{"id":28634,"date":"2023-06-07T18:00:03","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T16:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=145551"},"modified":"2023-06-07T18:38:26","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T16:38:26","slug":"heres-the-real-reason-your-dog-gives-that-guilty-look","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/heres-the-real-reason-your-dog-gives-that-guilty-look\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s the real reason your dog gives that \u2018guilty look\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes dog owners fall into the trap of interpreting their pets\u2019 actions in human terms. <\/p>

By Jason Goodyer\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 07 June 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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If you\u2019ve lived with a dog<\/a> for a long enough time, the chances are that at some point you will have returned home to find them skulking around the living room, surrounded by the wrecked remains of a china vase, feather pillow or other valuable item.<\/p>\n

The scene is so common that it has spawned \u2018dog shaming\u2019, an Internet subculture where dog owners share pics of their pups expressing a look of shame along with a sign attached to them detailing their latest misdemeanour.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018guilty look\u2019 is when we think a dog looks guilty of some infraction,\u201d says Alexandra Horowitz<\/a>, a professor of canine cognition based at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe their ears or back or their head is down. Maybe they\u2019re looking away a little, or their tail is wagging low between their legs.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what exactly is going through our dogs\u2019 minds when they display this behaviour? Probably not what you\u2019re expecting\u2026<\/p>\n

Why do dogs really give us that \u2018guilty look\u2019?<\/h2>\n

To investigate the reasons why our pet pooches act like this, Horowitz and her team set up an experiment. They had a dog and their owner enter a room and then placed a tasty treat in front of them. The owners were then asked to leave the room after ordering their dogs not to eat the treat.<\/p>\n

While the owners were away, some of the dogs were given the forbidden treat while some weren\u2019t. The owners were then asked back into the room and told whether the dog had eaten the treat or left it alone as asked. However, some owners were told that the dog had eaten the treat when they hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I found is that they show the same amount of the \u2018guilty look\u2019<\/a>\u00a0whether they ate the treat or not. What changed the rate of the look was if the owners thought they had eaten it and came to scold them, however mildly,\u201d says Horowitz.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dogs put on this submissive, appeasement look, saying \u2018whatever it is, I\u2019m sorry\u2019. But they do it if we just give them an angry face. Even when they haven\u2019t done anything wrong. That\u2019s a real sign that it\u2019s not because they\u2019re feeling guilty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t feel guilt, just that we\u2019re not great at reading that behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

This means the guilty look isn\u2019t an expression of guilt or shame at all. It\u2019s simply owners misinterpreting their pet\u2019s behaviour by attributing human emotions to the actions of dogs.<\/p>\n

So, next time you suspect your dog might\u2019ve done something they shouldn\u2019t have, maybe think twice before giving them the stink eye.<\/p>\n

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About our expert, Prof Alexandra Horowitz<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Alexandra is a professor of canine cognition based at Barnard College, Columbia University, New York.<\/p>\n

Her work has been published in the academic journals\u00a0Animal Cognition<\/em>,\u00a0Learning And Behaviour\u00a0<\/em>and the\u00a0Official Journal Of The Society For Neuroscience<\/em>.<\/p>\n

She is also the author of the books\u00a0Inside Of A Dog \u2013 What Dogs See, Smell And Know<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0The Year Of The Puppy<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Read more about dogs:<\/strong><\/p>\n