogs.

One in particular is Benjamin, an Australian shepherd mix. Benjamin's a very good dog, but we had difficulty getting him adopted. He was at the shelter for 4 or 5 months and fostered at a kennel for another 4 or 5. Finally, about 3-4 months ago, Benjamin was adopted!

Last Sunday, I took my dog to the dog park. Benjamin was there with his new human!

I bent over, held out my hand, and called to him. He looked at me, smiled as dogs can, and walked over to me. I pet him and he leaned against my legs, much as we had done all those months before.

I prefer to think he recognized a human who had been good to him when things were bad. He was saying "Hello" to an old friend... and maybe saying "Thanks."

As in humans, most of our communications are done non-verbally; let's assume we can understand animals' psychology by observing their behaviours. Dogs and horses have been marked for their loyalty for years.

[tnjrp]

The reality is that I can only infer emotions in an animal about how I can infer emotions in a person: through what I see of their body language and the way they act. Words can also help, such as a dog's bark, a cat's meow, or a fox's squawk. Does a person REALLY have emotions? I don't know. I'm pretty sure I have emotions

Indeed the problem arises that if we don't want to recognize that animals have emotions, then when the "you can't infer that from behaviour" skeptisism is taken to the logical extreme it also starts strongly to seem that we can't be at all certain if other humans apart from ourselves really have emotions either. To infer that they must have them because you are yourself a human and emote leads to a need to propose a cut-off as to why other animals wouldn't - several of which have been proposed of course but just saying "it exists, so there!" doesn't do it.

An additional problem arises from the fact that we aren't all that certain what we mean when we say "we have emotions". Discussion of this aspect will leads us to the dreaded Swamp of the Hard Problem of Consciousness from whence few discussion forum threads have ever emerged

[Ivan Viehoff]

Is not a dog's "love" easily purchased by any human who feeds it? A cat's "love" seems less easily purchased, in my experience.

[Noclevername]

Is not a dog's "love" easily purchased by any human who feeds it?

There are cases of dogs who've turned on their masters, so obviously food-based loyalty has its limitations.

Don't forget, dogs are at heart pack animals. If they accept you as an "alpha", they submit to you as if you were a pack leader. Alphas among wolves and wild dogs are the ones who determine the distribution of food.

[tnjrp]

Alpha behaviour model has been somewhat overexaggerated for the dog pack AFAIK.

OTOH I've seen many cats beg for food from humans.

The old dog-cat sidetrack aside, the pertinent question would be how much of human love is also purchased, hormone-driven or whathaveyou instead of the loftier, True(TM) kind.

[geonuc]

My dad's cat pined to death within a year of his own death. She was a Siamese-Burmese, a one-person cat, and her person just went away. She never knew what happened, and she never recovered.

That's a horrible fate for an animal and it saddens me a lot, perhaps because my mother's cat was much the same way. Even though she (the cat) would have nothing to do with me when my mother was alive - despite my being an acknowledged 'cat person' - I managed to take her in after my mother's death and eventually make her feel like she had a home again. But it took a good year before she would do anything but eat, sleep, hiss at people and hide.

Did she love my mother and perhaps come to love me? I don't know.

[Ivan Viehoff]

Don't forget, dogs are at heart pack animals. If they accept you as an "alpha", they submit to you as if you were a pack leader. Alphas among wolves and wild dogs are the ones who determine the distribution of food.

I think this is generally accepted as only partly true these days. For example, wikipedia says

"Feral dogs show little of the complex social structure or dominance hierarchy present in wolf packs. For example, unlike wolves, the dominant alpha pairs of a feral dog pack do not force the other members to wait for their turn on a meal ... "

"It is believed by some that dogs establish a dominance hierarchy through aggressive play and roughhousing along a continuum of dominance and submission,[citation needed] although the concept of social hierarchies in dogs is unproven and controversial..."

I think the main point in getting domestic dogs to be submissive is that "Dogs display much greater tractability than tame wolves, and are, in general, much more responsive to coercive techniques involving fear, aversive stimuli, and force than wolves..."

[ShinAce]

Is not a dog's "love" easily purchased by any human who feeds it? A cat's "love" seems less easily purchased, in my experience.

Not even close. I won't elaborate as I can only surmise you own cats but not dogs.

I'd say it's the opposite and bet a fair sum of money against you.

[Noclevername]

"Feral dogs show little of the complex social structure or dominance hierarchy present in wolf packs. For example, unlike wolves, the dominant alpha pairs of a feral dog pack do not force the other members to wait for their turn on a meal ... "

It's true for some nonferal dogs; whenever my mother's dog (female) gets together with my sister's dogs (male) she definitely controls the bowl and who eats in what order. If other dogs are present she quickly takes them under her "guidance".

[Gillianren]

That's a horrible fate for an animal and it saddens me a lot, perhaps because my mother's cat was much the same way. Even though she (the cat) would have nothing to do with me when my mother was alive - despite my being an acknowledged 'cat person' - I managed to take her in after my mother's death and eventually make her feel like she had a home again. But it took a good year before she would do anything but eat, sleep, hiss at people and hide.

Did she love my mother and perhaps come to love me? I don't know.

Coco tolerated my mother and had before Dad died, but that was it. And she hated us; my older sister was eight, I was six, and my younger sister was two. (She especially hated my younger sister, who never has gotten the point when people don't like her.) She was also older than all of us, though I don't know remember how old she was, which probably didn't help. I loved her, though I knew she didn't love me back, and I was very sad when she died even though we'd already gotten a kitten by then.

[Inclusa]

Coco tolerated my mother and had before Dad died, but that was it. And she hated us; my older sister was eight, I was six, and my younger sister was two. (She especially hated my younger sister, who never has gotten the point when people don't like her.) She was also older than all of us, though I don't know remember how old she was, which probably didn't help. I loved her, though I knew she didn't love me back, and I was very sad when she died even though we'd already gotten a kitten by then.

3 sisters families seem pretty common to me. Was Coco a dog or a cat?

[Gillianren]

Cat. I don't like dogs, and we've never had them.

[HenrikOlsen]

I prefer to think he recognized a human who had been good to him when things were bad. He was saying "Hello" to an old friend... and maybe saying "Thanks."

Or, the alternative interpretation, he recognized a pack member he hadn't seen for a while.

Alpha behaviour model has been somewhat overexaggerated for the dog pack AFAIK.

I think this is because dogs have been bred to recognize more than one master, which by necessity has modified the instinctive social structure.

[traceur]

honestly i'd tackle this question the same way i'd tackle it about artificial intelligence, aliens, other people, or my wife:
your only way of knowing that anything is experiencing emotions is by behaviors & expressions that are best explained by such emotions.

either that or FMRI, but my wife won't let me...

[Goldstone]

Saying certain animals don't feel love to some extent is just baloney in my eyes; they are subject to their own hormones which causes stimulation in a response similar to ours when for instance, you might stroke one of your pets. Saying an animal cannot love seems like an analogy to the flawed assumption animals can't feel pain so they used live vivisection's on these animals unaware they were causing terrible pain.