Pet Psychology: Understanding How Dogs and Cats Think and Feel

Yes — the scientific consensus has shifted significantly. Brain imaging studies (notably by Gregory Berns at Emory University) show that dogs have a caudate nucleus — a brain structure associated with positive emotions in humans — that activates in response to familiar humans and anticipated rewards. Cats show similar neurological patterns. The emotions may differ in complexity from human emotions, but the biological architecture for emotional experience is present.

Yes. The ASPCA has documented that dogs and cats show classic grief responses after the loss of a companion animal or a human: withdrawal, loss of appetite, changes in sleep patterns, searching behavior, and lethargy. How long grief lasts varies widely. Some pets show signs for days; others for months. The best approach is maintaining routine, providing extra companionship, and allowing the pet to grieve at their own pace.

Almost certainly. EEG studies show that dogs and cats experience REM sleep — the sleep stage associated with dreaming in humans. During REM, animals show eye movements, muscle twitches, and vocalizations consistent with experiencing memories or scenarios. Research by Matthew Wilson at MIT found that rats replay the day's events during sleep; similar mechanisms likely operate in dogs and cats.

Dogs use multiple channels: facial expressions (they process human faces in a brain region similar to the fusiform face area in humans), tone of voice, body odor (cortisol levels detectable by scent), and body language. Interestingly, dogs have a left-gaze bias when looking at human faces — they look to the right side of our face first, which is the more emotionally expressive side. This bias is not seen when looking at other dogs or objects.