Understanding Dogs' Emotional Capacity

For 30,000 years dogs have lived with humans (Fisher). At one point or another, many dog owners have probably wondered what their dog thought of them. After wondering this myself, I decided to research the topic. Through MRI brain scans, scientists have discovered exactly what dogs think of their owners. Dogs treat their owners as their parents. They rely on their owners more than they rely on their own kind.

With almost 50% of Americans owning dogs, dogs have become part of our family (Fisher). Even scientists have said dogs believe their owners are their parents. The relationship between dogs and their owners turns out to be similar to the relationship between children and their parents. Just like it’s hard to study humans, it is hard to get an accurate readying on what dogs are thinking. Every dog is different, they have different personalities, attitudes, and have grown up in different environments. A dog that has grown up around violence and anger will most likely be aggressive. A dog that has grown up in a loving home with a caring family will most likely be obedient and affectionate. Researching dogs is a luxury we have, that is why our information on dogs thinking processes are very limited. I will mainly be focusing on what the most common dog may think of their owner.

Scientists wanted to know if it is possible to see a dog’s emotion through a brain scanner. Through seeing a dog’s emotion, it would help us determine what goes on in a dog’s mind. Scientists use an MRI (Magnetic resonance imaging) machine to read the emotions a dog can process. It is the most efficient harmless way to examine a dog’s brain. An MRI uses magnetic field and radio waves to produce pictures of the inside of your body (Lam). An fMRI was used to measure the dog’s responses (Fisher). FMRI is a technique used to map out brain activity (Devlin). The pictures of the dogs brain would light up. Dogs were trained to lie still in an MRI machine, the same machines used for humans. It took around 2-3 months to train the first dog, until they were comfortable enough to follow through with the procedure (Worrall). It is a very intimidating process due to the loud noise, small coffin like shape, and the dogs having to stay still for such a long time. These brain scans were done by a neuroscientist at Emory University. They scanned 62 dogs from 33 different breeds (Avril).

Understanding a dog’s emotional capacity will help us understand how a dog thinks of humans. At first it was hard for scientists to accept that dogs have feelings. Dogs and humans share the same brain structures that produce our emotions. We have the same hormones and go through the same chemical changes (Fisher). Since dog brains are at most the size of a lemon, they do not hold as much information as ours (Worrall). When it comes to their emotional capacity, dogs relate most to toddlers. An adult dog has a mind equal to that of a 2-2 ½ year old child (Fisher). Dogs also interact with their owners the same way babies do their parents. They both turn to their caregivers for help or run to them when in fear. Through the MRI scans, it was found that by the age of 4-6 months, dogs develop basic emotions such as, happiness, fear, anger, excitement, contentment, distress, and love. Dogs will never be able to develop more complex emotions, such as pride, guilt, or shame (Worrall).

After scientists understood the dog’s emotional process, it was time to figure out what exactly dog’s thought of humans, especially their owners. Since dogs use their nose to navigate the world, scientists used that to their advantage. While the dog was in the MRI they would be introduced to several different smells. Scientists introduced human and dog scents. Some scents the testing dog was familiar with, and other scents the dog did not recognize (Fisher). The most important scent introduced to the dog was their owner’s scent. When presented with a smell that pleased the dog, the dog’s brain scan would light up.

After many trials, it was time to see what exactly dogs think of humans. Unfortunatley, it’s not a straight-forward answer. What scientists have been able to gather, has been that the tested dogs were more excited to smell their owner than they were to smell anyone else. It was found that dogs prioritized the scent of humans over other dogs. Scientists noticed that when the dog was presented with their owner’s scent, it sparked activation in the reward center of the brain. Scientists also compared the scent of humans to the scent of food. The dogs were presented with the smell of food and the smell of their owner. The brain scans showed that on average the testing dog had equal emotions to both the food and their owners. Dogs love us just as much as we’ve always thought, they even see us as family.

Yes, dogs love us just as much as we’ve always thought, but there is more to it. Every dog is different. The attitude and feelings a dog has towards humans varies on their personality. Like I mentioned earlier there is not much information given on the thinking process of aggressive dogs. Aggressive dogs have not been put through an MRI. As you could imagine, a dog that is aggressive would have a different outlook on humans than a dog that lives in harmony with their family.

Every dog experiences emotions differently. I believe that it is hard to find straight forward answers because all dogs are wired differently. These study’s were only conducted on dogs that had a home. Some dogs are trained and live with a nice family. Other dogs might not have a home and have behavioral issues. I would like the see the outcome of this experiment done on a wider range of dogs. To get an accurate reading could take years. Hundreds of dogs would need to be trained and scanned to get a fair reading of what dogs really think of humans.

Through my research, I was surprised to find out the extent scientists have gone to study a dog’s mind. With modern technology, scientists can study a dog’s reaction to different smells. This in turn, can help us determine the way a dog feels about us. I believe that this was a very fun and interesting topic, but I wasn’t given quality answers. I feel that there wasn’t enough information on the topic. When asking the question “What do dogs think of us”, I was expecting to find more of a straightforward answer, instead I was told how scientists can view dogs emotions. Yes, now we know for a fact that our dogs love us, but was all that work worth it? Just like anyone else, I'd be interested to see what else these scientists can discover about a dogs mind. After studying countless articles and watching many videos, I was very disappointed of the outcome of my research. I believed I would find more detailed evidence explaining what dogs think of humans. Unfortunately, with this study bein conducted on only 62 dogs, there is not enough information to explain our question.