Do animals laugh?

Many years ago I owned a mutt pup who was one of the smartest dogs I'd ever met. Cassandra liked to ride along with me for grocery shopping.

One day I came back with a load of groceries. We got out of the truck and I ordered Cassandra up on the porch. She gave me a wicked look and streaked around the corner of the house, out of sight.

I struggled up the sidewalk with my crutch and the groceries and before I reached the perch, Cassandra had circled the house and was on the porch waiting for me.

She was enormously pleased with herself.

How 'bout cockroaches? They must find us humans pretty funny.

And what about donkeys? Are they laughing their asses off because...oh, never mind.

They must be smiling, if not laughing..

this girl dog definitely laughs, and so does her brother

You know, satt fs, I was thinking of the Australian cattle dog (or blue or red heelers) as soon as read the article - they are very, very clever dogs - and often appear to be laughing, in a jocularly cynical sort of way, at the world.

I find it quite persuasive that laughter in humans starts so early - and must be in quite an early part of the brain.

The chimp laugh when chasing and playing is pretty persuasive, too.

What do folk think of rats, and other animals that play a lot, especially when young?

I'm not sure about the laugh part, but there certainly must be a sense of humour at work with some. One of our cats used to love putting toys into my work boots. I would unknowingly stick my feet into them and get a funny surprise!

Lol - I had a cat who used to love to hide and jump out at me.

Careful observation of my lab cross convinces me that she has happy, sad and jealous moments. I am not sure if she is actually laughing, but she has reactions at the appropriate times.

Cats do not laugh. Dogs do. I warn you, their sense of humor can be on the heavy side.

yes. i have seen it.

when my kuvasz kodi was a year old she suddenly appeared at my front door. this was strange, considering she was supposed to be in the fenced back yard.

i let her back in the front door and promptly returned her to the 5-foot high fenced yard, where i observed her too promptly jumping the fence with nary a hair touching the fence.

she returned to my front door thinking "what a neat girl am i."

and i thought, "what a nasty guy am i" as i set about stringing up an electrified wire over the top of the fence.

my other kuvasz, Aja (see pix to left) smarter, older, and more experienced in the wily ways of "Daddy" watched me closely as I nailed in the holders for the electical wire and strung up the wire.

once plugged into the electical outlet, i tested the wire and got quite a shock.

i went inside and watched Kodi approach the fence and noticed Aja barking at Kodi as if to warn her about the fence.

Kodi ignored her sister's barking and began to scale the fence, and when she got to the top she hit the electrified wire, collapsed in a heap, howled and ran into the house.

Aja ran to the window from which i was looking out and i swear grinned at me and laughed out loud.

i will never forget that look on Aja's face.

Lol - great story!

Seems dogs tend towards the slapstick, too!

I think my dog laughs. Her ears go back and down, she sort of ducks her head - she has a good sense of humor.

Ask anyone who owns a pet, and not only do their pets laugh, but they talk non-verbally. They actually go out of their way to translate for their pets.

"Then Blackie looked at me like, 'that was funny'."

No she wasn't, stupid. It's a dog.

Dogs, cats, they don't "laugh."

Do Slappies?

Hell yea.

What do you do if your dog is racist?

My dog listens to dissident satellite radio programs; he's an anti-semite, and possibly a member of the National Alliance.

My dog laughs - along with the child

Adorable, Jane!

KUVASZ!!!! OMG, where ya been? Long time no see.

(And, yes, our dog laughs, cries, smiles, and gives hilarious hateful looks to Bear when he calls her dumb)

parrots, parakeets, cockatoos, and the like can literally laugh, of course. they also bite now & then, and if you say Ouch they learn to repeat that. at that point, if you should start laughing because your bird went Ouch, they'll start laughing. eventually, the routine becomes, bird bites, human goes ouch, and then bird laughs. is the bird having fun? probably.

we haven't gotten to that stage with my cockatoo, i'm usually quick enough to avoid the bite.