Abstract
While dog owners claim that their dogs’ greeting behaviour after having performed a misdeed indicates the dogs' ‘guilt’, current experimental evidence suggests that dogs show these ‘guilty look’ behaviours as a response to being scolded by their owners. Given reports that ‘guilty look’ behaviours are shown also in the absence of being scolded, we investigated whether the dogs' own actions or the evidence of a misdeed might serve as triggering cues. We manipulated whether or not dogs ate a ‘forbidden’ food item and whether or not the food was visible upon the owners’ return. Based on their dogs’ greeting behaviour, owners stated that their dog had eaten the food no more than expected by chance. In addition, dogs’ greeting behaviours were not affected by their own action or the presence or absence of the food. Thus, our findings do not support the hypothesis that dogs show the ‘guilty look’ in the absence of a concurrent negative reaction by their owners.
Highlights
Dog owners regularly claim that their dogs exhibit behaviours that indicate that they have performed a misdeed or otherwise disobeyed a rule while the owner was absent (Hecht et al, 2012; Pongrácz et al, 2001)
Given reports that ‘guilty look’ behaviours are shown in the absence of being scolded, we investigated whether the dogs’ own actions or the evidence of a misdeed might serve as triggering cues
The author found that those dogs that were scolded upon their owners’ return showed more ‘guilty look’ behaviours than dogs that were greeted by their owners in a friendly manner, regardless of whether the food item had been eaten by the dog or removed by the experimenter
Summary
Dog owners regularly claim that their dogs exhibit behaviours that indicate that they have performed a misdeed or otherwise disobeyed a rule while the owner was absent (Hecht et al, 2012; Pongrácz et al, 2001). Owners state that dogs exhibit these behaviours before owners have discovered the evidence of the misdeed (Hecht et al, 2012) Some owners view these behaviours as an indication that the dogs feel ‘guilty’ (Morris et al, 2008; Hecht et al, 2012; Horowitz, 2009). The author found that those dogs that were scolded upon their owners’ return showed more ‘guilty look’ behaviours than dogs that were greeted by their owners in a friendly manner, regardless of whether the food item had been eaten by the dog or removed by the experimenter. The author concluded that the dogs’ behaviour is best interpreted as the dogs’ fear-response to being scolded (Horowitz, 2009)
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