Do Dogs have emotional needs?

As a dog trainer I always told my students that our human emotions scared our dogs because they did not fully understand them. They do have emotions but theirs are much more basic and primitive than ours. And unlike us, they have no need to hold onto their emotions or to judge or second guess them.

They act on their emotions instantly and then they are over. Like a flash in the pan.

Dogs are magical beings as we already know. They can feel things deeply and form deeply connected bonds with people and other animals as I illustrate in my book, "K9 Spirit Guides". But do they really have emotional needs like people do?

Based on what I have learned from the K9 spirit guides and from my own dogs (I’ve had 30 dogs), their only emotion is love. And they are an endless fountain of divine source love. So, if you understand like I do that divine source love is overwhelmingly abundant and never ending, is it even possible for their “emotional cup” to diminish?

I think it is more likely that our dogs lend us their divine love when our cups are low in an attempt to fill us up. And this can leave a dog feeling a little “empty”. Let me draw you a picture of what I mean.

Sally is your Bernese Mountain dog who is a constant connection to divine source energy and love. You come home from work one day and you’ve had a terrible day. You are stressed, angry, and wanting to binge eat. You curl up with your dog and a pint of ice cream. Your dog loves all over you, provides opportunities for constant petting, hugs, and listens to your rants. She sits quietly by while you go on and on to your girlfriend on the phone.

Unbeknownst to you, Sally is sending you her love to raise your energetic vibration. She can see that your current source level is low and running on fumes. This creates your current emotional state. She begins to download her own abundant love into your energy field to reverse your polarity. And as she does this, her level begins to lower and weaken because you’re drawing more from her than she can keep up with.

If only you could see what was happening and how she was trying to help, you wouldn’t siphon it from her so quickly, and she could better keep up with the demand. But you are running through this energy as quickly as she can send it to you. Instead of using it to refill your tank, you use it to fuel your lower energy investment, burning it down into the anger and bitterness that is coming out in your words. However, she continues to give you her all, despite the drain on her. She will do anything for you, so she never complains about how much effort and focus it requires.

Different dogs will approach this situation in different ways. Some will match your energy showing the lower-vibrational emotions that you are such as anger, aggression, or maybe depression and self-pity. So, you might see a grumpy dog keeping his distance. Or maybe a dog who fights with other dogs, like your girlfriend’s Chihuahua does. These would both be a reflection of the lower vibration that you are currently sharing. Other dogs react to this lower vibration, a frenzy of emotions, by overcompensating. As they attempt to refill your emotional tank, they react with hyperactivity instead of the calm that Sallie demonstrates. This happens with the husky down the street and his friend the boxer. As they feel the energy draw, they react with their own frenzied energy to keep their energy high. And yet other dogs might just run and hide from your lower vibration, because as you draw energy from them, they begin to feel as empty as you are.

Dogs don’t like to feel this way, so some may retreat to be alone until they can recover from the extraction. And then there is Sally who is your brick wall and as she gives her all to you, she begins to reflect the calm love and self-value that is necessary for you to embody so you can pull yourself out of this nosedive. She is a wise soul and can stand her own ground without being sucked into your lower vibration. She is very familiar and skilled at her job and handles it with class and grace.

Each dog will have a different response and a different message to what is going on with you, depending on where you stand along your journey. The emotional cup of our dogs is not really what we think or what we can rationalize as human beings. The healing power of man’s best friend operates at a much higher level or frequency than what we can see with our eyes, hear with our ears, or feel with our emotions. We must tune in much higher to begin to understand what they do. And the easiest way to do this is to meditate.

And luckily, meditation is also a great way to help restore your dog’s emotional cup or energy. Dogs love to meditate and I meditate with my dog every day. This helps in two ways. First it helps me better control my own energy so that I don’t fall victim to such spikes and valleys that require my dog to bail me out. Second, it allows my dog the time and space to relax in her own source energy and just be the divine being she was meant to be without having to care for me in that moment.

Dogs are naturally connected to source energy and are always “in the moment” unlike us. But this effect is accentuated when they are sleeping, walking or exploring out in nature, receiving and offering love and affection, and when they are running free and doing what comes naturally. So, some easy activities that can help you both refill your emotional cup are taking a long walk in the woods, playing a game of fetch, taking a nap, massaging your dog, or meditating together.

The more your emotional cup is filled with source energy, running on full and positive, and supplying its own flow, the more your dog’s emotional cup will be sustained.