Dogs have become so closely embedded in people's lives that they began to attribute human feelings and emotions to pets. This raises the question: can dogs cry?
Modern scientists have repeatedly been able to prove through various studies that dogs can feel pain in the same way as humans. Moreover, it was found that the intellectual development of a dog is comparable to the development of intelligence in humans at the age of three. Dogs do have complex emotions and feelings like joy, anxiety, sadness, etc. But can dogs cry?
Physiologically, can dogs cry?
Dogs, like many other animals, have lacrimal glands that moisturize the eyes. Some dogs have a so-called dry eye problem, which makes the dog appear to be crying.
Also, the cause of excessive tearfulness can be an unhealthy diet and an allergic reaction. Tears often flow in those dogs whose owners feed them sweets, smoked meats and other "forbidden" foods.
Various viruses and infections, as well as other eye irritations, contribute to frequent blinking and the production of tears. From the outside it may really seem that the pet is crying with grief.
Thus, frequent crying should make a person want to show the pet to the veterinarian, and not take it on hand and take pity on it.
Can dogs cry with sadness?
Since the time of schooling, many have retained in their memory the lines of a wonderful poem by S. Yesenin, describing the full depth of the dog's feelings: "… the dog's eyes rolled like golden stars into the snow." And most owners sincerely believe that their dogs can cry from sadness or resentment, or cry from an excess of joy and gratitude.
Dogs communicate with humans using body language. And when they experience feelings such as sadness or anxiety, they demonstrate them with their body parts, rather than crying. That is, dogs and humans display the same emotion in different ways. People cry when they are sad. And the dogs lower their heads, press their ears, curl their tail or wag it a little, hunch their backs, whine.
Also, dogs living with people gradually learn to control their mood. How does this happen? Dogs, by demonstrating different behaviors, study the reaction of their owner. For example, when the owner swears, the dog makes a sad face, lowers its head, looks into the owner's eyes. If this led to the owner softening and stopping swearing, then the dog will show these gestures every time they raise his voice.
In this way, dogs really know how to cry. But they do it on the basis of their physiological need, and he is out of an excess of feelings. Moreover, dogs are great at manipulating people, and what owners usually mistake for sadness, resentment or remorse is usually the dog's attempt to get the desired response from the person.
