COLUMN: An emotional doggy coaster

Amy is a pug-obsessed music lover who sings an annoying amount and spends too much time looking at Pinterest.

When asked about her achievements she included memorising all the words to Disney’s Frozen, knowing the exact shade of green which is known as Tiffany Blue and having a laugh which people think is hilarious – all things which are quite useless in the real world.

SO YOU can feel as sick as a dog, but can you be as happy or as guilty as a dog?

I mean, people obviously don’t have tails so wagging your tail profusely at walk time is out of the question. 

But, imagine being able to get ridiculously happy about something as simple going outside or seeing someone for the first time in the morning?

You would literally have the best day, every day of the week. 

But then do dogs even have feelings at all, or do they copy the vibes which the rest of their human ‘pack’ is giving off. 

Have you ever noticed when you’re a really sad or emotional, your dog is too?

What do they have to be sad about?

They don’t care that you can’t fit into your skinny jeans any more. The naivety in me wants to say dogs are mind readers.

There was one time I had to look after my friend’s dog and it just so happened that it was the same time I broke up with my then boyfriend. 

Obviously it was a pretty sad time and I’m not going to lie there were some tears – ok a lot of tears. 

But after I finally managed to get to sleep, I woke up in the middle of the night to what sounded like my friend’s dog crying in his sleep. 

When I woke him up and he realised I was ok, he didn’t have a care in the world; in fact he decided 2am in the morning was the best time to play fetch. 

Anyway, with my dog Minnie in and out of hospital so much recently, it has been a question which has been playing on my mind.

On the days where we didn’t get great news about her condition I would be a mess and she would look sad and on the days where we got some good news, we both would be happy. 

So I asked the most all-knowing vet psychologist I know, Google. 

It turns out dogs only have a limited amount of feelings.

While they develop the ability to love, feel joy and be shy they don’t develop the ability to feel guilty for example. 

All those guilty looks which Minnie gave me after chewing something she shouldn’t have as a puppy were a lie apparently. 

But they also have a different type of emotions; their feelings are pure and not that complicated. 

What you see is what you get basically. 

When they show you they love you, they’re not lying.

And as pack animals, they do take on the emotions of other pack members – hence my friend’s dog was ‘crying’ in the middle of the night. 

Knowing this really takes the mystery out of why dogs make the perfect best friends however.

They don’t ‘just know’, it’s just in their nature.

I don’t know about you, but I think I preferred it when I thought Minnie was a mind-reader.