Monday I asked my Facebook followers, “Do you believe dogs experience feelings of love, jealousy, shame, humiliation?“
I had seven responses. Five said YES! One said yes to the first three for sure. The last one said a new book she was reading had her questioning what she knew.
I admit, I had an ulterior motive.
Sunday we posted a photo on Instagram (you can follow us HeartLikeADog) of Delilah wearing her new boots and staring out the window. I captioned it, “Delilah contemplating if the walk is worth the humiliation of wearing boots.”
It’s not, it’s definitely not.
You may remember a few weeks back I picked up some of those disposable rubber balloon like ‘boots.’ While I can see their value (you want to protect a paw that has a sore on it) they aren’t the boots for us. We went through that $20 pack of boots in about 2 weeks.
I needed to find something a little more durable. My friend Mary had a review on boots, but Mary is in the desert and I wasn’t sure exactly how well those boots would stand up to the snowy, salty, chemically Connecticut winter.
Whoops, someone took a dump.
Luckily my friend Tanya who lives in New York put up a photo of her dog wearing boots. I hopped right on the message chat and got the specifics.
I ordered the boots from Chewy and they came in two days.
How hard can this be? I asked myself. They’ve been wearing booties for weeks, I thought.
I put one boot on each of the dogs.
Typical Delilah she tried to bite it off.
Ah, it’s velcro, all I have to do is grab it right here…
Sampson just laid there and pouted.
This isn’t cute, this is cruel.
I left the boot on for a few minutes, then put another one and left that one on for a few minutes, then took them off.
Come walk time I put the boots on the dogs and headed out the door.
Do you see anyone watching us in that direction? I don’t see anyone this way either.
Sampson the little jackass kept kicking his feet and trying to throw the boot. Eventually he won and tossed one of the offending boots into the snow. I picked it up and put it in my pocket. After that, he was fine. I guess it’s like when you get the spins from drinking, as long as one foot touches the floor…
Delilah was a totally different story. She walked sedately beside me. She did not sniff, she did not look around, she did not potty. If I had to say what her mood was, I’d say pissed off.
I figured she either hated the boots or the sound of my giggling voice as I watched them goose-stepping up the street.
When we first started with the balloon boots, Delilah had a similar response. The first day she only walked, the second day she tinkled on the walk and by the third day she was back to her normal, silly self.
I shared this with my mom on Sunday evening as we discussed the dog’s progress with the boots. “Today she tinkled on our walk, she’ll be back to doing her pooping business tomorrow,” I said confidently.
Monday she filed a formal protest and staged a lie in. She allowed me to put the boots on her, but she refused to get off the bed and walk.
I refuse to take one step with these ridiculous things on.
Sampson and I walked alone.
Monday afternoon we still had lots of snow and no real chemicals on the road, so I let them walk without shoes. Tuesday I started her with the boots on her back feet only and she did okay. She walked with a nice loose leash, but she still wouldn’t poop.
Yesterday morning neither one of them wanted to get up for their walk. Hubby said, “Maybe it’s too cold, why not just skip it?”
Why don’t you just head out without us?
Because I got up at 5:45 to walk those stinking dogs and dammit, they’re going to walk! So beginning yesterday morning, they’re both walking with boots only on the back feet.
So given all of that, I’ll ask you. Do you think dogs have feelings?
They have feelings, and no one will ever convince me that they don’t. We’ve dealt with dogs having severe depression after losing a companion. The vets actually call it depression. If they can feel depression, then they can feel a host of other emotions as well. They don’t try to hide those emotions like a lot of humans will either. What’s more, their moods greatly affect the moods of their humans and vice versa. Their joy at getting to do a favorite activity can turn the worst day of all into a great day. Thank God for being able to come home to comfort and joy after a rough day!
I’m glad you brought that up. It’s a very valid point. I’ve heard of dogs that lived together for years and then pass away within a short time of one another. And how about the dogs that lie on their owner’s graves? How can dogs have separation anxiety if they don’t have feelings? To me all of these things point to feelings. Thank you for such a lovely comment.
I believe they absolutely do have feelings. Maybe not as intensely as some of ours but I own the most sensitive two dogs on the planet. EVERYTHING bothers Zoe. I’ve been going back and forth about possibly putting her on anxiety medication because every little thing upsets her.
We’ve been having a lot of fun (not) with booties as well. I have a similar pair for Zoe that you have for your pups. She freaking hates those things. She gives me sad face every single time I put them on. At this point, though, they are a medical necessity. She has been getting horrible foot infections from the wet muck grass (we live in the Pacific Northwest) and then she gives herself a secondary infection from licking them. So any time it rains or the grass is wet she has to have booties on or I have to bring her in and immediately wash her feet with antibacterial soap. She hates that, too. She’s the same as Delilah. Not wanting to walk and acting very sedate. It sucks.
I’ve been trying to counter condition her to wearing the boots and making it fun but she is still hating it. I hope with time she will get over it.
Oh poor Zoe. That really stinks about the allergies. What kind of counter conditioning are you doing? Like putting her boots on and then engaging her in her favorite activity? For mine I was thinking of just putting the boots on in the house, leaving them on for a few minutes and taking them off and giving them treats. Just so they begin to get use to them.
Of course they have feelings, they have a soul. Why are some people so quick to dumb them down? You need to tall your two that lots of very cool dogs wear boots, and actually boots are very important. Look at all the fire dogs, police dogs that wear them for protection. Delilah and Sampson are now part of a very cool gang!
I don’t understand how some people dumb them down or say they don’t have feelings! Anyone who has a pet understands they have feelings. They may not experience every single emotion that we do, but they still experience some of it.
Of course feelings and we say silly to think otherwise. Have a tremendous Thursday.
Best wishes Molly
Thanks Molly, some dogs aren’t as articulate as you are. 🙂
I have feelings like crazy. Most of my feelings are confused and puzzled. Mom is going in reverse order – we tried the boots with the Velcro ankle strap. Unsuccessful. We’re trying the balloon boots next.
Love and licks,
Cupcake
I hope the balloon boots work for you Cupcake, it’s important to protect your feet from all the crap on the road (especially the stuff you can’t eat.) ‘-)
You guys are lucky your mom is so easy. We get the boots, have to wear all four and have to walk as far as Mom wants to walk, no questions, no refusals, we are forced to endure. We know this and have given up our fighting. Once you start walking, it isn’t so bad really, and in the winter when we have to wear these covers of shame on our paws it is usually below zero meaning we are the only ones out so no one sees us.
She wasn’t having any of it Emma and I refused to pull her or force her off the bed, so she stayed home. Hopefully thinking about what fun Sampson was having the whole time. 🙂
I keep trying to tell them none of the other dogs are watching, but they don’t listen to me.
Jodi, I can’t tell you how much I enjoy your adventures with the D-dog. She keeps me chuckling long after I’ve read your posts. I kind of think dogs DO have feelings and they often tie closely with our reactions. Sam would rather take a bullet than wear his boots but he mostly is patient (and only rarely avoids my putting them on him but he always looks like I just killed one of his puppy siblings or something). That said (and because he completely lives in the moment) once outside he goes about participating in the walk. Yesterday a quick storm squalled through with a stiff wind and he didn’t like the snow blowing into his face. He kept his face down and to the side and as I chuckled at him, his posture noticeably dropped in response to my laughing it seemed. I’m convinced even this doofus knows and responds to my jesting. As I type this, I’m kind of feeling bad about it and then realize I’m smack dab in the middle of playing head games with my dog. Sheesh, I must be a terrible fur-mom but a girl’s gotta keep her sanity with the dog who can test her patience, right? [insert total justification here] 😉
Thank you Monika, I’m glad you enjoy her as much as I do.
I think when you have a challenging dog (like the D-Dog or Sam) you almost have to try and get into their heads. 🙂
Do dogs have feelings? To some extent, yes, I think they do. I mean, all you have to do is see the face of a scared, lonely dog at the shelter transform into “smiles and giggles” when he realizes some nice person is either adopting him or about to take him to a nice, warm, comfortable, home with another human. That transformation will convince you that they have feelings. Or, see the look on Shadow’s face when we tell her to go lie down after having loved on her for the past 15 minutes! 🙂
I’m convinced they do. They may not be what we experience but IMO they definitely have feelings.
LOL.. I would say they were sharing their feelings with you. Feelings of, why us, what the hell, and how do we get out of this.
I Know I said that about the book, but I’m remembering my MIL’s Bichon. That dog had floofy hair and summer was coming. I told the story of my mom shaving our little dog every summer. She shaved the dog bald. That poor Bichon went back to wetting all over the house. We were convinced it was because everyone was laughing at him and he was embarrassed. My MIL re-homed him. So yeah, maybe he was embarrassed. Poor dog.
Some PEEPS have NO FEELINGS… so we guess that there would be some of US who do not.
BUTT we will tell you that WE have lots of feelings.. We get Scared and Happy and ANGRY and ORNERY… and TRUST…. and most of all we feel LOVE… we love our peeps and that is just how it is..
Now about the boots… they are made fur walkin… Right???
Mom is convinced we show our feelings. Happy, sad, embarrassed……
Lily & Edward
I agree with mom!
Too funny. I tried booties like that on Becca because she had such bad arthritis in her paws, the pavement hurt – she wanted no part of them and I gave up. Of course they have feelings….and express them clearly!
I do believe they have feelings. Jealousy is one I’ve seen quite a bit with my dogs. I wonder about embarrassment or humiliation though – wouldn’t you imagine that unlike people, dogs wouldn’t really care about what anyone else thought of them? (But I love the photo of Sampson and Delilah looking around like they do!) I would think they don’t like the boots more because they just don’t like the way they feel on their feet.
Barley definitely seems to experience joy and love as well as boredom and anxiety, but shame is not in her vocabulary. That dog will get caught standing on the kitchen counter (not just putting two feet up, having all 4 feet on the counter) and just wag and wiggle, no matter how firm–or angry or frantic or defeated–I am. Some dogs have the whole guilty face down, but Barley just knows how to smile, wag, and wiggle regardless of what kind of trouble she’s gotten herself into.
This is a great site and Love the pic’s! Ok, so now it’s obvious I Love dogs(all animals) like CRAZY!
Yes, Yes, Yes….they have feelings all kinds, you can hurt their feelings, they get embarrassed and most of all they LOVE & can feel LOVE. I know this because I have spent my life raising dogs. They are smart, sometimes not so smart, lazy, active, happy, sad, stressed…. sound a lot like people? They are! Funny story; I have a Great Dane he is younger than my Maltease who has been a part of my family for 14 years. I put a new red coat on her when I took the both of them out. He, jealous that she had a new coat & he didn’t actually took his paw and hit her on the back! Quickly, she turned to him and the expression on her face said “why did you do that ?” Thanks for making me smile, Coach Rose DeNaro Business s& Life Coach.
Haha Not only do they have feelings (and opinions!), but they make them known!! Daisy is the same way with boots, but she’s finally reached the point where she tolerates them. I have a short video of her goose-stepping, it still makes me laugh to watch her doing her silly walk!
Dante knows…boots are ruff!
But they’ll get used to it! We took Dante out and played immediately after putting the boots on and he quickly forgot. We then practiced regularly – every time playing so that now he seems them, and gets excited because he knows something fun is going to happen!
Don’t worry Delilah, mom is just taking good care of you!
Hi Jodi. Cute post! I definitely believe that dogs experience many different kinds of feelings. There was a study done at the University of California San Diego to determine if dogs experience jealousy and I did a blog post about it you might be interested in called “Do Dogs Experience Jealousy in the Same Way Humans Do?” Here is the link: http://rachelebaker.com/do-dogs-experience-jealousy-in-the-same-way-humans-do/ . Let me know what you think after you read it.
Not a doubt in my mind that dogs have feelings and I tell ya, Mauja and Atka do not hide them! Atka has perfected the sulk and Mauja is just a drama queen 😉
Delilah reminds me a lot of Mauja when we first introduced her to the gentle leader. 8 (or so) months later and she still acts like a diva when I get it out!
They definitely have feelings. Blueberry isn’t shy about letting me know when something offends or upsets her. I suspect she would react the same way to boots as Delilah.
I definitely think dogs have all the emotions of humans except guilt. They know when their human is mad at them but they don’t care why.
Have you thought about showing them pictures of macho sled dogs wearing their boots? It might make them more fashion conscious.
Haley definitely has a range of feelings that she shares freely. She has mastered many looks and noises to let me know when she’s unhappy or jealous, haha!
I think they did not like those boots….lol. I bet mine would not like boots either. They are not that fond of wearing their hunting vests except that they now know that it means hunting so they are OK with them. I am not sure dogs have feelings the way we know them. Obviously they can appear happy, or scared, or sad, even angry. I just don’t know how much is instinct vs. emotion.
years ago Norbert had hte same reaction to boots as Delilah. Dogs most definitely have feelings and they let them be known
retro rover
I definitely think dogs have feelings – lonely, depressed, happy, etc. They probably don’t have the same range of emotions we humans do, but they definitely make their feelings known. (I think they’re doing MRIs on dogs now that scientifically prove now what dog owners/lovers have known for years…) Not sure though if they don’t want to walk cuz they find them humiliating or just irritating?? Anyway, they sure look cute in their boots! (Which apparently are NOT made for walking, in their opinion!)
I have no doubt at all that dogs have feelings. If I’m in a bad mood, I can see the body language of my more sensitive dog droop. She becomes less happy and definitely not playful when I’m cranky. She’s been a good mirror for me, teaching me how much my moods can affect others (dogs and humans).
As for boots, my sensitive dog has behaved the same way as your pups about boots. On one occasion, I later discovered that the boot had rubbed one toe raw (the fur was gone and the skin was pink). I learned the lesson that I should make sure that there isn’t a physical issue when my sensitive dog mopes about her boots. But, I can’t find any physical issues with her new boots, yet her behavior remains muted, even when she’s doing her favorite thing in the world (running in the forest).
Yup, dogs have feelings!
hahaha great post! oh yea dogs have feelings, mostly happy and jealous at my house