Animal Emotions Explained: How to Tell What Your Pet Is Feeling

A happy black dog enjoys belly rubs while lounging comfortably in its owner's arms on a cozy couch.

If you’ve ever watched your dog make a smile while being petted. or your cat slink off after being scolded, you’ve probably wondered: Do animals feel emotions like we do? The short answer is yes, but the full picture is more nuanced. While animals clearly react to their surroundings in ways that suggest emotional responses, scientists are still figuring out how to define and measure those feelings. In this post, we’ll explore what emotions actually are, how researchers study them in animals, what kinds of emotions animals seem to experience, and what this means for pet owners like you.

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What are emotions?

Let’s start with a definition. Psychologists often describe emotions as complex psychological states that are composed of three distinctive states: the subjective experience, the physiological response, and the behavioral response.

In simpler terms, emotions are short-term feelings that arise from how we interpret what’s happening around or within us. They're not just "in your head" — they influence how we think, act, and even how our body behaves.

According to some scientists, emotions generally involve five key components:

• Cognitive – How an animal perceives or evaluates a situation (e.g., “Is that object threatening or interesting?”)

• Subjective – The inner experience of the emotion, often linked to its pleasantness or unpleasantness

• Motivational – The actions that the animal takes part in (like fleeing danger or seeking comfort)

• Somatic – Physiological and brain responses across the body’s systems, such as the cardiovascular and neuroendocrine systems

• Behavioral – Observable reactions such as facial expressions, body language, or vocalizations.

Even though animals can’t tell us how they feel, these components help researchers detect emotional states using indirect evidence.

How are animal emotions being studied?

Because animals can’t describe their feelings, scientists rely on tools that connect emotional experiences to behavior and biology. One popular approach is the Circumplex Model of Emotions, which organizes feelings along two main axes: valence (how pleasant or unpleasant the feeling is) and arousal (how activating or calming it is). For example, fear is high-arousal and unpleasant, while contentment is low-arousal and pleasant.

Diagram illustrating the emotional circumplex model, depicting the relationship between arousal and valence with emotions ranging from excited and happy in high-arousal positive valence to depressed and bored in low-arousal negative valence, divided into four quadrants: excitement, calmness, sadness, and fear.

To study emotions in animals, researchers observe:

• Behavioral changes (e.g., how an animal responds to choices or ambiguous situations)

• Cognitive bias (Is the behavioral change associated with a goal-directed behavior?)

• Physiological signals (like heart rate, hormone levels, or posture)

• Attention patterns (what animals choose to focus on in emotional contexts)

These methods help scientists build a more complete picture of what an animal might be experiencing.

What emotions do animals experience?

Many animals display behaviors linked to the basic emotions, which are:

• Fear

• Anger

• Joy

• Sadness

• Surprise

• Disgust

There’s also growing evidence that some animals—especially social ones like dogs, elephants, and primates—can experience more complex emotions, such as empathy, jealousy, and grief. These findings suggest that animals are not only capable of feeling, but also of forming emotional connections with others.

Are animal emotions like ours?

In many ways, human and animal emotions are the same. They share many brain structures that are involved in emotion, such as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex. Also, emotions evolved in animals for the same reasons as humans — to help them respond to threats, bond with other animals, and make decisions.

However, there are important differences between humans and animals:

• Animals may not reflect on their emotions the way humans do.

• Some emotions, like guilt or shame, are debated to exist in animals due to their complexity.

• The full richness of a human’s emotional life, including self-awareness, likely isn’t matched in most species.

That said, the lack of human-like complexity doesn’t mean animals don’t feel. It simply means we’re still learning how to best describe and understand their emotional lives.

Application for pet owners

So what does this mean for you and your furry (or feathered) family members?

Understanding that your pet has emotional experiences can help you:

• Respond more empathetically to behaviors rooted in fear, anxiety, or excitement.

• Improve training methods by considering emotional motivation instead of just enforcing obedience.

• Enhance their welfare by recognizing signs of distress or contentment and making appropriate adjustments to their environment.

For example, a dog pacing when left alone may not just be “acting out” — they may be experiencing separation anxiety. A cat hiding after visitors arrive might be expressing fear, not aloofness.

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Emotions aren’t just a human thing — they’re a vital part of the lives of many animals, including the ones who share our homes. While science continues to explore exactly how animals feel, there’s no doubt that they do feel. As pet owners, recognizing and respecting their emotional world is one of the best ways we can care for them.

Pay attention to the cues—your pet’s body language, behavior, and reactions speak volumes. You just have to know how to listen.

Want to better understand what your animal is feeling and how to support them? Book your personalized consultation with me to gain insight into your pet’s emotional world and get tailored strategies for building a stronger, more compassionate connection.

Sources

Carranza-Pinedo, V., U.K., & Richter, S. (2024). Towards a scientific definition of animal emotions: Integrating innate, appraisal, and network mechanisms. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2025.106127

Crump, A., G.A., & Bethell, E. (2018). Affect-driven attention biases as animal welfare indicators: Review and methods. Animals, 8(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/ani8080136

Ferretti, V., & Papaleo, F. (2018). Understanding others: Emotion recognition in humans and other animals. Genes, Brain and Behavior, 18. https://doi.org/10.1111/gbb.12544