Can Dogs Cry? What the Science Tells Us (Vet Answer)
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For humans, it seems normal to express happy or sad emotions by crying; we see it every day on television, social media, and in person. People can cry tears of joy, excitement, pain, and sadness, and you may wonder if animals express these same emotions. And if they do, is it in the same way as people? Research has shown that dogs can cry in times of joy but no as a sign of sadness. This article will delve into whether dogs do cry, and in what kind of situations they may express this behavior.
What Kind of Emotions Do Dogs Express?
It is well established that dogs demonstrate an array of emotions; fear, stress, anxiety, happiness, excitement, and more. Dogs may be vocal, act differently, or alter their body language, depending on how they are feeling. We are all familiar with the enthusiastic tail wag of a joyful dog, but you may not know that dogs will sometimes stop eating or become withdrawn when they are experiencing stress or loss. When a dog’s personality changes, it can be a sign that something is bothering your dog, physically or emotionally.
Just like when we notice when our dogs are injured or sick, it is important to notice when they show changes in their personality or behavior.
Do Dogs Cry When They Are Sad?
To answer this question, we must first understand why humans cry when they are sad. Charles Darwin noted in his 1872 book The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals, that tears serve the functional purpose of lubrication, and increased tear production occurs with physical stimulus to flush out contaminants and protect the eye from damage. By contrast, tear production stimulated by emotion serves no functional purpose, meaning that crying tears must have evolved as a method of social cohesion; a way to convey our emotions to others, and express our feelings.
Human babies do not usually start producing tears when they cry for several months after birth, which may purely be due to the delayed development of their lacrimal (tear) ducts, or evidence that crying tears has evolved as something of a learned behavior. Our tears tell others how we are feeling.
A recent study has indicated that dogs do indeed cry in times of emotion, but theirs would appear to be tears of happiness rather than of sorrow.1 This has been observed in situations such as when an owner returns after a lengthy absence, and has also been seen in dogs tending to their puppies. This led researchers to make a link between dogs exhibiting tears of happiness and oxytocin levels. As you may know, oxytocin is a hormone released during and after birth, stimulating uterine contractions and milk production. They found that dogs who had just been reunited with their owners had increased oxytocin levels, suggesting that this hormone may also be linked to expressions of happiness and a familial bond, reinforcing the relationship between human and dog.
When dogs communicate with each other, much of the information exchanged is based on pheromones and body language, and potentially other methods not fully understood by humans. Based on Darwin’s proposed theory, dog’s do not need to cry to express sorrow to one another, and so never evolved the behavior.
What Other Ways Do Dogs Show Emotion?
As mentioned above, dogs express their emotions in a number of ways, and those methods vary depending on whether they are interacting with humans or other dogs. Tail movements, posturing, vocalizations, ear positioning and eye contact are just some of the ways in which dogs communicate how they are feeling to us, and to each other.
We only need to see how dogs react to one another from great distances to know that their ability to convey information about themselves is far superior to ours. We might even theorize that humans learned to cry to make up for our shortcomings in this area. The fact that few other animals shed tears of emotion may not be an indication of their lack of emotional depth but a sign of their heightened sensitivity to other emotional cues.
Final Thoughts
Dogs are emotional beings who are able to communicate their feelings in a number of different ways. There is no doubt that our canine companions are capable of experiencing happiness and sorrow, stress and serenity. Although there is evidence that dogs will shed a tear in times of joy, they do not appear to cry when they are sad. This does not necessarily mean that their sorrow is less significant than our own, but that their methods of conveying such emotion are different to ours.
So if you see tears in your dog’s eyes when you come home at the end of the day, don’t be worried – they are just happy to see you!
Featured Image Credit: REGINE THOLEN, Unsplash
