We may think we are reading our dog’s emotions clearly, but experts tell us these emotions exactly may not be what you think they are. Could that wag of a tail be happiness or excitement? Is that growl at another dog out of anger or fear?

This developmental sequence is the golden key to understanding the emotions of dogs. Dogs go through their developmental stages much more quickly than humans do and have all of the emotional range that they will ever achieve by the time they are four to six months of age (depending on the rate of maturation in their breed). The important fact is that we know that the assortment of emotions available to the dog will not exceed that which is available to a human who is two to two-and-a-half years old. This means that a dog will have all of the basic emotions: joy, fear, anger, disgust, and, yes, love, but the dog does not experience the more complex emotions like guilt, pride, and shame.

Many would argue that they have seen evidence indicating their dog is capable of experiencing guilt. The usual situation recounted is one in which you’ve come home and your dog starts slinking around showing discomfort, and you then find that he has left a smelly brown deposit on your kitchen floor. It is natural to conclude that the dog was acting in a way that shows that he is feeling guilty about his transgression. Despite appearances, this is not guilt, but simply a display of the more basic emotion of fear. Your dog has learned that when you appear and his droppings are visible on the floor, bad things happen to him. What you see is his fear of punishment; he will never feel guilt because he is not capable of experiencing it.

Check out Modern Dog Magazine for more information on this interesting topic. Modern Dog Magazine also explores what scientists from long past felt about our fury friends and how some French thinkers thought their reactions that were of “simple machines!”

Well, if nothing else we can stop feeling guilty for dressing our cute pooches in those frilly holiday outfits. Because no, they don’t really have pride as we do. Instead, they are probably pleased about how happy their fashionable outfit make us! LOL!