Do not ever be swayed by listening to someone who says that a dog does not have feelings. They are a living, breathing being and they have emotions. They may not feel in the same way humans do, as they do not have the same ability to hold onto complex thought processes...which may not be a bad thing...but they feel many of our emotions, just in a simplified way. Let us look at love as we all like to think our dogs love us, like we do them...... Love. What is love? Well we can look at the magical fluffy version that we may have on first meeting and what is portrayed in Hollywood. Or we could look at what love is on a more normal basis. Mutual trust. Relying on someone to cook dinner, do chores, or bring home a wage. Enjoying company to share fun things with and experiences. Someone you look forward to seeing and being with, and so on...these are relationships that fill us with happiness and joy. We love many people in different ways. Let us shift that to a dogs point of view. We provide their food. They love our company so much they get anxious when we leave. They trust us and share our lives with us. We take them on walks and play and have fun together. They miss us when we are not around and they are joyful when we return. So yes, our dogs love us. However, behaviour problems can arise when we are anthropomorphic about our dogs. Anthropomorphic means we project human thoughts and emotions onto our animals and treat them like humans. They may have similar feelings, but they do not have the same thoughts or interactions. They are still dogs and like to be treated as such. They live in the present, and do not plot or plan or do things just to annoy us or get one up on us. They do not think that way. That is far too complex and dogs often get punished because we see them through a humans eye. Alternatively because we love them and treat them like one of the family to the extreme we end up seeing problems with aggression, resource guarding (possessiveness), obesity and eating problems, and other unwanted behavioural issues. So let us take comfort in the fact that we are privileged that our canine friends get so much pleasure from living with us, and allow them the dignity to still be a dog....which is why we love them in the first place, isnt it?
Posted on: Fri, 05 Sep 2014 17:55:00 +0000
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