5 Ways To Decode Your Dog’s Feelings, According To Science

Knowing your dog's feelings is always a puzzling task for any dog lover. Science finally revealed some of the most pressing questions dog owners have about their canine companions.

"Does my dog get jealous?"

A 2014 study published by PLOS ONE revealed that dogs display jealous behaviors when their owners show more affection to a stuffed toy dog. This is largely due to their perception that the toy might be real so the authors of the study concluded that dogs certainly get jealous.

"Does my dog feel guilty after he does something bad?"

Even though dogs show the same signs of guilt we do as humans, it does not actually mean they are sorry. Dogs look guilty because they have learned to anticipate their humans yelling at them, which is why they hang their head, according to Dr. Gregory Berns, a leading neuroscientist in the field of canine cognition.

"Is my dog happy to see me?"

Research at Emory University concluded that dogs' brains activate the same way human brains would when presented with faces that they recognize. "What we're finding with the imaging work is that dogs love their humans-and not just for food," according to Berns.

"What is my dog thinking when I video chat with her?"

While dogs usually recognize people for their scents, the smell is not a factor in video chatting so they would need to rely on facial and voice recognition. While a study in PeerJ conducted by Berns' team said that dogs' brains get activated after viewing images of people, it has not been proven if dogs can recognize their owners' by face alone.

"Can my dog feel my emotions?"

"Dogs are so good at reading [human] emotions that they will often pick up on subtle changes in voice intonation associated with affective state and respond accordingly," said Ragen T.S. McGowan, PhD., a senior behavior scientist at Nestle Purina. Dogs are especially skilled at sensing emotions.

Dogs can also read emotions in our faces, according to a 2015 study published in Current Biology, as cited by the Huffington Post. This explains why canines can be more playful when their owners' are in good spirits or would want to cuddle when their owners' are sad.