Verified by 
Animal Behavior
The Emotional Lives of Pet Dogs
Dog guardians do well to ensure their dog has many positive experiences.
Posted September 6, 2024 Reviewed by Monica Vilhauer Ph.D.
Key points
- Marc Bekoff's book states that it is now widely accepted that animals experience emotions.
- Dog guardians should recognize and respect the emotional lives of dogs.
- Dog training, enrichment, and helping dogs feel safe are all ways that dog guardians can respect dog emotions.
In their daily lives, our dogs experience many emotions. Just this morning, my own dog Pepper experienced joy at getting into the car, which I am pretty sure was tempered when the car turned in the direction that meant we were going to the vet; some degree of stress at the vet, but also some joy over the nice treats he got to eat there; and hopefully some comfort when he practically leaped into my arms at the end of the exam. And he wasn’t too stressed, because after leaving and having a little wander in the car park, he wanted to go back into the reception before going home. (Yes, he got treats for that too).
What does it mean to recognize the fact that dogs experience emotions? These days, this is not something that is up for debate; it’s a given. In the new, revised edition of The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy—And Why They Matter, Marc Bekoff writes,
“It is no longer radical to recognize, respect, and want to protect the emotional lives of animals.”
This has such important implications for how we think about and care for our pet dogs. Here are just a few of the ways we can take account of it in our everyday lives with our canine best friends.
How to respect dogs’ emotional lives
It’s important for dogs to feel safe, not just to be physically safe. This is especially crucial for fearful and anxious dogs, who can find the world around them overwhelming if we don’t take steps to protect them. (My new book Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog has lots of tips on this).
1. When dogs are stressed, they can often take comfort from the presence of their guardian. Just pause for a moment and reflect on how different this position is from the older, completely out-dated advice that you should not comfort a fearful dog. What an abdication of responsibility that was! As your dog’s guardian, it’s your job to help them cope with difficult situations. It’s worth noting that there may be times when the guardian’s presence doesn’t comfort the dog, for example if they are doing something that the dog finds stressful, or if they have a history of using aversive methods and the dog now finds their presence stressful because it might predict a painful experience.
2. We need to give dogs opportunities to engage in normal canine activities that bring them joy. This is a central tenet of what’s called the Five Domains model of animal welfare: animals in our care need to have opportunities to engage in positive experiences (Mellor et al, 2020). And that can be a whole range of different activities, from long, lingering sniffaris on a Sunday morning walk, to running around and playing with other dogs that they are friends with. Essentially, any activity that your dog enjoys that is safe and that provides good enrichment for them will give them a positive experience.
3. We need to train dogs with reward-based methods. Aversive dog training methods—such as prong collars, shock collars, and leash corrections—work because they use fear and pain. But we can get the same results (or, as some studies suggest, even better ones) if we train with reward-based methods instead.
4. We should do something about negative experiences like fear and pain. In the short term, negative emotions like fear and pain can help to keep animals (including dogs) safe, for example by responding appropriately to dangerous situations. But at other times, they can prevent dogs from taking part in positive experiences. These days, we understand that pain and fear can affect behavior, so if you’re not sure, or you’ve seen a sudden change in your dog’s behavior, see your vet.
5. We should learn about dogs’ body language, so that we can have a better understanding of how our own dog is feeling at any given point in time. Using that knowledge, and taking the context into account, will help us to know when we should step in to help our dog out (for example, by explaining to a stranger that the dog does not want to say hello). It will also help us to notice when our dog is enjoying the enrichment and positive training activities that we are offering, so that we can do more of that in future.
Emotions affect all aspects of dogs’ lives
As you can see, recognizing and respecting the emotional lives of dogs is something that permeates our whole lives with them, not just those moments when we are training them.
Marc Bekoff’s work speaks volumes about how our relationship with dogs and other animals has evolved, and how we can make it better. It’s high time we took account of dogs’ emotions in our lives with them. I am sure you can think of other ways, in addition to those listed in this post, that you can think about the emotional life of your own dog(s). Do let me know!
References
Mellor, D. J., Beausoleil, N. J., Littlewood, K. E., McLean, A. N., McGreevy, P. D., Jones, B., & Wilkins, C. (2020). The 2020 five domains model: Including human–animal interactions in assessments of animal welfare. Animals, 10(10), 1870.
