Do Animals Feel The Way We Do

[Confederate]

i was wonderin if animals feel the way we do, for instance, love, sadness,joy,happyness, etc. no mean replys please i just confused about this. also do they like music?

[kitaboi19]

wutz up confederate

To answere your question, in my opinion, I believe that animals do have feelings, they may not think exactly like us but they each have their own way of showing those different feelings.

Personally I'm attracted to dogs. I know they can show feelings of love, by cuddlin up so close. Sadness, when his tail is all the way down and his ears down. Joy, by the way he jumps around and and stands alert when he gets a new toy. Therz just ways from living with a dog that I know they can feel 'in a sense' like we do.

Do they like music, I think they do, my boi seems a little more lively when i jam country, he's not into the heavy metal that i'm into. I guess he's a country boi ;) So In a way my dog got me to like country music, kinda cool.

peace :ph34r:

[rus80]

Old country I hope
Good dog..

Now yes to all.. But they speek buy body language to us and our love and ability to return the answere in our own body language they learn from us.

When we ship our horses we stay with them.
We sleep right in there trailer parked right in frount of there stalls.
[in living quarters][ air conditioning fridge etc we are food / sleep oriented]
Why
Becaus they know what is happening and it can be scary for them.
Happy you bet some times it is just a great day
They know when they do there job right
Then you can wake up on the other side of the stall..
And some times they know us so well they try to help when we are down
Or are thrilled if we are happy
And they feal loss of a herd mate or friend.
As you open your self to there body language you will feal the answers..
They understand death if they see it and it is something they remember. They see what happened / how and never forget it..
And they greeve over loosing some animal or person they love.
They can ask to be alawed to pass over and I know they spend time teaching us that they love us and it will be ok and we can ask them to reconsider but if they ask for a wile it is our love for them to do the right thing that is the answer..

It leaves things hard to cope with some times.
The answers are found in our love for them

My best
Rus

[Confederate]

they can feel sympathy too?

[rus80]

Yes they can
I think you might have a problem?

I could share a story or too

R

[furisforfun]

I'm sure they can - ever had a normally hyper dog come up to you and just rest her head on your knee when you're feeling down :huh:

I believe dogs can feel most (if not all) of the emotions we do, they just don't waste their time rationalising it all ;)

[hotdog127]

I really don't know about other dogs but my german shepard mix is very sensitive and he wants to be treated as a lover and companion and partner. I am sure he nevers does any of his love making with out feelings and his kissing is something remarkable. I know he has some special feelings and can tell if i am not feeling too good and does his best to please me and make me happy. I try and treat him equal and i know many dog trainers would disagree. I was very strick with him when he was a puppy and now he is 3yrs old. He is very friendly with everone i know but will not let any stranger get close to me. He will definately not allow any other dog come up to me. He even loves to shower with me so i use good shampoo on him that will not dry out his skin. He does not mind waiting for me when i have to go to the store or something he thinks his job is to protect our car. I leave the aircondition on if it is hot and do not worry about the keys being in the car because no one is going to get in that car. Well that is my 2 cents worth :puppykiss:

[energydog]

Human beings are not so magical that we hold a restricted patent on emotions. Most higher order species have emotions. The depth or complexity of those emotions varies and is tied to the complexity of the brain of the given species. But I do not doubt that higher order species such as dog, have emotional structures very close to our own. Which is probably why they seem to understand us so well, because we react and respond to them in ways they can recognize easily despite being less intelligent.

Do animals like music? Yes but their musical tastes like individual peoples often vary greatly. My last girl hated 99% of all the music I listened to, with one noted exception; she loved Duran Duran. Don't ask me why, but she would pointedly stroll over to the stereo and and stand in front of the speakers while they played. Whereas, just about any other artist she would get very huffy and usually walk out of the room. But since the music is a complex of noises that illicit subconscious emotional response, once again how a give species will respond to human music will no doubt vary greatly.

[Barb Dyer]

Hey rus, I'll bet you agree - horses are certainly capable of being annoyed!

Of course animals experience emotions like ours! But think of this, maybe they feel emotions we don't, or that we seldom feel. Like, when you give an animal a really good scritch, and the look at you with an awestruck expression as if to say "How do you DO that?"

Or herd-sense, a common feeling shard by more than one individual. I've called it "the mood of the herd" before, after seeing it take many forms on different occasions, even in the same herd. They may be mellow or playful, wary or curious, but the fascinating thing is seeing ~20 horses think and act as one.


...especially when they spot you in their paddock from a distance, and all run up to surround and greet you, a very impessive experience in the dark...


I have no experience running with canine packs, so I don't know their dynamics.

[st benard]

Yes animals have feelings, they love, hate, trust, distrust, pine for a lost friend, get depressed, become hyperactive with friendship. But as us each of us are different so are they.

[rololover]

I don't think you will find anyone on this forum who believes animals do not have emotions.
Enjoying music is more difficult to detect. In commercial livestock farming it is a common practice to play music to intensively housed stock to reduce stress levels, and these hard headed businessmen accept the calming effects.

I can't honestly say I've ever noticed any reactions to music from my horses, but I do have a collie who joins in very loudly with any music in TV adverts. No matter how hard we try, we cannot stop him - it seems to be an obsession, but I still cannot decide whether he loves or hates it! :lol:

[Sinnkissed]

It's been said, but yeah I definitely fully believe in animals feeling emotions just as strongly I think as we do. Me and my mate Sunwheat love each other. He's a wonderful dog, and he expresses his love for my by the way he treats me kindly, or just the way his body is, like someone said, it's mostly body language. Well pretty much all body language since they don't exactly talk.

Other times he's shown me he's worried, or upset or down and with those cues I respond in kind, as his mate, and try to help him as much as he helps me. I don't think the emotions are entirely the same, at least in how they're felt, but I know he loves me as his mate and cares about me which is all I need.

[bmustang]

I have seen them morn the loss of a fellow animal.He-Dog morned over a month when 2 cats got hit on the road.He lost weight and moped.I seen a female cat go mad over the loss of her kittens.Yes they do feel.

[Cetacean]

I'd say animals definatly have feelings. To say "the way we do", probably not. Some feelings may hardly exist at all while some feelings for them may be stronger than with us. I think it also varies between species. The feelings of a fly, a mouse and a dog probably cannot be compared.

But what exactly they feel - it's hard to tell. I often wonder about it though - what is it that goes on in their minds?

[aragos32727]

I beleive animals have all the emotions and mood swings that we have, just maybe knot as complex. which obivoussly isn't a bad thing. In fact we could take a lesson from them, such as forgivness, learning to move on past a loved one, etc..etc..

I think that maybe they don't understand reasoning like we do, right and wrong. in their world the only wrong they have to face, if you can say it's wrong, is predators. when ever they do something it's for a reason. my ex's dog, she would piss all over her bed, well, it was because no one pay attention to her. when she stayed at my house she had a blast and always went outside. it's like what the dog wisper says, a 10 min walk a day can give you a months worth of a good well behaved dog. or something like that hard to understand him sometimes.

but yes they feel, and they are music critics. my lab knows when there's some good house music that I'm gonna grab his front paws and make him dance with me, and my macaw hates metal. She screams her beak off. except to mudvayne.