dogs 'emotionally complex'

[mysterymoniker]

I heard this on the Today programme earlier, vindication for all those dog lovers everywhere who have been accused of anthropomorphication

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5299040.ece

Dogs are certainly not stupid, but I'm not sure they're ready to rule the world quite yet!

Cat lovers have long known our animals are emotionally complex. Would take a lot of research to convince me the same applies to dogs!

I'm sure that dogs' extreme sociability does make them emotionally complex. I'm not sure how helpful the reasearchers were in giving their complex emotions human titles like 'embarrassment'.

Now, cats I don't know about because sadly we don't own one. They are far less socciable so I suspect less complex in the particular way the researchers were speaking of.

Rubbish. Cats are VERY good at making you feel guilty because you didn't spring to attention the second they wanted a lap/some food/to be let out. They don't have to be jealous of anyone else, they just make it very clear that you have fallen short and had better Buck Up Your Ideas, lady.

Wish we could have a cat too.

Our very handsome but foul tempered cat only displays two emotions: fury and contempt. I can't decide whether this makes him very complex or very simple. His original owner believed him to be a reincarnation of her grandmother, a famous Russian pianist. Sometimes it is impossible not to believe it.

Cats are yuck.

Dogs rule.

My childhood cats were mother and daughter. Mother was a Grand Lady - think the owner of the school in Ballet Shoes and you might come close. She used to use the knocker on the front door rather than demean herself by using the flap. The daughter was full of fun - occasionally she'd go too far, be a bit over-excited, and her mum would put a stop to it by raising a paw very slowly and handing out a very gentle clip round the ear,

Iorek, does she reflect those emotions well on the keyboard?

Did I ever post about my pitiable attempts to get my dog to display empathy?

Every time I bring some carrots etc upstairs for our guinea pigs, dog rushes up too, so that he can stare murderously at GPs. He is on his hind legs for better view, they are on their hind legs to reach carrot. They look so similar, nose to nose, that I can not help thinking that dog should see them eating and think 'Ah, they are just like me. Hath not a guinea pig eyes, etc. I see now why I shouldn't crush their bones in my teeth.' Really, I hope for this every time.

Well my dog shows jealousy. If dh and I are on the sofa, he comes and wedges himself in between us. If ds is on my lap he joins us for a cuddle.

My cat is very indifferent, she comes for a cuddle when SHE wants one only!

Exactly. She has v limited social feeling. Cat owners give high-falutin socially-complex labels like distain, aloofness, contempt to cats lack of dog-like closeness - but really it is just that cats are social vacuums.

lololol at the dog/guinea pig encounters. He probably is thinking all these things. The murderous look is a by-product of the conflict he is suffering between his carnivorous doggy instincts and his higher moral sense. Sometimes I feel like this when faced with a naked chicken. Perhaps I look murderous when shoving a lemon up its bottom.

Regarding our cat: sadly we only have an electric piano which is far beneath his contempt. In his first home he used to sleep under a beautiful Steinway. And back in 1930's Russia...

Oh Stalinist Russia. the contempt is just an overcompensation for the constant danger of betrayal that lay within all close social bonds then. She wants to love you but she's afraid you would dennounce her to the Checka

of course!

Well my pup is upset because his best friend (canine of course) wouldn't speak to him at the puppy class today. Visibly upset as well he was, she wouldn't even look at him.

Cats just don't give a toss.

While pup sees everything in terms of "will it be my friend and play with me?" Cat sees everything in terms of "will it feed me? No, then go away."

To me, cats are far more complex than dogs. They are far more mysterious and had to fathom. Behavioural problems are fairly easily diagnosed and treated in dogs- cats just do whatever the hell they please, with no obvious logic or reason, IME! They seem to have their own psychological processes, which we, as mere humans, cannot begin to understand

Jack Dee used to do a great routine about the difference between dogs and cats. Something about putting up some shelves, and his dog watching adoringly, soppy eyes, the full works. Dog was clearly thinking 'WOW! I don't know what you are doing but it looks really clever!'.

Finally after much swearing and contact between hammer and thumb he got the shelves up. Dog racing round in circles barking to celebrate.

Cat walks over, clearly sneering. "I wouldn't put MY books on there, anyway" it seems to be saying, as it nonchalantly leans against the shelves... which collapse, of course.

Eddie Izzard also did a great routine on the same subject. How if you fell down the stairs and broke your neck, the dog would be going mental barking and running around and trying to dial 999 with his paws to get help. If you had a cat on the other hand, he would just stare at you in disgust, wondering how hungry he would have to get before he would eat your face.

Now where's BALD? I mean TALD...?

Cats have autism IMHO. Dogs have low self esteem.

Cats do tend to have an attitude as if to say: 'what have you done for me lately?'

rabbits are very complex too

hamsters are a quagmire of complexity

no, no, no, no no! Cats are not incapable of reading human emotion, they are in fact very good at it. They just don't do empathy, as a rule (although my lovely childhood cats would always cuddle us when we were ill).

pmsl at the Eddie Izzard sketch.

I read a great quote about dogs from Winston Churchill the other day, I paraphrase:

If ones puts aside smoking and gambling one finds that all of an Englishman's pleasures can be shared with his dog.

that is why dogs rock.

There was some research a few years ago that showed that dogs can read human emotions from facial expressions in photographs, even when they are quite small puppies. The same research showed that chimps (who are our closest genetic relatives) can't do the same.

I really want a dog, when (or if) we move back to Dublin I'm going to get one.