Do Dogs act guilty?

[michele5611]

www.thebark.com/content/do-dogs-act-guilty

[melonie]

I can attest for my own dogs... If I ask Cleveland 'what did you do' he will hang his head and slink away.
If I ask Winston 'did you do that?' he will go hide.
Guilt to me.

He will also try to insert himself between a human and their object of attention. Be it a child, another adult, a dog, laptop, etc. If Winston has something, Cleveland wants it. Winston does a more subtle version of trying to steal the attention, like rest his head on you and make you feel guilty for ignoring him.

[johnr]

I strongly suspect that the people who did this experiment suck at doing experiments.

[emilys]

I think it's more "dogs act like something we interpret as "guilt"...

[johnr]

Jun 8, 2012 19:30:03 GMT -5 emilys said:

I think it's more "dogs act like something we interpret as "guilt"...

People do tend to over-read and otherwise misread dogs. I'm constantly stashing dogs into corners of the shelter where volunteers won't get a chance to demonstrate their inability to read dogs accurately and get yet another one into trouble. But for that very reason, I have my doubts about the readings offered in this experiment.

Back when Judy and I still just had the original five, ie Louise, Thelma, Norma Rae, Ginger and Silly Hillary, and Hillary was still in a chewy phase, I picked up some chewed up mangled piece of something or other and let each dog sniff it. The first four did so with mild curiosity perhaps, but generally impassively. When I put it in front of Silly, she didn't sniff, but put her head way down and her ears in contrite "donkey ear" position and looked away. And no one was scolding anyone. If you are scolding dogs, of course they will react to that and it's not surprising if dogs who did nothing are reacting with MORE stress. It totally confounds any attempt to isolate any indication of SELF reproach, which is what guilt basically is.

[melonie]

I like thinking my naughty dogs act guilty. It's what makes me feel so bad for them and they get out of trouble.

[adoptapitbull]

I think it's more of a "I think I'm going to get in trouble" over guilt. If you pick up your favorite, now chewed up, pair of shoes and say "Did you do this?!", I think the dog picks up on your nasty tone and body language and gives you the fearful/guilty look.

[dane71]

Jackie never looks guilty because she never really does anything bad. However, Enzo has settled in to life at the Dolce house and loves to chew on shoes and socks. He also loves to dig hole. When I catch him doing something even if I don't say anything, he will put his head down like "ok you caught me" I think of it more as the devil look than a guilty look. ;D