Emotions in Dogs

Abstract Domestic dog, Canis familiaris, is called “human’s best friend”: dogs are everywhere in the Western societies, and over 470 million dogs are kept as pets worldwide. But what are the social and emotional properties of dogs that enable such an affectionate friendship bond across species? During their domestication 14,000–30,000 years ago, dogs have undergone selective changes and developed behavioral skills that enable them to better function in human social groups. Humans and dogs share some basic emotional functionality of the nervous systems, which aids in interspecies interaction. Dogs have positive and negative affective states, with most research conducted on fear, anger/aggressiveness, reward-processing and joy. Still, dogs are not four-legged, nonverbal humans. In the light of scientific results, canine capability for social emotions such as guilt or jealousy appears limited. Dogs understand human behavior from a dog’s point of view, and humans understand dogs from a human’s point of view.