Your opinions on emotions.
 

On my french forum we do have a discussion about dogs and emotions. Some of us are saying that dogs doesn't have any real émotion they only have needs which we us onwers have to fulfill. Some others are saying that they do ressent fear, joy, love ans stuff like that.

What is your opinion about that subject?

Gosh emotions of a dog.. Well I will tell you this~ Lilly is major jealous over anyone who gives Petey or Bell attention, There is no 2nd thinking this, it is absolutely true. And I think jealousy is an emotion..
And Fear, I think every dog has some kind of fear at some point in their life. ;)

:yeahthat: Absolutelly!! :D

IMO, feeling happy, feeling sad are emotions! I have seen MANY different emotions in my dogs, not only the little girls, but also my Choc. Lab - they show expressions on their faces, i guess for none dog lovers it would be hard to read! :rolleyes:

So yes dogs have emotions. ;)

I believe dogs have plenty of emotion. :thumbup:

I have no doubt that my furbaby has emotions. He always is happy to see us with countless kisses. When he plays he is full of emotions. When we have to put him in his crate he pouts and turns the other way and won't look at us. You can see the different emotions in his eyes. Yorkies are very expressive.

Whether happy, sad, jealous or sulking dogs show you how they feel!
Most definately i believe dogs have emotions!!

Hmmmm!
 

When you look at a pen of dogs caged in a puppymill, it is sure hard to see the look in their eyes and not feel they do not have real emotions..it does not look like fear or anxiety to me..it looks like hopelessness..if you look at humans in the same situations, they have the same look on their faces.

There is no doubt in my mind that dogs have emotions...It's obvious to me :) When I get home to him, Miko is so happy and he shows me this by jumping up and down and giving me kisses. Like Pat said, dogs in puppymills have looks of hopelessness in their eyes. Also, dogs show emotions of jealousy, resentment, etc...

My Yorkies show emotions in the eyes, the ears and are very vocal.
That is what I love about yorkies..they are little fireballs in fur... ;)

oh yeah they have emotions, mine is scared of the vet, they get happy when i get home, if you step on them they yelp. i think dogs have emotions like us

They most definitely have emotions! You can see it in their eyes. My brother passed away from cancer last month and he was VERY close to his dog. His dog knew he was really sick and wouldn't leave his side! After he died, his dog moped around the house and was soooooo sad! That alone was enough to break you heart! :(

Without a doubt dogs have emotions and if you want to read a good book on this subject here is one.
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Americans have an intense love for their dogs: thirty-five percent of American households owned a dog in 1994, representing a dog population of more than 52 million. "It hardly seems worth asking the question of why we love them," writes noted psychoanalyst Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson. "We love dogs because they love us, unconditionally. No matter how we treat them, what we do to them, how little attention we pay to them, they are eager to please us, eager to be with us." In Dogs Never Lie About Love, the New York Times best-selling author of When Elephants Weep shifts his attention from the jungle to the living room to explore the exotic and unchartered territory of dog emotion.

Why do dogs bark?
Why don't cats and dogs "fight like cats and dogs"?
Do some dogs commit suicide from despair?

Drawing from scientific studies, legends and literature, and from the stories of dog trainers and lovers around the world, Dogs Never Lie About Love raises our level of consciousness to the rich and fascinating world of canine emotion. The book demonstrates how our affection for dogs is similar to our love of children - how both live and feel in the present, and how children and (especially) dogs are eager to offer us unconditional love. Most poignantly, however, Dogs Never Lie About Love, reveals that although dogs exhibit a wide range of observable emotions, love is their master emotion and is what guides and defines their existence. In this provocative work, Masson sweeps aside old prejudices on animal behavior and challenges scientists to resist dismissing the claim of canine emotion as anthropomorphism (assigning human characteristics to nonhumans) unless they are able to prove that dogs are emotionless animals.

Heartwarming, inspiring, and always entertaining, Dogs Never Lie About Love is a compelling journey into the lives of dogs, told eloquently through the observations and experiences of Masson's own three dogs Sasha, Sima, and Rani whose delightful and sometimes odd behavior provides the means to exploring a wide range of subjects: from emotions like gratitude, compassion, loneliness, and disappointment to speculating about what dogs dream, how they perceive humans and other species, and how their powerful sense of smell greatly influences their memory and experience of reality (humans have about 5 million olfactory cells, whereas dogs have up to 220 million.) Dogs Never Lie About Love discusses why dogs are not finicky at the dinner bowl, why no breed is aggressive by nature, and the emotional significance of tail wagging.

Dogs Never Lie About Love will captivate readers with its inquisitive, playful, and serious sides, giving readers a new understanding of the hidden world of dog emotion. With compelling dog stories from around the world, Dogs Never Lie About Love offers long-overdue pause for thought about humanity's best and most loyal friend.
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About the Author
Jeffrey Masson has a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Harvard University and graduated from the Toronto Psychoanalytic Institute. He was briefly projects director at the Sigmund Freud Archives; the documents he found there on Freud's approach to child abuse created a major controversy in psychoanalysis. He has written more than a dozen books, including most recently the national bestseller When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (with Susan McCarthy). He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, child, two cats, and three dogs.

Oh my God
 

That is such a sad story. I'm sorry to hear. :(

I agree, the eyes and ears show tons of emotion. I love the way Miko uses his ears to communicate what he's feeling, not to mention his eyes. They are sooo expressive.