How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain by Lisa Feldman Barrett

Author:Lisa Feldman Barrett [Barrett, Lisa Feldman]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Published: 2017-03-07T00:00:00+00:00

12

Is a Growling Dog Angry?

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I don’t have a dog, but several friends’ dogs are part of my extended family. One of my favorites is Rowdy, part Golden Retriever and part Bernese Mountain Dog, who is an energetic, playful mutt, always ready for action. True to his name, Rowdy is a barker and a jumper, and he’s known to growl when other dogs or strangers come near. In other words, he’s a dog.

Sometimes Rowdy can barely contain himself, and once this nearly proved to be his undoing. Rowdy was out for a walk with his owner, my friend Angie, when a teenage boy approached to pet him. Rowdy did not know the boy and proceeded to bark and jump up on him. The boy was not visibly hurt, so it was a surprise when a few hours later, his mother (who had not been present) had Rowdy arrested and registered as a “potentially dangerous dog.” Poor Rowdy had to be muzzled on walks for several years afterward. And if Rowdy ever again jumps up on someone, he will be registered as vicious and maybe even put down.

The boy was afraid of Rowdy and perceived him as angry and dangerous. When you encounter a dog who barks and growls, does he actually feel anger? Or is this merely territorial behavior, or an overly boisterous attempt to be friendly? In short, can dogs experience emotion?

Common sense seems to say yes, of course, Rowdy feels emotion when he growls. Numerous popular books explore the issue, like The Emotional Lives of Animals by Marc Bekoff, Animal Wise by Virginia Morell, and How Dogs Love Us by Gregory Berns, to name just a few. Dozens of news stories inform us of scientific discoveries in animal emotion: dogs get jealous, rats experience regret, crayfish feel anxiety, and even flies fear the incoming fly swatter. And of course, if you live with pets, you’ve certainly seen them behave in ways that seem emotional: running around in fear, jumping up in joy, whining in sadness, purring with love. It seems so obvious that animals experience emotions just the way we do.* Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, puts it succinctly: “So, do other animals have human emotions? Yes, they do. Do humans have animal emotions? Yes, they’re largely the same.”1

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