How Our Animals Read Our Emotions And Why We Need Them Essay

As previously mentioned, I have always been drawn towards animals. At the age of six, all the way through high school, I was determined that I was destined to be a veterinarian. Growing up I watched dog training shows and learned about different animals. All of my favorite movies had talking animals in it and given human-like qualities. The more knowledge I gathered, the more I believed animals had rights. I treated all of my pets with love and formed a bond with them, even my pet fish. I used to watch Animal Cops on Animal planet with my grandma and was always appalled at the mistreatment of animals. They have feelings, thoughts, even memories, just as we do. Or, more specifically, just as children do. My dogs in particular have always been my children. The one I have now is more like my baby than previous dogs. We have formed a bond, just like the bond a mother forms with her baby. Pets become part of the family and the best

Emotional support animals can take on a multitude of jobs that “may include reminding the handler to take medicine, providing safety checks or room searches, or turning on lights for persons with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, interrupting self-mutilation by persons with dissociative identity disorders, and keeping disoriented individuals from danger,” (Brennan). These animals are often considered pets but are actually so much more than that, emotional support animals have a very important role in protecting the mental health of their owners and keep them safe. Not only do these animals protect people’s mental health but they also give people a purpose. Taking care of one of these dogs or other animals gives people something to take care of and focus on. Knowing that there is another living thing that relies on them can be very grounding and keep people connected to something outside of themselves.

Studies have shown that the children who grow up in homes with animals have a better ability to show empathy later and as adults. Pets are easy to communicate with, and their body language is much simpler than a human’s. This simple body language allows children to learn to empathize with them, a skill they can carry with them as they go through life (Holistic Online, 2007).

I think every single day we are personally connected with animals. We eat animals for food, wear animal skins for clothes, own animals as pets, use animals for recreation, and experiment on animals to test drugs and consumer products. We are aware of this, yet we naturally give little thought to the overwhelming number of animals that we use in these ways, and what the animals themselves might be suffering as we use them for our purposes. While no non-human animal on this planet has the cultured rational abilities that we do, many, however, have mental capacities that enable them to experience pain, suffering, and anxiety

Reading "Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat" by Hal Herzog and watching TED Talks by guest speakers, I noticed that the main idea that these sources focus on are the several different types of animal-human relationships. Here is where I came to a conclusion. I have always wondered how a relationship between humans and animals forms. If a pet is a private and homely animal that is kept for companionship and the pleasure of one 's family, then what holds such a strong bond between animals and human when we are so different from each other?

First of all, many owners adopt puppies; allowing both to create a stronger emotional connection. A study conducted by the University of Lincoln and the University of Sao Paulo proved that dogs can not only understand humans, but they can also read and understand their emotions (Jamieson). The dogs in the trial were shown several pictures of humans with varying expressions. When the voice over the speaker said a command, the dogs would listen to the tone of the human and face towards the picture that corresponded appropriately. For example, if the voice sounded excited, the dog would wag its tail and point its attention towards the smiling face. The reactions dogs have to these type of tests show that their emotional connections to humans come almost instinctively. It is because of this trait that most hospitals arrange programs in which animals help victims recover.

Dogs were first thought to have a simple way of processing information and commands given by humans. This simple process was done through the reward system of the brain; The dog hears or sees the instruction, follows through, and is rewarded with a treat, however, now it has been proposed through a series of experiments that there is a much more complicated pattern canines' brains follow to interpret the gestures and faces of their owners and others around them. This finding shows that dogs have the ability to process and recognize faces of people and other canines through what they now call the dog face area or DFA in the brain where the general area of the temporal lobe is. This disproves the previous thought that dogs followed commands due

Animals can play a significant role in a human's life. Some animals that we know do that are dogs. Dogs can change a human's life in a positive way. Some dogs are trained then later used in war. Other dogs are used as pets and to cheer their owners up that suffer from PTSD. In the article “Feeling Depressed? There’s a Dog for That” by Jacqueline Bennett as you get to the 12th paragraph it says “There are a growing number of organizations dedicated to training service dogs to help those suffering from PTSD, particularly veterans. In fact, dogs have been proven so effective at helping combat anxiety, stress, and depression, the government

In a recent study conducted by Rebecca Johnson, Ph.D., RN, of the University of Missouri-Columbia Center for the Study of Animal Wellness showed that when humans pet a dog, within minutes there is a huge amount of beneficial hormones known to be associated with health and feelings of well-being.(Becker par. 2) These hormones are called beta endorphin, prolactin, dopamine, oxytocin, and beta phenylethylamine (Becker par. 2). The hormones that are released from the interaction between the animal and the human allow the patients to feel more blissful and trusting. Along with being emotionally benefited from working with animals in assisted therapy; people can benefit physically. For example, people who have physical

While humans and animals are commonly seen to think apart and generate thoughts differently than each other, the truth is that since the beginning, humans and animals have had many ways in which they found each other to be compatible with the opposite, because they had come to a realization that they needed each other physically, emotionally, and mentally. And of course though pets may not be suitable to someone’s capricious persona, studies over time have shown that, spending quality time with a pet boosts happiness and helps your immune system.

Dogs reacted the same way an infant or a chimpanzee would react without their mother and for a dog was its owner. By doing the experiment on dogs and their owners, experimenters were able to conclude that dogs were emotionally attached to their owners. Therefore, we can conclude since the results are of those like infants, babies form an emotional bond with their caretaker which eventually turns into an attachment bond with their loved one. Babies tend to cry while dogs scratch the door and whine wanting their loved one or owner. Identifying dog behavior helps us identify our own abilities and experiences that affect our behavior. We can utilize the test done upon the dogs to advance the transition of an emotional bond to an attachment bond as the infant grows. The test however concluded that it was separation anxiety that caused the whining and the scratching on the door. What about the baby? The information and results that came from the experiment can help us advance upon the baby and their feelings towards the mother. Dogs tend to act like people but do they think and act like a human? They have the characteristics of acting like a human because their owners have instilled their values into their upbringing. Just like an infant, the early stages are the most important to lay the foundation that will pave the way for the rest of their lives. As for a dog, the way we treat and teach them, they will act, there is no breed that is born aggressive, the dog is dependant on the upbringing of the owner. Infants still have the capability of saying no and not tend to respect their parents as would a

Our relationship started out with animals as one of just work: they helped us hunt and gather food in the stone ages, their furs and hides helped clothe us and shelter us. As time went on, their role in our lives evolved to one of companionship.

The HAB, or the Human Animal Bond, is the relationship between human beings and animals. The American Veterinary Medical Associations committee on the Human- Animal Bond describes HAB as, “a mutually beneficial and dynamic relationship between people and other animals that is influenced by behaviors that are essential to the health and well-being of both” (Fine, 2015). There are many factors that play into creating a heathy relationship for both the animal and the human. Relationships between animals and humans have to be voluntary, persistent, reciprocal, and built upon trust (Fine, 2015). Humans need to increase their understanding and care for the animal while the animal increases their trust level for the human (Fine, 2015). Three theories that aim to tell us why the HAB exists are social support, the foundation for mental health and healthy functioning, theories of attachment, which explains the human needs of protection (both needing protection and protecting others), and the biophilia

Another experiment by psychologist Robert Miller and his colleagues was designed to see if a monkey was able to interpret another monkey’s facial expression. The researchers trained rhesus monkeys to pull a lever to avoid getting shocked after a

The aim of the present study was to investigate which hemisphere is specialised for the perception of emotion. It was hypothesised that participants will judge chimeric faces with smile presented in the left visual field as happier more often than chimeric faces with the smile presented in the right visual field. Twenty-six psychology students were asked to judge chimeric faces with one half being a smiling expression and the other half with a neutral expression. The images were presented in their left and right visual field. Over 28 experimental trials the participants were asked to judge which face they thought looked happier. The percentage of chimeric faces judged as happier for both left and right visual field was recorded. The hypothesis was supported: chimeric faces with smile presented in the left visual field as happier more often than chimeric faces with the smile presented in the right visual field.