Dogs have evolved with a basic sense of empathy. This is true as every dog owner involved in a mishap knows, their dog understands your pain and wants to make everything right.
Dogs are known for their intelligence; science is showing us their emotional life needs to be appreciated, too.
And we come to better understand why the dog is regarded as "man's best friend."
When I’m stressed, my dog gets stressed. When I bang something my do knows I’m mad. I think its the smell. We give off scents with emotional reactions. Hence, PTSD dogs, cancer dogs, epilepsy dogs, diabetic dogs. If only we could do the same for them.
I came down with a massive dose of food poisoning last night after an office Xmas party.
After I was done evacuating my innards in the bathroom, I curled up miserable under the blankets - and Fergus the Wonder Puppy was right there to keep me company.
He knew the old man was not up to snuff...
Was there ever any doubt that dogs and people have a very complex bond? I can’t imagine life without man’s best friend.
I think these guys at Pisa broke a lot of ground on the concept of mirror neurons. These allow us to mimic what others are doing, and has a great deal to do with our ability to learn from each other. In the earlier research, it was frequently claimed that only Man and the great apes had this to any great extent. I’ve always kind of doubted that, because how else do animals, especially social animals, learn anything?
My female doxie gets in my male doxie’s face when she hears me get on to him for something. He has never done that when I have to get on her.