Learn to identify 22 emotional states of your dog or cat

“It’s very difficult to understand how cats and dogs feel, and getting it wrong, welfare issues for animals and risk of injury For humans”. This is the first sentence of the study titled ‘Owners’ beliefs about the emotional capacities of their cats and dogs’ published in the journal ‘Animals’.

Scientific research on the emotions of pets is still in its infancy. This is why pet owners are the best possible sources of information today, because they often spend a lot of time with their pets.

In this survey, 438 owners were asked whether their dogs and cats were able to express their emotions and to indicate behavioral cues they relied on to describe those emotions. Questions were asked about 22 different emotional states.

Owners believe it dogs can feel more emotions than cats and that they can use different behavioral cues to identify different emotions of both types.

Owners identify 22 emotional states in their pets. pixabay

The number of reported canine emotions tended to increase with increasing experience. staff dog owner, but decreased with increasing experience professional with the owner.

These owner perceptions are useful for advancing research in the field of animal emotions, as they provide a starting point for validating every emotion in these species.

Jealousy, love, pride, grief…

Survey included six simple emotions (anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, and surprise) And 16 complex emotions (fun, anxiety, boredom, confusion, curiosity/interest, disappointment, shame, empathy, disappointment, grief, guilt/shame, jealousy, love/affection, grief, positive anticipation, and pride).

The findings confirmed that owners point to a much broader catalog of emotions than previously documentedand households where cats and dogs lived together reported higher rates of secondary emotions in dogs.

“As animal-assisted therapies continue to gain popularity in promoting good mental health and well-being in humans, Accurate identification of an animal’s emotional state is key to successful human-animal interactions. in general,” says Hannah McGowan, head of communications at Lincoln University.

Pets feel at least 6 simple and 16 complex emotions. Unsplash

“Assessing owners’ impressions of pet emotions is an important part of understanding human-animal interactions,” says Daniel Mills, MD, professor of veterinary behavioral medicine at Lincoln.

“Problems can arise if an owner misinterprets their pet’s emotional state.; Your perception may not be the same as reality. For example, if an owner identifies guilt as an emotion in their pet through facial expression and behavioral cues after a period of mischief, the pet may feel the need to scold him,” she explains.

The humanization problem

“Animal emotions at the limit of our research. Because they can’t speak, the importance of documenting owner reviews is the first step to being able to speak up. truly identify the inner feelings of our companion animals“assess Kun Guo, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Lincoln.

Although owners have reported a comparable set of behavioral cues (e.g., body posture, facial expression, and head posture) for dogs and cats when expressing the same emotion, different combinations are often certain feelings in both cats and dogs.

The number of reported emotions in cats was higher in homes with only cats compared to homes with dogs.

But while owners’ interpretations of animal emotions are a vital source of data, it’s not without its flaws; the main one among them, anthropomorphism And humanizing tendencies in dog owners.

“Our research shows that we see cats and dogs very differently when it comes to emotionsIt suggests a possible species bias that could be a problem for our pets.”

A female German Shepherd and her puppy are playing. pixabay

This humanization It can also increase the risk for humans, as people are more likely to ignore signs of discomfort or put their dogs in situations they can’t handle because they believe their pets will never harm them.

For example, Most dog bites involving children occur in family dogs while unsupervised in the home environment, and the child’s behavior towards the dog is the most common trigger..

Reference report: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/5/820

……..

Contact details of the environment department: [email protected]