How Dogs Feel: A Study May Change the Way We Train Dogs

Do Dogs Love?

Ask agility trainers if their dogs feel the emotion of love, and you will get a puzzled look. "Of course dogs love," they will quickly reply. Science, however, is slower to respond and seeks tangible evidence of emotion before admitting its existence.

A scientific study is beginning to prove that dogs do indeed love. Over the course of two years, Emory University Neuroscientist Gregory Berns looked at MRI images of dogs' brains to find out what dogs think of humans. He released a few of his findings in an op-ed piece for The New York Times on October 5, 2013.

What the MRI Reveals

Berns and his colleagues scanned the brains of a dozen dogs trained to go into an MRI machine. He used different stimuli to see how the dogs' brains would react. His findings show that the area of the brain called the caudate nucleus lights up when the dogs' humans returned into view after a brief separation. This is the same area of the brain that is activated when humans feel love.

In his article, Berns says, "The ability to experience positive emotions, like love and attachment, would mean that dogs have a level of sentience comparable to that of a human child. And this ability suggests a rethinking of how we treat dogs."

This type of MRI experiment has never been done before because it was believed dogs had to be anesthetized before going into an enclosed and noisy MRI machine. This made the study of how a dog's brain lights up when presented with different stimuli impossible. Berns looked for a solution and trained 12 dogs to willingly put their heads in an MRI machine for brief periods, so their brains could be studied while the dogs were awake.

Through MRI studies, we will learn more about how similar we are to our canine counterparts. Much of this is no shock to the agility community. We have known how much our dogs love us for decades upon decades. What may be a shock is how this type of information can change dog training.

The Possibilities May Change the Way We Train Fido

As these studies continue to release information on the emotional lives of our dogs, it will throw light on how we train. I believe we will begin to see a much stronger push toward positive training, and even the positive methods we now use may become drastically different in the few decades ahead.

These studies may well prove that harsh training methods such as shock collars indeed carry a higher punishment price tag than their proponents believe. We will begin to see that dogs—who appear to feel emotions similar to humans based on Berns' initial studies—suffer more under harsh training methods than we originally thought.

I believe as these studies reveal what our dogs are thinking that devices such as shock collars may be banned in the United States and other countries that have not already done so. Other controversial methods such as pinch and choke collars may also become obsolete as we digest how our dogs feel about such methods.

This will cause a shock wave (pun intended) throughout the dog training community. The punishments we use to get our dogs to behave in the manner we wish will be greatly scrutinized and debated. As brain-scanning technology improves over the decades and we learn more and more about what our dogs are feeling, we will have to adjust our training methods to meet those emotional truths. We may find the common punishment methods we incorporate now are indeed viewed as abusive by our canine partners.

On the plus side, we will also learn what positive training methods light up the dogs' brains and encourage faster training and communication between humans and canines. This information will be able to further positive training methods and make the training process more fun for both the dog and their handler. We may be able to discover currently unknown, exciting methods to make positive training an even more powerful tool than it already is. These breakthroughs may also help those still using punishment-based methods feel more comfortable about leaving those methods behind for the potentially newer, scientifically proven positive breakthroughs.

The Agility Dog and the MRI Studies

What may this mean for the agility dog? Well, it's hard to say at this point, but we already know that using harsh training methods slow our dogs down in a sport designed for speed. Dogs who are trained using methods that are too harsh for their personalities will slow down as they carefully avoid punishment.

With potentially new, positive training methods available to us, we could learn how to better motivate our dogs and even how to have more fun with them on the agility course. Maybe someday in the far distant future, we will have cheap, portable devices to help us watch our dogs' brains light up or not light up as we introduce different potential motivators. This would help us easily find the "just right" reward for each individual dog.

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It will be very exciting to watch as this technology changes. We may well be on the brink of a new era in dog training, leaving behind the old "break the will" training methods of the late 1800s for good.

In the future, the MRI machine may be viewed as the liberator of the canine.

The Neuroscientist Speaks

Neuroscientist Gregory Berns' op-ed piece for The New York Times can be found here. In it, he reveals more of what the study uncovered. It is an interesting read and indicates a major future shift in how we will view our dogs.

This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. It is not meant to substitute for diagnosis, prognosis, treatment, prescription, or formal and individualized advice from a veterinary medical professional. Animals exhibiting signs and symptoms of distress should be seen by a veterinarian immediately.

Comments

Denise on June 30, 2016:

If we open up our eyes and look beyond our dogs to all other non-human animals, we will see they are all sentient beings and deserve to live rich emotional lives. Once we do open our eyes, and our hearts, our compassion and respect needs to extend to all of them. I hope that day is not so far away.

Me on June 29, 2016:

Given how many parents still use corporal punishment, I'm not optimistic that these studies will really change how many train. I think most of us already safely assume they have the capacity to love us, but if children who can voice feelings with words still get abused in the name of parenting, why would our silent dogs fair any better?

I've always trained reward based, positive, force free, whatever you want to call it. Service dogs, therapy dogs, pet dogs, and other species too.

Lee Rowan on May 27, 2016:

Anybody who doesn't know that dogs love has never loved a dog.

Cheryl McMillan on April 28, 2016:

When interacting with a dog, the slower we go the faster we reach our goal.

CBird on April 27, 2016:

I'm so happy to read this article and not surprised by the MRI results. It's always seemed to me that dogs feel emotions the same as human children. And, I've always been able to positive train my dogs instinctually Most dogs I've encountered want to please and you simply need to let them know clearly what it is you want them to do. I've always hated shock collars and choke chains on animals. It's nice to have some science behind the arguments I've had with those who believe those devices necessary. But then there are parents who believe in spanking and I don't either; so…???

Pete Gray on April 26, 2016:

i wonder if dog emotions evolved in response to the development of emotion in early humans - their whole evolution seems a symbiotic one with their human companions...

Loveabull on April 26, 2016:

Soon enough it should be time to consider doing away with collars as a method of control and restraint altogether--the delicate structures that travel through the neck are not meant to constantly have pressure applied, and certainly not in the gruff and casual way the average dog owner pulls their dog along on a walk, or allows a dog to pull against the collar--just because the dog is pulling does not mean it is comfortable or good for her health; it simply means that the stimuli overwhelms the capacity for self-restraint. There are plenty of humane harness options suited to any number of needs. The sooner we realize that dogs feel as much or more than we do in every capacity, the better off we will all be.

John Parsons on April 25, 2016:

It would be interesting to see the MRI results of "punishment" such as the beloved owner withholding a treat or turning his/her back on the dog, etc. Nothing injurious, of course.

Sharon Berry from Michigan on October 28, 2014:

I have felt, for a very long time, that dogs have emotions. They can feel happy, sad and yes even love. To me, dogs show much of their emotion thru their eyes. Our Joey gets sad when he sees that we are going to leave him for a period of time and oh how happy he is when we get back home. I too believe that you get much farther in training with positive reinforcement over pain. We do use a shock collar when hunting with Joey but this is for his safety too. We are able to locate him if he gets to far out in front of us and if he gets near something dangerous (skunk for example) and his will is outweighing ours, he gets a little poke to bring him back to obeying.

Deborah Sexton on June 09, 2014:

Very interesting information.

The caudate nucleus in humans has been involved with voluntary movement, learning, memory, sleep, and social behavior.

Now, I guess it is the same in dogs.

Jane Wilson from Geogia on June 08, 2014:

I'll admit it - I use pinch collars when I walk multiple dogs. They go crazy with delight when they see the pinch - can't wait for the walk. I don't see it as a punishment. Its their choice to walk politely or get a pinch which they know they can back off of and do.

Back to the rest of your article - great stuff. I love the fact that dogs are now the new darlings of cognitive science. We are learning so many things about them and their abilities to read and respond to us. My "kids" really are kids. lol

Kristin Kaldahl (author) on April 18, 2014:

Thank you so much for stopping by AND for voting!!!

cfin from The World we live in on April 18, 2014:

I always though that dogs could love. Most people just tend to ignore the intelligence and abilities of their dog because they treat them badly. I despise shock collars and phyisical punishment for dogs. Very good hub. Voted up and shared.

theBAT on March 03, 2014:

This is a very interesting hub. I agree that shock collars should not be used on dogs. The MRI machine can help in understanding your pet but it cannot substitute "humane treatment" in training your dogs. Of course, this is just an opinion. Thanks for sharing.

Kristin Kaldahl (author) on January 19, 2014:

I'm getting some comments about the use of shock collars pro and con. As this article is not about shock collars and as I've seen shock collar discussions go amiss on forum threads hundreds of times, any comments about shock collars will be deleted. I love comments, but this is not a shock collar blog.

Kristin Kaldahl (author) on January 15, 2014:

Hi Bonnie,

Thanks for dropping by!!

You have misunderstood an "Op Ed" piece for a journalistic article. This is a "blog" piece, and therefore, of course it has my opinion in it. It's very important when reading the Internet to know if you are reading an "Op Ed" or "blog" vs. an actual article. Most of my work IS blog related. It is my opinion. I do very little, if any, purely journalistic work. Even the articles you enjoyed (and thank you) were in essence op ed - blog related articles on training because they hold my opinion. You just happened to disagree with this one.

As this piece is so obviously a look into what this type of study may reveal in the future, it is obviously an "Op Ed" or "blog" piece, and yes, therefore it has my opinion. We cannot take a futuristic look without adding in opinion. Op Ed pieces are a very important part of society for examining varying issues, such as this one, and I'm not ashamed of the op ed feel of this as it is a blog. As with most Op Ed pieces, this one contains fact too regarding the results of the study.