What do you think goes on in a dog's head when he's following you around?

"this MF is gonna drop food any moment now, I've seen it happen."

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Probably why they love little kids. Lots of crumbs to be had

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- Reading this reply in my inbox without seeing what it was a reply to was a rollercoaster.
  
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- And their hands are at dog height.
  
  There's nothing funnier than watching a dog following a kid around waiting for it to drop food, then getting bored and just taking it.
  
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My dog: " That's my guy! I love the guy. I wonder if he'll pull the rope if I bring it to him..."

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"Waitformewaitforme... Where are we going???"

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"Better hurry up or he will go without me!"

He is very keen on not being left behind even if I'm just running to the shop.

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Realistically, they're just having fun being outside and smelling all the smells, i think they mostly feel because they probably don't have an internal monologue but rather waves of emotion directing their actions.

Most animals don't have a little consicence in their head making impedance between feelings

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My Shiba very clearly is plotting to overthrow the government. Very externally visible inner monologue.

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- Both of mine too. Maybe they communicate on dogenet?
  
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- Mine is absolutely a schemer. Although she needs to work on her poker face.
  
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- that's just what it wants you to think
  
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I think dogs are usually more "in the moment" than a human would be, but they're able to imagine future scenarios and then choose the course of action that they expect will bring about the scenario they prefer rather than the most immediately gratifying course of action. In other words, they do sometimes "stop and think" rather than just acting on urges, although of course they don't think in words. I'll go even further and say that some dogs have better impulse control than some humans.

I even met a dog who appeared capable of the sort of regret about past actions that I would call "guilt". His owner and I were returning from a trip and when I opened the house door, he was agitated and blocked my way in (he's a big dog) while holding an empty plastic bag in his mouth. I went back to his owner and she was familiar with this behavior. Apparently the dog had given in to his urges and eaten a bag of bread while we were away, and now he was confessing. His owner told him to go to his time-out corner and he immediately did while appearing relieved.

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- Charles Darwin famously loved his dog and devoted a non-trivial amount of writing to his dog's rich internal world.
  
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There have been people who grew up without language, and learned to speak much later in life. It can happen to deaf people who grow up in a place where they don't receive support for their deafness, for example.

But anyways, it is possible to ask those people what they thought about before they learned language, and at least one of them answered that they didn't really think about anything.

So if humans are like this without language, it's more likely that dogs are similar to what you suggest.

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- one of them answered that they didn't really think about anything
  
  I have an extremely hard time believing this, even if that’s what they told you. You don’t need language to think about stuff. Nor do you need some internal monologue to have thoughts.
  
  Visualize eating a meal. Did you did language for that? Hell nah.
  
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"I don't know what you're up to, but I am so fucking ready for it."

She's a Malinois, and as far as her breed goes, she's probably just about the laziest one in the world, which still puts her high in the running in the list of most energetic dog I've ever met.

I've never seen her walk when running or jumping was an option, she gives 110% to everything she does, even if it's just running up the stairs to go to bed. I'm fairly certain she has never touched half of our stairs because she pretty much just jumps from landing to landing.

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My husky: "Food? Food? You're getting food? I want food. Food?"

My Chihuahua: "DONT FUCKING TOUCH MY DAD!"

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I'm convinced dogs only think in punctuation.

"Who's a good boy?"

"????????????"

"You're a good boy!"

"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

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10 Do you have food? 20 Do you have my squeaky ball? 30 GOTO 10

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I imagine a continual running Gollum/Sméagol dialogue between the domesticated dog personality and the suppressed wolf personality.

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Chihuahuas are literally that

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This is what the dog is thinking... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbZ_hTEOKZc

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Meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow

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Reminds me of my late dog who always replied to anything I said with a lick.

Me: meow

Him: blep

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has to go out 2) the dog knows that you are a very sloppy eater and follows you for the guaranteed crumbs that you will be dropping everywhere. They have no incentive in following you unless you are eating something.

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