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Do You Believe Dogs Have Feelings?

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  • 20-11-2017 9:26pm
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭


    The reason I ask I suppose this unusual question is our dog is a big part of our family and although we all give him the same love and affection there is one member of the family he seems to miss more when has not been home for a long period of time. When i'm on the phone and i put it on loud speaker as soon as he hears my sons voice he stands on all fours with he's ears pricked up and sometimes runs around the sitting room with excitement. So I was wondering does anyone else out there have a pet dog that might react in a similar way and if so do you believe a dog has feelings.


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Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 38,247 ✭✭✭✭Guy:Incognito


    They can feel a kick in the hole alright.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,400 ✭✭✭me_irl


    Is someone ringing a bell cos I'm salivating like a motherfecker over here.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,812 ✭✭✭Vojera


    I don't think there's any doubt that animals have feelings. We just don't know how complex they are.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,613 ✭✭✭server down


    Yes. They can die of heartbreak in fact.


  • Registered Users Posts: 6,431 ✭✭✭MilesMorales1


    Yes. Cats and dogs do. They're more intelligent than people think they are.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,616 ✭✭✭Fox_In_Socks


    Emotions? Of course. Anger, love, fear...indisputable.


  • Registered Users Posts: 30,314 ✭✭✭✭freshpopcorn


    Yes, I believe dogs have feelings but I think peoples are more important!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 2,177 ✭✭✭PeterParker957


    Absolutely they can. Just told the pup he can't have any Maltesers.

    Never seen so much disappointment on one face!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 5,995 ✭✭✭Ipso


    Emotions? Of course. Anger, love, fear...indisputable.

    That look of agony of trying to hold in a dump before he goes on the carpet.


  • Registered Users Posts: 14,546 ✭✭✭✭Poor Uncle Tom


    Of course they have feelings, is that a real question...


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,960 ✭✭✭Dr Crayfish


    Of course they have feelings. It's only the animals we eat like pigs and cows and sheep etc that don't have feelings.


  • Registered Users Posts: 1,156 ✭✭✭tritriagain


    They can feel a kick in the hole alright.

    You deserve a kick in the hole.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭h7nlrp2v0g5u48


    Of course they have feelings, is that a real question...
    Yes it is a real question and the reason I asked such a question is to get posters opinions about what type of feeling their dog might show when been loved and cared for.


  • Registered Users Posts: 13,365 ✭✭✭✭McMurphy


    Of course they have feelings.

    Our dog will cower in a corner looking quite guilty when I get in from work from time to time, usually indicating that he's been at something he shouldn't have. Usually chewed on something or pissed somewhere (he's getting on)

    Tell him he's going on a walk - you can see the excitement in his face. Ask him if he wants a treat?- straight to the press where his treats are kept tail doing 90. Open the car door for him to signal he's actually coming with us, instead of staying in the kitchen until we return home, and he's like a kid at Christmas. Sitting in the car as smug as fcuk the whole way to wherever it is we're off to.

    He knows when someone is upset. Upon the death of one of my wife's immediate family, she was weeping for quite some time , the dog sauntered over to her , gave a bit of a whine, then reached up to her knee with a paw in a kind of a 'I know, I know gesture'

    When the kids are having the craic, he wants nothing better than joining in, barking loudly wagging his tail, and displaying sheer joy at being able to partake.

    As already said, dogs are a hell of a lot smarter than some people give them credit for.

    I love our dog. Absolutely 100% part of the family.


  • Registered Users Posts: 19,139 ✭✭✭✭Donald Trump


    I've gone out with a few in my day. The two legged variety I mean

    They claim to have feelings the next morning when the beer goggles wear off and I wake up, recoiling in disgust


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,960 ✭✭✭Dr Crayfish


    I would imagine most animals of reasonable intelligence are sentient. We have anthropomorphised dogs and cats so people are outraged when they hear of Asians eating dogs but have no problems tucking into steak or lamb. We're all a bunch of hypocrites.


  • Registered Users Posts: 5,538 ✭✭✭Duff


    Of course they do. Anyone who has ever owned a German Shepherd will tell you how close they become to their owners. My fella still goes nuts when he knows I'm leaving for work and he's nearly two. Also, when I come home and he's done a big shïte somewhere he shouldn't he 100% has a guilty look about him and knows he's done wrong.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭h7nlrp2v0g5u48


    They can feel a kick in the hole alright.
    I take it you don't own a dog and if you did I pitty the poor thing.


  • Registered Users Posts: 11,911 ✭✭✭✭scudzilla


    A lot of you in A&P know of Brodi, posted quite a few pics of her over the years, she's now 8yrs old

    4yrs ago we got another dog, same as Brodi, a boxer, he was male, she was female

    Now Ozzy grew big, too big, he had heart issues and he died at just over 1yr old, Brodi was devastated, we made the mistake of not taking her to the vets to see his body.

    For some weeks after any biscuits she'd get she'd store some, and whenever the front door was open she'd run outside and drop them in garden, guessing in the hope it would entice Ozzy back and that he was just missing, on walks sh'd be peeing every 20 metres or so, probably dropping her scent, she'd never done that before, or after

    She used to mammy him so bad and he loved it, we got Piper, a female boxer 2yrs ago, sure she likes Pip but knowhere near on the same scale as she loved Oz, part of her died that day he left us

    So yeah, Dogs have feelings

    Here's the 2 of them messing, Ozzy was 9 months here, (Bro is in purple collar), he died 3 months later



  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭h7nlrp2v0g5u48


    Rick Shaw wrote: »
    Of course they have feelings.

    Our dog will cower in a corner looking quite guilty when I get in from work from time to time, usually indicating that he's been at something he shouldn't have. Usually chewed on something or pissed somewhere (he's getting on)

    Tell him he's going on a walk - you can see the excitement in his face. Ask him if he wants a treat?- straight to the press where his treats are kept tail doing 90. Open the car door for him to signal he's actually coming with us, instead of staying in the kitchen until we return home, and he's like a kid at Christmas. Sitting in the car as smug as fcuk the whole way to wherever it is we're off to.

    He knows when someone is upset. Upon the death of one of my wife's immediate family, she was weeping for quite some time , the dog sauntered over to her , gave a bit of a whine, then reached up to her knee with a paw in a kind of a 'I know, I know gesture'

    When the kids are having the craic, he wants nothing better than joining in, barking loudly wagging his tail, and displaying sheer joy at being able to partake.

    As already said, dogs are a hell of a lot smarter than some people give them credit for.

    I love our dog. Absolutely 100% part of the family.
    Our dog is much the same when i'm eating my dinner he stands up on two legs and taps me on the leg hoping i will give him some of my roast beef . Of course I always tell him feck off because he never shares any of his food with me. When he's sitting on the couch he can tell by the sound of the cars outside which one is ours and jumps up on the windowsill. He seems to be very intelligent


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭h7nlrp2v0g5u48


    scudzilla wrote: »
    A lot of you in A&P know of Brodi, posted quite a few pics of her over the years, she's now 8yrs old

    4yrs ago we got another dog, same as Brodi, a boxer, he was male, she was female

    Now Ozzy grew big, too big, he had heart issues and he died at just over 1yr old, Brodi was devastated, we made the mistake of not taking her to the vets to see his body.

    For some weeks after any biscuits she'd get she'd store some, and whenever the front door was open she'd run outside and drop them in garden, guessing in the hope it would entice Ozzy back and that he was just missing, on walks sh'd be peeing every 20 metres or so, probably dropping her scent, she'd never done that before, or after

    She used to mammy him so bad and he loved it, we got Piper, a female boxer 2yrs ago, sure she likes Pip but knowhere near on the same scale as she loved Oz, part of her died that day he left us

    So yeah, Dogs have feelings

    Here's the 2 of them messing, Ozzy was 9 months here, (Bro is in purple collar), he died 3 months later

    Thanks for sharing that lovely but sad story. So as well as humans dying of a broken heart dogs can too.


  • Registered Users Posts: 781 ✭✭✭davyboy1975


    We have a king charles and she is highly intelligent and definitely has feelings.
    When my wife had suffered a miscarriage years ago the dog knew before we did, started sitting on her lap and not moving from it withoit being physically removed for a few weeks, turns out she had a mis two weeks before we actually went to the hospital.
    My dog also goes mad in a good way when my parents come over to the house she runs over to them and u can see her smiling
    Without doubt they have feelings


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,960 ✭✭✭Dr Crayfish




  • Closed Accounts Posts: 1,544 ✭✭✭h7nlrp2v0g5u48


    Such a sad story. It beggars belief how someone could abandon a poor unfortunate dog like that. Obviously the sumbag who did this had no heart. Surely his owner could have taken him to a kennel where he would have been taken cared of in an humaine way.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 429 ✭✭JimmyMcGill


    You deserve a kick in the hole.
    You wouldn't say that to Facekicker.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,960 ✭✭✭Dr Crayfish


    natashaob6 wrote: »
    Such a sad story. It beggars belief how someone could abandon a poor unfortunate dog like that. Obviously the sumbag who did this had no heart. Surely his owner could have taken him to a kennel where he would have been taken cared of in an humaine way.

    What do you think of factory farms?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 657 ✭✭✭Vladimir Poontang


    I would imagine most animals of reasonable intelligence are sentient. We have anthropomorphised dogs and cats so people are outraged when they hear of Asians eating dogs but have no problems tucking into steak or lamb. We're all a bunch of hypocrites.

    Yeah but dogs have personalities.


  • Registered Users Posts: 12,863 ✭✭✭✭crosstownk



    What sort of absolute wánker would abandon a dog at an airport. :confused: Fair enough if you have to leave and can't bring the animal but surely to fcuk it would cost nothing to bring it to a shelter, explain the situation and have the poor mutt looked after by caring professionals.

    Sub human cnuts. :mad:


  • Registered Users Posts: 17,797 ✭✭✭✭hatrickpatrick


    I don't think there's any doubt to be honest. And I've never understood the extraordinarily arrogant view humans have that other animals don't have complex thoughts, just because they don't communicate the way we do. It's buzzard, actually, this idea that our brains produce actual self-thought while almost every other brain in the animal kingdom is purely a cause and effect analyser? Don't buy it at all.


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 2,960 ✭✭✭Dr Crayfish


    Yeah but dogs have personalities.

    So do horses, and pigs, the French eat horses. Look I love dogs I just find the fawning over them ridiculous the way we treat the animals we eat. I doubt piglets are too happy when mother is taken away to be slaughtered but we don't seem to care about that.


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