In their 2017 commentary, J. Bräuer, Karine Silva, and S. Schweinberger respond to Kujala’s review on canine emotions as understood through human social cognition. They emphasize that the dog–human relationship represents a unique social context in which emotional communication unfolds through intertwined cognitive and affective processes.
The authors argue that progress in this field requires a more nuanced understanding of how emotional states and cognitive functions interact. They highlight that isolating emotional mechanisms from cognitive ones may be necessary to determine how each contributes—independently or jointly—to the communication of emotion between species. This disentangling is particularly important because behavioral expressions in dogs often reflect a combination of motivation, learning history, perception, and emotional arousal.
A key theme of the commentary is the need for new research methods capable of capturing the rich sensory repertoire dogs use when communicating. Dogs rely on olfactory, auditory, visual, and tactile cues, many of which are subtle or difficult for humans to perceive. The authors emphasize that methodologies must account for multisensory integration and the possibility that dogs experience and express emotions differently than humans expect or interpret.
The commentary also calls attention to the broader implications for understanding the dog–human bond. Because emotional communication is central to social interaction, improving our ability to read, measure, and interpret canine emotional signals will deepen knowledge of attachment, cooperation, and responsiveness between the two species. This includes refining experimental designs, broadening sensory measurement tools, and integrating perspectives from psychology, ethology, neuroscience, and communication studies.
Overall, Bräuer, Silva, and Schweinberger encourage researchers to pursue new avenues of inquiry that reflect the complexity of emotional communication. By addressing methodological limitations and exploring how cognitive and emotional systems interact, the field can move toward a richer and more accurate understanding of how dogs perceive, express, and respond to human emotions, and vice versa.
Source: Bräuer, J., Silva, K., & Schweinberger, S. (2017). Communicating canine and human emotions. Commentary on Kujala (2017).
