-
Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.
Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:- Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
- Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
- Access to private conversations with other members.
We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!
Do dogs feel love?
- Thread starter dust1n
- Start date
I believe so. The bond between my dog and I is strong one. I love my dog, but I can't say for sure he "loves" me, but I would bet he would pout without me being around him.
My wife says he gets tore up when I leave and don't take him along with me.
There is a chance he just knows I'm going to go through a drive through however.
K.Venugopal
Immobile Wanderer
What non-humans feel towards us may not be exactly of the nature of what we feel towards them. Maybe we see our own version of love reflected in them. I have seen chaps so disliking cats that they never fail to kick one if it gets close enough (no one would dare do that to dogs, though). Maybe such folks would see their hate reflected in the cats. If we have love in our hearts, all living beings would seem so like us.
They show signs of attachment...
MissAlice
Well-Known Member
I believe K.Venugopal brings up a good point in how humans reflect their feelings onto animals. I love my cats and they've shown their love or "greatfulness" to me in many ways that not many cat haters would recognize. I had my aunt over who isn't fond of cats react whenever one of my own cats would rub up against her greeting her. I guess the same could apply to any species as well.
As for dogs, I still miss mine. She would express her happiness every time I would come home and get upset when I was about to leave. She seem like a very smart dog. In the past I had other dogs express attachment in various ways that're hard to explain unless you've owned and loved animals yourself.
As for dogs, I still miss mine. She would express her happiness every time I would come home and get upset when I was about to leave. She seem like a very smart dog. In the past I had other dogs express attachment in various ways that're hard to explain unless you've owned and loved animals yourself.
Kathryn
It was on fire when I laid down on it.
If they don't feel love, they sure are good at faking it!
When I come home at the end of the day, my dogs go crazy! They run around in circles, jump up on me (I know - it's bad...), and try their darndest to lick me in the face. One of my dogs has even started "smiling" and "talking" when I come home. This is a recent development. He's a puppy and I swear that he's mimicking my actions - why else would he have started all that dog smiling stuff? It's hilarious!
After dinner, if I lay down on the sofa to watch TV (read "fall immediately to sleep") the smaller one won't let me rest until he's laying on my chest, and the larger one lays down right beside me - or crawls her 60 pounds right up into my husband's lap.
I believe that dogs feel a dog version of love for their people - and for other family pets as well.
PRECIOUSES!!!!!!
When I come home at the end of the day, my dogs go crazy! They run around in circles, jump up on me (I know - it's bad...), and try their darndest to lick me in the face. One of my dogs has even started "smiling" and "talking" when I come home. This is a recent development. He's a puppy and I swear that he's mimicking my actions - why else would he have started all that dog smiling stuff? It's hilarious!
After dinner, if I lay down on the sofa to watch TV (read "fall immediately to sleep") the smaller one won't let me rest until he's laying on my chest, and the larger one lays down right beside me - or crawls her 60 pounds right up into my husband's lap.
I believe that dogs feel a dog version of love for their people - and for other family pets as well.
PRECIOUSES!!!!!!
Just_me_Mike
Well-Known Member
Me thinks dogs are smart enough to know how to find food. A dog can live a long and happy life as long as they have a food source. Unlike humans who "generally" need latrines of some sort, dogs can go where ever.
As Robert Dinero said in the movie Meet The Parent, dogs are shallow animals that merely do anything for food, and humans fool themselves into thinking the dog loves them.
I actually think part of the mechanism to a dogs brain is to know the odds of most favorable and reliable food sources, which means a dog would change owners without batting and eye if the food source was better and more reliable.
Admittedly, there is some sign of affection they show to their owners, but all in all they are scavengers first and lovers second, a distant second...
As Robert Dinero said in the movie Meet The Parent, dogs are shallow animals that merely do anything for food, and humans fool themselves into thinking the dog loves them.
I actually think part of the mechanism to a dogs brain is to know the odds of most favorable and reliable food sources, which means a dog would change owners without batting and eye if the food source was better and more reliable.
Admittedly, there is some sign of affection they show to their owners, but all in all they are scavengers first and lovers second, a distant second...
Kathryn
It was on fire when I laid down on it.
Sure dogs are security-oriented. They crave a master. Their very nature is wired to live in a pack with a leader.
But it's more than just food. There's a reason why dogs have been so loved throughout all of history and it doesn't have much to do with food. Dogs are loyal and they serve their masters with an unconditional devotion. They will often risk their own lives to save the lives of their people. They are devoted and affectionate companions.
They're also funny!
You can try to make the bond between a dog and a person scientific and dry, but you will not be able to remove the emotional bond between them with your scientific theories.
Joke O the Day:
If you want to find out whether your dog or your wife is your best friend, try this simple experiment:
Lock them both in the trunk of your car for two hours. When you open your trunk, the one that is happiest to see you is your best friend.
But it's more than just food. There's a reason why dogs have been so loved throughout all of history and it doesn't have much to do with food. Dogs are loyal and they serve their masters with an unconditional devotion. They will often risk their own lives to save the lives of their people. They are devoted and affectionate companions.
They're also funny!
You can try to make the bond between a dog and a person scientific and dry, but you will not be able to remove the emotional bond between them with your scientific theories.
Joke O the Day:
If you want to find out whether your dog or your wife is your best friend, try this simple experiment:
Lock them both in the trunk of your car for two hours. When you open your trunk, the one that is happiest to see you is your best friend.
You are quite wrong...
A fireman in our area was having to move away, to a place he could no longer keep his dog, so we took her in... for months she would do little more than lean over the back of our couch looking out the window, waiting for her owner to come pick her up...
Just_me_Mike
Well-Known Member
While all that may be true and emotionally interesting, you haven't shown that all those actions aren't tied to the security that the owners provide and that it was all driven by food originally.
In other words, think about it like this. The dogs brain is not as advanced as ours. So, if it finds a family to bond with and creates that connection, when the bond changes it is hard for dogs (and humans many times) to deal with it.
I would still be inclined to think these bonds ONLY develop because of a food source. The food source leads to other habits, routines, and moments of affection between the dog and it's surroundings, stamping into the dog's brain, that it's surroundings equate to steady food source. Thus they become protective and territorial.
Example, when a stranger approaches the dog wonders if the routine will be changed and the food source threatened. If owners change, the whole routine is now different, so uncertainty arises in their tiny minds about the predictability and longevity of the food source is up in the air. Eventually they come around to the new owner, and learn a new routine, but it is hard for them to do that.
To me the challenge would be to prove love had anything to do with that. Maybe it does, but it is an interesting question to me. One of which I think has all to do with food originally and food is what creates the "protectiveness", "affection", and personalities some suggest are acts of love.
Might help to define love first ey?
I read one way to stop a dog from jumping on you is to lean over and let them kiss you. They might be jumping to lick your mouth, and this is thought to be a greeting gesture.
I started doing this with my dog ~ giving him some official greeting time when I first walk in the door ~ and he stopped jumping. Plus it's fun to get puppy kisses. :hearts:
MSizer
MSizer
They are mammals, therefore they have the subcortical components necessary for emotions. While their emotions won't be exactly like ours, it's perfectly reasonable to believe that their emotions are quite similar. Furthermore, their social conventions are the most similar to ours - even more so than those of chimps and bonobos.
Just_me_Mike
Well-Known Member
Is this likeness simply an evolitionary advantage based on years of dogs being with humans? This would support my idea about doing whatever it takes to get food.
I just doubt our sense of love and a dogs could ever be the same, but rather dogs mimic humans for food.
Last edited:
MSizer
MSizer
Well, no, I think their emotional capacities go way back long before the human canine relationship occured. I think love is simply a sociobilogical trait that develops among social creatures to foster cohesion between individuals. The result is that they cooperate in groups and the gene propogation is improved. I think it is the similarities between their emotions and ours that allowed them to become so well adapted to human companionship. There's no doubt though that natural selection created the relatinoship we have with them, but of course we've taken things into our own hands now and we selectively breed them, so natural selection no longer happens in companion canines.
Noaidi
slow walker
I recently took part in a discussion on another religious forum and the topics of animal emotions and morality came up.
I asked a question:
By conceding that animals such as dogs, primates etc can have emotional and, to a degree, moral lives, does that in some way 'devalue' you as a human?
Many theistic people (especially those involved in the Abrahamic faiths) felt that conceding emotions and morals to animals was wrong, because only humans had these 'god-given' qualities and we were 'debasing' humans to a brute level. Personally, I think this view is unfounded.
Does acknowledging that your dog feels love change your perception of your own species in any way?
I asked a question:
By conceding that animals such as dogs, primates etc can have emotional and, to a degree, moral lives, does that in some way 'devalue' you as a human?
Many theistic people (especially those involved in the Abrahamic faiths) felt that conceding emotions and morals to animals was wrong, because only humans had these 'god-given' qualities and we were 'debasing' humans to a brute level. Personally, I think this view is unfounded.
Does acknowledging that your dog feels love change your perception of your own species in any way?