Canine behavior is hugely dependent on upbringing, environment, physiology, and training. However, those are not the only factors that influence how your dog or puppy behaves in their everyday life. You should also consider their emotional state when trying to figure out why your pet behaves the way they do.
Of course, a dog’s emotions don’t work similarly to ours. Dogs internalize and express their emotions differently than we do. If you want to understand your pet and their behavior better, you must learn more about their emotions.
Let’s use this article to talk about canine emotions and the impact they have on behavior. Find out why canine emotional regulation should be an essential component of your dog’s training.
How Do Dogs Experience Emotions?
Before we get into the different ways emotions can influence your pet’s behavior, let’s first take the time to highlight what those feelings are. Because of how attached many people are to their pets, they start to assign greater meaning to their actions and expressions. They look at certain things their pets do and assume similar motivations drive them.
It’s easy to understand why devoted pet owners make those assumptions, but dog emotions don’t work that way. You cannot compare your emotional complex to what your dog experiences. According to this article from Daily Paws, dog emotions are simpler than that.
Studies that have been conducted on canine emotions indicate that dogs have a fairly limited range of feelings. To put your pet’s emotional range into proper context, it helps to think of them as kids. Kids don’t have particularly nuanced emotions. You can ask a young child about their opinion and get an honest and uncompromised answer.
Dogs experience and express emotions the same way. You can take one look at your pet and immediately tell how they are feeling. They don’t conceal their emotions to appease anyone around them. They are unapologetically themselves at all times and don’t shy away from allowing their emotions to affect how they behave.
The takeaway here is you don’t have to overthink what you see from your pet. If you’re wondering why your pet looks down, the likely explanation is they are feeling sad. The simple way their emotions work also helps us understand them better.
What Emotions Does Your Dog Have?
Now that we are more familiar with how dogs experience emotions, we can shift our attention to another important topic. To be more specific, let’s focus on the emotions that dogs experience.
Since we’ve already established that dogs have emotional complexity on par with a young child, we can start discerning their feelings by eliminating the things they likely don’t experience. Hate is one complex emotion your dog likely doesn’t experience. Even if your neighbor has bullied your pet in the past, your dog is unlikely to hate them. Depending on how your neighbor has treated your dog, they may feel an emotion more similar to fear or anger instead of hate.
Guilt is another emotion your dog likely lacks. Your dog isn’t cowering from you because they feel guilty about the mess they made. Instead, they are cowering because they are fearful of your body language and loud words. Experienced trainers advise against scolding your dog for making indoor messes precisely because they won’t understand what they did wrong.
Dogs also don’t feel embarrassed. This probably doesn’t come as a surprise if your pet has a tendency to go wild in public. Shame does not factor into canine behavior, so you and your trainer cannot lean on that to teach your pet.
So, what are the emotions that your dog experiences? They likely include anger, fear, joy, love, and sadness. Those are just some of the more prominent examples, but there’s a good chance your pet is familiar with more feelings.
How Do Canine Emotions Drive Behavior?
For many of us adults, emotions can be fairly complicated. Those complex emotions affect the way we interact with the world around us. From a logical standpoint, performing a certain task may not make much sense. However, that decision becomes easier to understand once you consider the emotions that could come into play.
Emotions also affect canine behavior. Although dogs follow their survival and base instincts first and foremost, their emotions can still serve as additional motivators.
A few examples can help us better understand how emotions can influence your pet’s actions.
First off, anger can be a huge motivator for your pet. If someone hits your pet, they will likely respond by barking or biting. The only scenario in which your pet may not immediately respond in that manner is if their assailant is someone they know.
Fear is another emotion that can explain your dog’s actions. When they hear you rushing in their direction and taking forceful steps, they may recognize that as a sign that you are angry. They may also recognize that pattern of behavior from their previous owner. Either way, your dog may hide because they are feeling afraid.
Training may be necessary to remove that habit from your dog’s typical behavior.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have motivators like joy and love. Joy and love can explain why your dog’s tail and hips quickly wag back and forth whenever you walk in the door following a long day at work. They are happy you’re home, and their body is telling you all about it. Then again, they may not hide their feelings either, as you may find yourself on the receiving end of multiple kisses and hugs.
There’s no getting around the fact that emotions enormously impact how our pet dogs behave. Then again, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with your pet displaying their emotions as long as they aren’t disruptive to you or anyone else. If your pet’s emotionally driven actions are starting to get out of control, you should look for a trainer who can help with canine emotional regulation. Enlist their aid and exercise more control over how your pet acts on their emotions.
Unlock the secret to a well-behaved pet! Visit our dog training page for expert guidance and techniques to nurture and train your furry friend on canine emotions .
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