Animals and Emotion...... What do they feel?
The short answer would be that no one truly knows right?
We communicate in different ways to our animals.
How on earth would we know what they are feeling, and can we really call it emotion?
In my own personal opinion...
Yes.
We recently lost one of the family dogs, a beautiful black lab.
He wasn't very old and it was a tragic accident that took his life.
Since then all of our other dogs have been out of sorts. They don't know what happened to him but they do know that he is missing.
To put a human emotion on it, they are sad.
They are out of sorts and less active, at night they all look a little lost when they go to bed without him.
In my opinion, they miss him, they are grieving for their missing friend.
Whether they feel sadness, and grief in the same way as us is unclear, but they certainly feel something.
Let turn it to horses, and tie it in with some behaviour.
Separation Anxiety, for example, a horse like Robbie that doesn't like working alone.
Well is that a bad attitude, fear, sadness, arrogance?
Any of the above?
Horses amaze me because they are one of the most emotionally aware animals that I have ever worked with.
Something like Robbie for example, you can see physical changes as you put pressure on or ask him questions.
The same sort of physical changes that a person feeling fear would go through.
He stands up taller, makes himself look more imposing.
His eyes widen and his nostrils flare.
His ears start working over time as he listens to everything around him.
His muscles tense and he is poised to run, which is exactly what he does if it gets too much.
This to me opens another can of worms.
Is it an emotional response to a situation that I am dealing with, or has it become a habit, making it the physical response I am dealing with.
If only they could talk and tell us what they are really feeling.
I mean we all associate different expressions with different moods with our horses. But is it the same as them being emotional.
Happy? Or just Attentive and Alert... Inquisitive?
Bored? Annoyed? Tired? Relaxed?
Stubborn? Nervous? Rude? Scared?
What does everyone else think? Has anyone had any experiences of animals showing emotion? Do you think they feel things in the same ways as us?
Let me know your thoughts!
We recently lost one of the family dogs, a beautiful black lab.
He wasn't very old and it was a tragic accident that took his life.
Since then all of our other dogs have been out of sorts. They don't know what happened to him but they do know that he is missing.
To put a human emotion on it, they are sad.
They are out of sorts and less active, at night they all look a little lost when they go to bed without him.
In my opinion, they miss him, they are grieving for their missing friend.
Whether they feel sadness, and grief in the same way as us is unclear, but they certainly feel something.
Let turn it to horses, and tie it in with some behaviour.
Separation Anxiety, for example, a horse like Robbie that doesn't like working alone.
Well is that a bad attitude, fear, sadness, arrogance?
Any of the above?
Horses amaze me because they are one of the most emotionally aware animals that I have ever worked with.
Something like Robbie for example, you can see physical changes as you put pressure on or ask him questions.
The same sort of physical changes that a person feeling fear would go through.
He stands up taller, makes himself look more imposing.
His eyes widen and his nostrils flare.
His ears start working over time as he listens to everything around him.
His muscles tense and he is poised to run, which is exactly what he does if it gets too much.
This to me opens another can of worms.
Is it an emotional response to a situation that I am dealing with, or has it become a habit, making it the physical response I am dealing with.
If only they could talk and tell us what they are really feeling.
I mean we all associate different expressions with different moods with our horses. But is it the same as them being emotional.
What does everyone else think? Has anyone had any experiences of animals showing emotion? Do you think they feel things in the same ways as us?
Let me know your thoughts!
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