This question has been asked for such a long time. Nextgendog.com provides an answer for us.

According to hundreds of dog greetings videos, it certainly seems like dogs can understand when their human owners return home from a long absence.

Recently, countless dog videos have gone viral of soldiers returning home and their pets reacting by crying, fainting, and even seeming to laugh. But do dogs really understand what it means to miss someone?

Do dogs truly feel the excitement and overwhelming joy of experiencing an owner’s return after months or years of them being gone as we believe they do?

Science has proven that similar to humans, dogs remember things the clearest when there are strong emotional ties to the memories. The average dog has approximately the same emotional competency of a three year old child.

They can feel basic emotions like happiness, love, and anger. Dogs can even be surprised or scared.

However, they do not have the ability to feel the more complex social emotions that humans can, like guilt, shame, or a sense of pride.

It is then quite plausible that dogs really do understand what it is like to genuinely miss someone when they are gone; they just probably don’t understand the full extent of the absence.

Remember, your pets count!

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