Have you ever picked up the leash to take your furry best buddy for a walk and were sabotaged by a long-distance phone call from your vacationing boss or your mother-in-law? Your dog’s tail has suddenly stopped wagging and hangs limp and lifeless as he drags himself back to his bed to wait for you to finish your call. He’s hoping you won’t be long and that you won’t forget that walk you promised him. Your dog was thrilled one minute and a split second later his big, toothy smile has turned into a grumpy frown – his disappointment and annoyance is palpable. You see it in his eyes, facial expression, body language, and even hear it in his exasperated sighs and low grumbling noises. He has feelings like any sentient being, on par with a human toddler, and he’s darned disappointed.
Dogs, like people, can get a little melodramatic sometimes and pout, but on the other hand, we can both jump for joy when something wonderful happens. And disappointed dogs, unlike people sometimes, don’t sulk for long. They live in the moment and forget quickly. Pick up that leash again in half-an-hour and he’s happy all over again like nothing happened. That bounce-back ability or sense of joy and
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He is also director of the Center for Neuropolicy and Facility for Education and Research in Neuroscience at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, and the co-founder of Dog Star Technologies, a company that enhances the dog-human partnership through neuroscience. His mission is to better understand dogs’ thought processes and his book “How Dogs Love Us” quickly became a best-seller. His second book, “What It's Like to Be a Dog” is based on his research into whether dogs experience emotions like people. In his interview with Modern Dog, Dr. Berns reveals his team is exploring dogs and among other things, studying the complex emotion of jealousy. Findings so far show that dogs do feel