My dad and I were discussing life after death and we got on the subject of whether dogs have a soul. He said they don’t because they cannot reason, they act only on instinct and I immediately responded "yes they can!", but the more I thought about it I was not sure.

I was wondering what others thought; can dogs reason?

It would be nice to have a poll if a moderator could make one.

If this not an appropriate post for this forum I apologize in advance.

There's people out there that will argue this to the point of ruining the joy of having a dog. Someone told me there's a book out there that logically explains away every canine behavior, some examples being "dogs dont lick you because they like you, they lick you because you're salty"... "they dont curl up next to you because they love you, they do it because you're warm", etc etc etc. Personally, this type of thinking ruins the enjoyment of bonding with your dogs. I think dogs can reason, they do think, they're not stupid, you can see the gears turning when a dog faces a choice. Their method of thinking is very basic which is why some people get so short tempered with dogs (i.e dog chews couch, 6 hours later daddy comes home n yells at the dog for chewing up the couch... even a 3 year old kid would have forgotten what they are getting yelled at for after 6 hours!).

You can logically explain away human behaviors in the same way if you really try, it's just more complex, but if you over-simplify a human life as far as some people over-simplify a dogs life, you're born, you're taught to do whatever it is that makes you socially accepted based on your life's circumstances, you eat, you drink, you work because you need to eat and drink, you have kids, you die. Not much fun when you think of life like that is it?

Of course they reason, maybenot at the same level that we do, but they definitely reason. Think of service dogs. There is no way that a guide dog for example could be trained in or for every possible situation that it may meet during it's career. There's going to be a time that the dog will come face to face with a situation it wasn't specicially trained for and the dog will reason out what the appropriate response and action is based on it's training and past, somewhat similar experiences.

I agree -- There are religious "nuts" who say dogs have no souls (not true, of course!) and there are science "nuts" who say even people (never mind dogs!) don't have souls either...

Here's my take: Our soul is made up of intellect, emotions & will (dogs have all three components, just as humans & other complex animals do) -- Certainly dogs reason & feel emotions & want their own way (otherwise, they'd be vegetables, minerals, or robots)...

But dogs are not human beings (well, plenty of people aren't "human" either!) in that they don't relate to moral laws like the Ten Commandments -- Dogs do relate to
"survival of the species laws" like pack dynamics & self-preservation...

Having a soul is what differentiates individual dogs from each other (they each have a unique personality) and no two are ever exactly alike -- Someone who pontificates that dogs don't think, don't have feelings, don't want one thing rather than another, has never had a personal relationship with a canine (either that, or the person in question is uneducated, IMHO).

Folks,
Politics and religion....you're not suppose to discuss them in polite company as it can make for heated arguements.

And this is "polite company"
Sorry, topic closed.