You Cannot Share Your Life With a Dog … and Not Know (remembering Jane Goodall)
- Deb from Busy Pawz
- Oct 15
- 5 min read
“You cannot share your life with a dog... or a cat, and not know perfectly well that animals have personalities, minds, and feelings — Dr. Jane Goodall
In 2025, the world said goodbye to one of the most powerful voices for animals - Dr. Jane Goodall. Her lifelong work with chimpanzees forever changed how we view animals. But her legacy reaches far beyond the jungle.
Jane didn’t just teach the scientific community that animals think and feel - she reminded the rest of us that what we already knew in our hearts was worth listening to. That the emotional connection we feel with our dogs is real and it matters. And thanks to Jane, we have the science to back it up.
Jane’s Legacy - Beyond the Jungle
Jane Goodall was just 26 when she arrived in Gombe, Tanzania, to begin her fieldwork with wild chimpanzees. What she observed would challenge everything the scientific community believed at the time.
She saw chimps hugging, grieving, playing, using tools, and expressing what looked very much like empathy and joy. She noticed how they formed relationships, showed loyalty, and mourned lost companions.
At a time when science insisted animals were purely instinct-driven, Jane dared to say otherwise. She named the chimps. She wrote about their personalities, not just their behaviours. She spoke of their feelings. And in doing so, she rattled the very foundations of behavioural science.
She wasn’t projecting human emotions onto animals - she was simply observing what was already there, and she had the courage to speak up about what she saw, even when others weren’t ready to believe it.
What Dog Lovers Have Always Known
While Jane Goodall spent decades observing emotion, connection, and communication in chimpanzees, many of us have been quietly noticing the same emotional truths in our dogs.
We see how their entire body softens with relief when we come home after a long day. We’ve seen them pace or whimper when a beloved family member leaves, even just for a few hours. We notice their excitement when they sense play is about to begin or their worry when the routine changes and something feels off.
Dog lovers have long understood, on an intuitive level, that our companions feel deeply. Jane helped give language and legitimacy to those observations. She reminded us that just because our dogs can’t speak doesn’t mean they don’t experience joy, sadness, stress, or love.
They may not be chimps, but dogs are undeniably sentient. They form strong bonds. They grieve losses. They remember. They learn. They worry. They celebrate. They play, problem-solve, and feel fear. And they do all of this while adapting to a human world that often misunderstands them.
When we recognise that, we can begin to support them in a more meaningful way - not just in training, but in how we live with them every day.
What Jane’s Work Still Teaches Us
Jane Goodall didn’t just study animals. She listened to them. She paid attention to the emotion behind the action - and she invited the world to do the same.
But even now, that message hasn’t fully landed everywhere.
We still see training approaches that treat emotion as a problem to suppress rather than a message to understand. Shelter systems often assume a clean slate, without recognising the trauma some dogs carry. Veterinary care can prioritise efficiency over emotional safety. And within the pet food industry, it’s easy to forget that compassion should extend to all the animals involved in the process.
Even in well-meaning homes, we sometimes miss the cues. We focus on fixing barking or chewing or reactivity without pausing to consider the fear, stress, or unmet need sitting underneath it.
Jane’s work reminds us: behaviour is communication. When we listen with curiosity and empathy, everything shifts.
A Wider Circle of Compassion
One of Jane’s most powerful messages was that once you recognise emotion in one animal, it becomes harder to ignore in any of them.
For many of us, that awareness starts with dogs. They’re in our homes, our families, our everyday lives. We see their joy, their fear, their need for connection - and once we start noticing that, it’s hard to unsee it elsewhere.
Maybe that emotional awareness doesn’t stop at the back fence.
Greyhounds and racehorses, for example, spend their early years racing - trained for performance, praised for speed, and often passed along when they’re no longer profitable. While many are eventually rehomed, the emotional impact of those early years isn’t always acknowledged. They may not have been mistreated outright, but being valued for what they can do rather than who they are, leaves a mark.
And once you’ve seen that, it becomes harder not to notice similar stories elsewhere…
The overbred puppy farm mums still living in cages.
The laying hens who’ve never felt the sun.
The exotic pets kept in backyard enclosures.
The animals behind the cheap meat or tinned food.
The farmed salmon who never get to swim upstream.
Jane never pointed fingers. She didn’t shame. She simply noticed and invited the rest of us to notice too.
Final Thoughts
If you’ve ever looked into your dog’s eyes and felt something real looking back, then you already understand what Jane Goodall spent her life advocating for.
That connection you feel is not just in your head. It’s real. It’s backed by decades of research, observation, and the lived experience of anyone who’s ever truly paid attention to the animals around them. Jane gave a voice to that connection. She helped the world see what so many of us already knew in our hearts: animals feel.
Honouring her legacy doesn’t mean making big gestures or learning the language of science. It means noticing the small moments - when your dog leans in for comfort, hesitates with worry, or lights up with joy. It means choosing curiosity over correction, empathy over control.
Because when we truly see our dogs for who they are - emotionally rich, socially complex, deeply feeling beings - everything else starts to make a little more sense.
💛 Thank you, Jane, for helping the world see what dog lovers have known all along.
And if this post resonated with you, feel free to give it a like or share it with someone who shares your love for dogs. Let’s keep the ripple of empathy going.
P.S. If you’d like some personalised support to better understand your dog’s emotional needs and behaviour, I’d love to help you both feel more connected and calm.
Thanks for reading!
And as always, throw your dog a treat from us!
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