IF YOU subscribe to the theory that humans are superior to other animals because we alone have a moral conscience, you may be barking up the wrong tree.
A new breed of behavioural experts now believes that dogs, too, have a moral compass.
Natural historian Jake Page says scientists are finally acknowledging what pet owners have told their canines all along: "Good dog."
Marc Bekoff, professor emeritus at the University of Colorado, in Boulder, says dogs are full of natural goodness and have rich emotional lives. Professor Bekoff, a groundbreaking animal behaviorist, says a dog's code of ethics is on display daily in parks, backyards and family rooms.
"We're not trying to elevate animals," he said. "We're not trying to reduce humans. We're not saying we're better or worse or the same. We're saying we're not alone in having a nuanced moral system."
Page, the Colorado-based author of Do Dogs Smile?, says biology no longer dismisses dogs and other animals as "furry automatons" driven by instinct and food.
"People like Bekoff have figured out how to measure these things," he said. "It's a whole new ball game for studying dog personalities and emotions."
Professor Bekoff, co-author of the newly released Wild Justice: The Moral Lives of Animals, spent thousands of hours observing coyotes, wolves and dogs in the field.
He analysed videotapes frame by frame. The work persuaded him these animals possess empathy and compassion, the emotions upon which moral sense is built. "I'm convinced many animals can distinguish right from wrong," Professor Bekoff said, citing monkeys, wolves, elephants, dolphins and whales as other creatures that have complex social lives.
But dogs, he says, are special cases because they share in human lives.
"Dogs know they are dependent. They learn to read us," Professor Bekoff said. "Dogs develop this great sense of trust. We're tightly linked and there is something spiritual about that unity."
This intimacy and mutual influence prompted Harvard University to open a Canine Cognition Lab, where researchers attempt to gain insight into the psychology of humans and dogs.
Professor Bekoff says some behaviour experts still believe emotions, and certainly morality, are uniquely human traits — but he is witnessing a turning tide. "The amount of scepticism has dramatically dropped."
But looking for the roots of morality in animals is a difficult scientific undertaking. It begins with looking for emotions central to morality, such as empathy — understanding another's situation, feelings and motives.
In humans, emotions are centred in specific brain structures and are affected by chemicals called neurotransmitters. Mammals possess the same brain structures, affected by the same chemicals as humans.
Professor Bekoff says, as well as loyalty, dogs display a range of clear emotions including:
-A sense of fair play.
-A love of company and friends.
-Jealousy and resentment.
-Anxiety and fear.
-Embarrassment and remorse.
-Affection and compassion.
-Grief and loss.
And they have a sense of humour. "Dogs apparently laugh," Page said. The same brain structures show the same activity in laughing humans and in dogs who are enjoying themselves. A dog's laugh is a rhythmic pant.
If Professor Bekoff is right and dogs do have a moral core, says Jay McDaniel, a professor of religion at Hendrix College in Arkansas, theologians will have to develop a theology of animal minds and an ethic of animal protection.
"Animals have their own kind of spirituality, their own connection to the creator," he said.
In the 1200s, Catholic philosopher Thomas Aquinas wrote that animals have souls but not like the rational human soul created by God for each individual person.
Alfred North Whitehead, an influential 20th-century scientist and philosopher, recognised in 1926 that key elements of religious expression — ritual and emotion — are common to humans and animals. However, he said, belief and rationalisation are exclusively human activities.
Professor Bekoff disagrees, saying: "Dogs are thinking animals. They seek the outcomes they want, avoid the ones they don't. They solve problems. They have expectations. They have hopes."
But critics say evidence is often anecdotal.
Professor Bekoff counters that thousands of anecdotes equal data.