After testing '30' dogs - they say dogs have no emotions of love Everything they do is food related So, if he/she greets you its only the thought of food on their mind What a load of baloney ! When I was fostered, I not only gained 4 brothers but a wonderful dog too We had a bond of mutual love for sure When I left, it was 2 years later that I paid a visit. I spotted Bimbo a half mile down the road and yelled her name. She stopped in her tracks looked my way and came bounding to my side As we hugged, this dog was crying so hard and I will never forget her excitement and the absolute joy she displayed. I had never fed her in our time shared, so there was no memory of that for her. Dogs, as people - have different characters and some will be dopey, some smart etc .. These scientists are a silly lot .................
They came up with a study that said pretty much the same thing about cats a few years ago and, while it's probably more true of cats than dogs, it was still a load of nonsense, probably working toward an agenda of ridding the world of pets.
Ridding the world of pets might be a most interesting imponderable! Folks began adopting inanimate things as "pets" back when I was about 25 or so. "Pet Rocks", "Pet Marbles", etc. Then, they went on to the Hula-Hoop! The limit struck me a few years ago, as I walked towards a woman in a Casino carrying a Cat. It was loosely engulfed by a "burka" of some kind, staring straight ahead, seemingly unmoved by the clanging noise and bustle of folks moving about ceaselessly, all these things known by me to be highly distractive to cats. Then I saw it, observing closely. Her cat was dead! It had been professionally preserved by a taxidermist. She carried it about as though it were a child. The look her cat gave me suggested it was thinking, "You can only hope!" Frank
@Frank Sanoica - that's sad and funny Frank Even birds have emotion My uncle would turn up at Grandma's house for his lunch, 12.30 sharp every day and the first thing he would do is spend a couple of minutes talking and playing with the budgie At 12.20 that bird would go crazy with excitement knowing uncle was on his way When uncle went into hospital for 3 weeks, budgie passed away The same thing years later when Nan had to go into hospital, her canary passed on ....... There's so much more to animals, they deserve the credit for their intelligence, warmth and soul
I vehemently disagree with that study. Dogs definitely are affectionate and they are even more affectionate that most people I know. I have helped many relatives and I know that they only love me because of my help but when they don't need anything from me, you can guess that I don't hear from them. With dogs, I have to agree that they are centered on food and dog trainers use food as a tool to teach dogs. However, your dog which you fed for years will still show their affection even if you don't feed them. I'm sorry but I really cannot accept that study.
Well 'Skid Boot' was so typical of a dog that cherished his owner, both American The dog was easy to train because he loved it and, no food involved. The target for Skid Boot was his favourite toy
True that dogs do a lot of things for food, especially a dachshund, but it goes beyond that. Pickles barely leaves my side all day...follows me wherever I go. Also when I go away for a few weeks and my daughter is watching him, he's so happy when he sees me again And I don't have any food in my hand for him. When we go to my daughters, he greets each family member there as they come home from school or jobs the same way and nobody is bringing him food. The 17 year old is his favorite person there for some reason and has nothing to do with food.
I totally agree that our pets DO feel love for us, and it has nothing to do with the fact that we feed them. That would be like saying that children only love their parents because they are provided with a home and food, which obviously is not true. Probably the dogs used for that test were laboratory dogs, which only see a human then they are being fed, or used for testing purposes; so it makes sense that the best thing in their life would be when food arrived. Not only do our dogs sense when we are downhearted, they also seem to know when we are sick. There are people who have dogs that alert them when a seizure is coming on, or other medical problems. And they not only care about us, they also care about other animals. We have probably all seen the pictures and videos of a dog rescuing another dog that had been hurt and was laying on the highway, or the one who was trying to put water on a fish that was laying on the concrete at a fish market. Just the other day, i was looking at a facebook video showing a turtle helping another turtle that had gotten turned onto his back and could not turn back over again. When I was looking for that video to post it here, I noticed that there are quite a few other videos of turtles rescuing each other, so it was not just a fluke accident. I know that PETA does not want people to own pets, and they think that if you see a starving cat on the street, you should leave it there, in "the natural state" and let nature take its course, as they put it. My opinion about that is that if you see a hungry cat on the street, the cat has come out there on PURPOSE so that you will see it and rescue the cat. Animals can easily hide from us when they want to, so obviously if they are out there and meowing loudly, they are indeed asking for help. I do agree with Ken that there is an agenda of ridding the world of pets. If places like PETA actually cared about the animals, they would not want them to be left out to die just because it was "natural". While it is true that some animals should not be kept as pets, and even some that can be kept as pets are abused, it is also true that most pets are loved and treated like part of the family. Look at all the people who refused to leave during hurricanes because they were not able to take their pets into rescue centers.