A Dog’s Love
February 14, 2010
Dear Diary,
Today is Valentine’s Day – a day meant to celebrate love. Some people question whether or not we dogs truly love our people. They say that we are just happy because our needs are being met. If you have ever shared a special bond with a dog, you know in your heart that is just not true.
The sceptics say that “love” is too complex an emotion for dogs. Well, in 1980 a man named Robert Plutchik created a wheel of emotions. He listed 8 basic emotions and 8 advanced emotions, which were combinations of the basic emotions.
Here are pictures of me – I think they show how I “feel”.
JOY
TRUST
Fear
SURPRISE
SADNESS
DISGUST
ANGER
ANTICIPATION
Two of the “advanced” emotions on the list are submission and aggressiveness. Now how many times have you heard those applied to dog behavior? Like all the time. So, if we dogs can feel those, shouldn’t we also be able to experience the good complex emotions like love and optimism.
Isn’t this an expressions of love? Don’t my eyes say it all?!
I LOVE YOU
Signed, Tucker (owner of this Dog Diary)
If you enjoyed this dog blog, you can read more about me
at The Sensible Dog or follow my dog tweets on Twitter as sensibledog.
PS. Mom found a really interesting study about dogs showing “positive” or “negative” feelings by whether they wag their tails more to the left or the right. Hmm … what happens when you don’t have a tail. Do I “wiggle butt” more to the left or the right?
Maybe I just spin
Signed, Tucker (your blog host)
To read more about me go to The Sensible Dog.
You raise many questions in my head; you wrote an excellent post, but this post is also mind provoking, and I will have to think about it a bit more; I will be back soon.
Glad you enjoyed the post. I would love to hear more about what you are thinking. (from Tucker)