T R A I N I N G
DOGS ARE MORE EMOTIONAL THAN SCIENCE ONCE GAVE THEM CREDIT FOR
W R I T T E N B Y : K I M B E R LY B L A K E R
In living with and interacting with our dogs, we get to know them well. Despite their inability to talk, we often understand their emotions based on their body language. Scientists now know what dog owners have suspected all along. Dogs experience a wider range of emotions than scientists once thought. The dog brain is substantially smaller than the human brain when accounting for body size, so it isn’t as complex as our brain. Yet, MRI studies reveal dogs’ brains aren’t much different from humans. MRIs have revealed the same sections of both the human and dog brain light up based to various types of stimuli, according to board certified neurologist, Dr. J.P. McCue, at New York City’s Animal Medical Center, reported in “Dog Brain Facts: Understanding Canine Cognition.” It’s also been found that dogs produce oxytocin, the neurotransmitter and hormone that creates the emotion of love in humans. In fact, research has found that when our dogs stare into our eyes, it activates oxytocin, creating a bond similar to that between a mother and infant. David Grimm, in his article, “How dogs stole our hearts,” at sciencemag.org, reports on the research of this phenomenon. In an experiment
by Takefumi Kikusui, an animal behaviorist, and his colleagues, dogs and their owners gazed into each other’s eyes. Their gaze ranged from a few seconds to a couple of minutes. The researchers found in those dogs and owners who gazed longer, the oxytocin levels rose 130% and 300% respectively. This adds to the growing body of research that supports dogs can feel love and attachment. Just like in humans, dogs’ brains develop as they grow. In humans, the brain reaches full development around the age of twenty-five but dogs’ brains are fully developed around the age of 6 months. At this point, dogs’ emotional development is equivalent to a two and a half year old human, according to researchers. To gain perspective on what that means in regards to dogs’ range of emotions, Stanley Coren, in “What Emotions Do Dogs Actually Experience?” charts the emotions of a two-and-a-half year old child. These include joy, love and affection, contentment, excitement, shyness and suspicion, fear, disgust, distress, and anger. At that age, however, children don’t experience feelings that require self-consciousness, such as pride, shame, guilt, and contempt.
