Dogs Believe Too Much In People

They are pets, work, assistance, rescue animals. .. in short , dogs are exceptional animals. However, they have one flaw:  they believe too much in people. 

Thousands of dogs have the misfortune of falling into the wrong hands, in the clutches of evil people who mistreat and abandon. However, it is always surprising how these animals manage to forgive those who harm them. It is important to understand some fundamental concepts regarding the psychology and emotionality of dogs and their way of learning: their sense of “forgiveness” is very different from ours. 

The emotionality of dogs

It is a fact that dogs have emotions. However, the feelings they have are different from those of people. The feelings of dogs can be comparable to those of small children: they have basic emotions such as fear, joy, anguish and love.

Despite this, they do not experience complex emotions deriving from memory or social organization, think for example of shame, guilt, pride, etc. Dogs, therefore, do not “forgive” in the strict sense, but associate the owner’s behavior with a form of dominance.

The canine psyche

The scientific community is still unable to say whether or not dogs are able to think about the past or the future. Undoubtedly, most of the things a dog thinks about have to do with the “here and now”. However, we must point out that dogs can develop a sense of routine on which a whole range of behavior patterns depend. Much of a dog’s experience ends the moment it presents itself. From this we deduce that  even if the behavior of our four-legged friends is conditioned by the past (by the reinforcement of the routine) it does not mean that they are able to reflect on the past. 

They recognize role models

What many owners mistake for complex emotions are nothing more than behavioral patterns that the dog can recognize. For example, if your dog hits the coffee cup with its tail and turns it upside down, it may seem that he feels guilty, but he is not, the dog is only foreseeing punishment, because similar situations have arisen in the past. Dogs are able to learn many patterns of behavior, for example they are able to associate your act of putting on a jacket with the time to go out. If you have never scolded your dog for bad behavior, chances are you will never see that kind of “guilt” in his eyes.

Finding forgiveness

A dog cannot “forgive” its abusive owner or at least not in the sense that we give him. According to a recent study, dogs relate abuse to a specific situation. And it is for this reason that many abused dogs are happy to know and to be petted by other people.

This is because they do not remember the mistreatment that their master inflicted on them or at least they do not remember it so intensely that they think that every human being is an abuser. Sure, many animals are traumatized, but in most cases, bad experiences are forgotten and replaced by more positive models.

How to generate awareness

Dogs do not talk and, as social animals, they always seek the approval of the owner and to get close to the people around them. All this, however, does not authorize us, either individually or as a society, not to respect them. It is the duty of each of us to make sure that the trust and innocence of dogs is not a cause for abuse by people.

If you witness an incident of abuse, do not sit idle, report it immediately and try to put an end to this deplorable behavior.

In most civilized countries, animal abuse involves fines and imprisonment. 

In Italy there are thousands, every year, cases of mistreatment and torture of animals. In our country, until recently, those responsible for these serious acts of mistreatment and neglect were not punishable by law, but since 2004, with the reform of the Criminal Code, mistreating animals has become a real crime.