Dogs Have Emotions

Daddy asked to come today to pick up some summer clothes.  I told him I did not want to see him, would place them in the garage, and leave the garage door opener with the neighbors.  He asked me to leave the opener outside.  To avoid being vulnerable, I had other ideas.  I zipped up all of his clothes into suit bags and hung them on a clothes rack purchased for the purpose. I left the clothes rack outside the garage door under the overhang.

He arrived in a rental convertible with top down and classical music blaring for all the neighbors to hear.  Normally, Guinness begins barking at someone behind our house, particularly someone making such a splashy entrance.  He totally ignored someone was out there.  Daddy even walked up on the deck when he was finished, and Guinness did not react!  If someone comes on the deck, Guinness is super excited!  How could he know it was Daddy and purposely ignore him???  The answer has to be - he is VERY smart.  He watched me pack the clothes into suit bags.  He watched me put them on the rack in the garage.  He watched me push the rack outside the door that morning.

I love the book, Dogs Never Lie About Love: reflections on the emotional world of dogs by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson.  The author verifies dogs do have an emotional life and exhibit a variety of emotions.  Guinness is feeling insulted from abandonment.