How We Attribute Human Emotions to Dogs

Anthropomorphize an·thro·po·mor·prize [an-thruh-puh-mawr-fahyz] :to ascribe human form or attributes to (an animal, plant, material object, etc.).

Everyone who has ever owned a dog has done it (I’ve done it) – Made some sort of comment regarding how their dog is acting, how he is feeling or how he is behaving which in turn makes the dog sound as if he is human or capable of human actions or behavior. I think that is one reason why dogs name have graduated from Fluffy or Bingo to Chance, Max and Jimmy. It is also why we celebrate their birthdays and include photos of them in albums along with the rest of the family (guilty). Dogs do have human emotions, but only the more basic ones such as jealousy, fear, pain, anxiety, happiness.

• If one dog takes another dogs bone away, he could be playing or he could be jealous that the other dog has a bone and he doesn’t.
• A lot of dogs aggression is fear based. Something possibly happened in the dogs life that causes the dog to express his fear aggressively.
• Separation anxiety is a form of sadness or fear when they are separated from their owner.
• And then of course happiness which is obvious when a dog is chasing after a ball or wagging his tail so hard he looks like he is dancing.

When I refer to ascribing human attributes to dogs, emotions is not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about people who make comments like:

• “I won’t have my dog fixed because it will demasculate him. He won’t feel like a man anymore.” Really??? I guarantee he won’t feel “any less of a man” if he gets fixed. He won’t be thinking “Darn, I can’t get lucky anymore.”

Or…

• “Don’t smell that dogs butt. You know how disgusting that is. You know better than to do that!” One person smelling another person’s butt in human culture is obviously taboo. But in the dog world that is how they meet each other. It is literally a dogs version of a handshake.

Or…

• “My dog was so mad I left him home alone today that he chewed up my favorite pair of running shoes!” The dog wasn’t mad. He doesn’t know the emotion mad. He knows he misses you (he feels sad) so he wanted something that reminded him of you to make him less sad. Something that smells like you…your sweaty running shoes fits that role perfectly!

Or…

• “When I came home today, I found Buddy had jumped on the counter and ate a whole bag of cookies. He knew he had been a bad boy because he had the guiltiest look on his face. He knew he was in trouble.” Actually, no. Dogs are not capable of feeling guilty. To feel guilt dogs have to understand morality, have language skills, and be able to think about the past.

If a dog comes across as “guilty” what he is actually showing is fear because he immediately senses your unhappiness, anger and frustration at him. Dogs are amazing at reading human body language and reacting to changes in their owners body language over time. There has been a lot of research on this subject, and everything recent I have seen and read demonstrates that dogs do not feel guilt.

They do feel fear and some are very good at sensing when their owners are unhappy. When he is cowering or looking away he is showing fear from these emotions he feels from you. He is not feeling guilty from eating the bag of cookies because he does not remember doing that.Dogs live in the now, the immediate moment. The reason they don’t feel guilt is they don’t remember what they did 10 minutes ago. If we were to look into a dogs mind and see what he is thinking it would be with words having to do with the immediate moment like: ” Squirrel! Poop! Food! Leaf! Dog! Person! Bone! Squirrel!!!”

Not…
“Wow! That bag of cookies sure was good! I wonder if mom will buy more? Will she miss the bag from the counter that I ate? Maybe if I look guilty when she gets home she’ll feel sorry for me and buy me more! Great idea – look guilty!”

I’m not knocking anthropomorphizing. I do it all the time! When I leave for the day and my 8 month old pup, Jato, looks at me with those soulful, brown eyes it’s hard to not think “Oh, my baby doesn’t want me to leave him! He wants me to stay at home with him all day long and hug him and hold him and squeeze him!” What he is probably thinking is “Treat! Treat! Treat!”

However, it is important not to apply that incorrect assessment of a dogs behavior to training and analyzing their behavior. If you do that, you are going to make mistakes and most likely confuse your dog. Most of the behavior problems we come across are caused by incorrect assessment of dogs behavior based on human assumptions. Sometimes these are very innocent mistakes, others are very obvious and irresponsible – like assuming a “guard dog” has to know on its own when it will bite and cannot be trained or it wont be a good guard dog. Or when people abuse and discipline a dog because it does not behave correctly and “knows better”. All dogs must be taught (trained) to live in a human world – especially urban non working dogs. Above all, your dog is a dog, not a 2 year old child, not a 4 year old child, but a dog. As such, he needs to be treated like a dog and trained as a dog (not as a human) and given clear direction because he does not and will not speak human and he will not and cannot understand why you are acting like he “should know better”.