Can Dogs Get Angry?
Recent studies have shown that dogs can experience a range of emotions. Since it is now thought dogs can feel happiness, sadness, joy and grief – why should they not sometimes feel anger too? Holidays4Dogs looks deeper into this fascinating topic and asks ‘can dogs get angry’?
The idea that dogs might have the capacity to get angry is troubling for many – even experts in the field. Many believe that anger is only a human construct and therefore, not relevant to the lives of animals. On the flip side there is compelling evidence to suggest that dogs can get angry.
In the book Affective Neuroscience: The Foundations of Human and Animal Emotions (1998), Jaak Panksepp stated that anger is one of the core animal emotions. It’s a fascinating book for anyone interested in human and animal emotions.
Anger is considered to be a primitive emotion and so it isn’t difficult to perhaps assert that animals are capable of feeling anger too. To deny this proposition, is to suggest we don’t share similar neuro anatomy, or physiology with animals. But indeed we do. Both humans and dogs operate with serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin – all of which drive behaviour and emotion.
What does anger look like in dogs?
There is a massive difference between how emotions are processed in the brain when it comes to humans and animals. Nevertheless, there are similarities. As far back as 1872, Charles Darwin believed that facial expressions are not only shared across different human cultures, but with animals too.
Charles Darwin claimed that humans and animals have similar universal facial expressions.
However, understanding what anger looks like in a dog is difficult – mainly because it isn’t understood that well and because largely it is regarded as a human only emotion. Even amongst dog owners it’s hard to think of your dog being angry. We prefer to only see positive emotions in our pets. Even if many of those – like love – could equally be described as human centred emotions.
We can assume that any of the stress, anxiety or aggressive responses might be related to anger. Therefore, if a dog has laid back ears, whale eyes, stiff posture or, is growling or snapping – we could attribute this to angry behaviour. Also, dogs might become distant and uncooperative. Some dogs, for example, won’t engage with their owners once they return from being away for a long time. Is this anger? Probably not.
“I’m not talking to you”.
If dogs do get angry, its unlikely this happens as a result of our behaviour, or how they perceive us. Dogs don’t ‘get angry’ because we’ve abandoned them. They don’t urinate in the house because they’re angry and upset and neither do they destroy the furniture because they were angry about being left alone.
Anger is more likely to stem from fear, or pain, or possibly frustration. For example, if a dog is pulled away from a bowl of food he was just about to eat, he might display signs of something approaching our interpretation of anger, resulting from the ‘fight’ or ‘flight’ trigger.
Is an angry dog an aggressive dog?
While many people don’t believe dogs can get angry, others equate aggression with an angry dog. However, this isn’t really the case. A dog that bites because of sheer anger is probably a rarity.
Dogs will always try to do everything within their power to avoid conflict. Growling is a warning sign the dog is fearful. If a dog feels their safety is threatened they may bite. Likewise, a dog in pain, is more likely to show sudden aggression as a means of preventing being touched – which may provoke additional pain.
Final thoughts.
While it is still debated whether dogs feel anger and importantly, whether they feel it just like we do – biology to support the idea that dogs can get angry in their own way, is conclusive.
However, we have to be careful because anger is perhaps one of the most misunderstood emotions. Dogs don’t get angry at us, in the same way humans get angry with each other. In fact dogs are very unlikely to experience anger as frequently as we might do. Dogs don’t behave out of spite because they are angry we left them alone, or petted the cat instead of them. If they get angry, its most probably connected to fear, anxiety, or pain.
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