Thread: "Humanizing" Our Pets

In his Cat thread, Francisco asked if he was "humanizing" his cat. Of course what he meant was that he might have been assigning human emotions and/or thought processes to his cat. I personally try not to get to deep into what one of my pets may be "thinking" or "asking for". But it hard not jump to conclusions about what our pets are thinking. But some folks go way too far.

I had a boss who told me, "Brad, you'd like my cat. He thinks he's a dog." What kind of crap is that?

How many people have heard, "My dog thinks he's a person."? Of course your dog doesn't think he's a person. They are very good at being dogs.

I was in a pet shop admiring a toucan that was on an open perch. The manager of the shop said, "Don't get too close. He thinks your eyes are grapes." What? Why would she say something so specific about what a bird might have on its mind?

Now of course there are emotions felt by our four legged friends. They are clearly sensitive. But I am wondering how similar their thought processes may be. What do you people think? Do you think your pet loves you. I mean like you love it? Do you think your dog is showing affection when it "kisses" you? Does your cat rubbing against you mean it really digs you? Do you think your critters care about you or are you just the supplier of food and shelter?

My history of psych prof was amused by those who would chastise us for "anthropomorphizing" animals. Perhaps the very same behaviorists who were, at the same time, denying human like qualities in humans -- something my prof called "ratomorphism: the attribution of rat-like qualities to humans."

Even still, you sometimes see behaviorist types making quotation signs in the air with their fingers, when naming psychological/emotional attributes that are not directly observable in overt behavior.

Well, it certainly depends on the definitions of some of those emotions but I know that cats and dogs have emotions similar to humans.

For starters, take the emotion of fear. That one seems pretty obvious. I remember my cat walking into a room where I had dropped my belt at a place it normally wouldn't be. She mistook it for a snake and jumped back with her tail all puffed out. Looked scared to me! And if you've ever seen a mistreated dog cower, you know the look of fear.

Love? Well affection, at least. Dogs and even cats (but especially dogs) are beyond obviously happy to see you come home after even a short absence. And they obviously value your companionship. Even my cat follows me around "like a dog".

Hate? Some cats do appear to hate some people, but this may be closer to fear. But isn't that also true with humans sometimes?

Contentment? Is that an emotion or a state of mind? Is there a difference? The definitions get fuzzy here but cats and dogs show obvious signs of contentment when they curl up at your feet to rest. What else other than contentment is a cat's purr.

Playfulness? Another obvious cat/dog attribute, to avoid the word emotion -- take it however you want to.

Just my off-the-cuff thoughts on this.

EDIT prompted by BrentonC's comments: How do we recognize these emotions in humans? By observation of their behavior and that's seems just as valid for cats and dogs. To whatever degree we deny these emotions to cats and dogs it seems we would need to do the same with humans.

My cat thinks you don't just know her, LOL

Seriously I think it all depends on the depth of the relationship you have with your pet and how sensitive you are. Some people might have more skill to understand their buddies' minds than others.
Pets (also bigger ones like horses for example) show a lot of behavior that talks a clear language. You can learn faster from the bigger ones, cause it means pain when you don't.

Cats are sometimes very good at judging people.
My (long gone) male was the declared chief staff manager. He was always right.

Originally Posted by 0livia

My cat thinks you don't just know her, LOL

Seriously I think it all depends on the depth of the relationship you have with your pet and how sensitive you are. Some people might have more skill to understand their buddies' minds than others.
Pets (also bigger ones like horses for example) show a lot of behavior that talks a clear language. You can learn faster from the bigger ones, cause it means pain when you don't.

Cats are sometimes very good at judging people.
My (long gone) male was the declared chief staff manager. He was always right.

Olivia,
I think that you have hit the nail on the head, the closer you live with your stock, the better you all understand each other. When I am away the horses don't miss me, so long as someone feeds them, but the Ridgeback dog does miss me, and is over the top when I get back from my two week stint at work. I think pets are ver observant and soon work out what of their behaviours will get them the response they are after.

Cheers


gordon

Well, I know my cat feels affection for me and the rest of my family and not just because we provide food. We also provide our own affection for her. I think it's a two way street even at her level.

X

Animals behavior is a factor of their evolution. They are not sapient so don't take the same level of control over their thoughts or environment as we do, nor do they see things the way we do.

Now to say you can associate particular emotions like fear, love, anger, etc with an animal is true in that their responses are the same as what we would associate with those emotions. On the other hand doing human things and expecting an animal to react in a human way or placing human characteristics and drives on an animal is wrong. In some cases it has minimal impact but in others it can be detrimental to the animal's well being or even worse a danger to you when the animal responds in ways you don't expect.

Dogs are a perfect example. So many of them are treated in ways that their owners think is best for them because they are their "little babies" when in reality it is raising the animals stress levels and not providing a stable environment for them to live in.

I guess the short version is animals do have emotions and do form attachments/relationships but you have to deal with them on their terms as a [insert animal species here] and not a human.

There seem to be so many studies about discovering animals feel this or that now. I'm sure I read recently about a study that has concluded that a certain type of monkey does indeed have a grasp of the future and how its own behaviour can affect it.

And then there are the claims of elephants and how they venerate their dead, of social behaviour of higher mammals, of monkeys and apes being able to laugh and enjoying tickling, dogs pining for owners who have dies etc.

We may be more developed than any other life form on the planet, but that doesn't mean other animals can't feel or make emotional attachments to us. Of course they don't feel human love, but it's doggy love for sure (catty love, monkey love, whatever).

I personally am convinced that dogs and cats can develope a great sense of devotion and certainly affection for their owners. I am convinced they can reason. I have tested my own animals to watch them solve some fairly complex problems. I agree with Olivia that it helps to be sensitive.

We recently had an episode where Mr.Toes' urethra was blocked. He ended up in the hospital catheterized. He's okay now but what amazes my GF is that he showed me he couldn't pee. She thinks it's incedible that the cat climbed onto my chest as I was looking at television and squatted as if to urinate but was unsuccessful. I saw immediatly he was in distress. Scarlett says she would never have picked up on that. But what of love?

My dog seems to like to "kiss" me for no other reason than to show he likes being near. He definitely likes to greet by touching his nose to people. Sure he is sniffing too but there is a predictable nudge he delivers when he enters a room. I find it fascinating.

Mark, I'm familiar with Doggy love, but can you pm me with the details of Monkey love? It sounds like something i'm missing out on!

Everyone wants to think that their pet loves them. We've got two dogs. Mine will pine for me, for hours if i leave him with my wife. If someone else gives him a command he looks to me to see if he must obey. He's a proper buddy & he really does seem to show all the signs of loving .
My wife's dog see's me primarily as pack leader. She sucks up pathetically & instantly obeys me, but you can see there's almost a fear, though she's only ever reprimanded verbally. With my wife, however, she really does seem to show love. Her behaviour's slightly different. She's never timid & just a little more excited to see her. Who knows, but i like to think they can love.