Do dogs show guilt

[tritonx]

I've read that dogs do not show guilt despite what looks to us like a guilty body language when they chew something they're not supposed to or whatever. The explanation given is that they are responding to human behaviour, raised voice, finger shaking etc. but have no idea what it's all about. The dog process seems to be: human upset, makes me anxious and that's the extent of it. However, the other day (I was going to write about it, but didn't get round to it until today I read the article linked below), the other day I left a half eaten dried fig on the coffee table and went off to do something in the kitchen. Fraser was lying on a sofa nearby. After a while I came back to the living room and greeted him as he was looking at me and he flinched. I'd completely forgotten about the fig, but when I saw his reaction, I looked where I'd left it and sure enough, it was gone. They key thing here is, when I spoke to him it was before I noticed the missing fig, just an ordinary greeting as I do many times a day. And there was a noticeable flinch. Here's the article on dog shaming I read today. What do you think? Do they feel guilt as in, they know they've broken the rules and feel anxious about it independent of whether a person is making them feel anxious by signs of displeasure?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/dogs-feel-no-shame-despite-the-look-1.2552139?cmp=rss

[JennyBee]

I don't believe dogs feel guilt in these situations either, but I do believe they can definitely feel apprehension. Brodie is a very, very clean dog, yet recently she had a few accidents during the night thanks to steroids. I knew the instant I got up that something was wrong, as she hid before I even left my room, and it took me ages to convince her she wasn't in trouble .

This is a dog who was never punished or shouted at as a puppy during toilet training, but she must have picked up something from our body language. It isn't even limited to her - she also hid when a dog I was looking after had accidents at night!

[Ben's mum]

I don't think dogs show 'guilt' as we understand it as a human emotion but I do know what you mean, do you think they have a clear idea of boundaries and things we like them to do and things we don't like them to  - I am trying to steer clear of the words 'right and wrong' as clearly its not that simple. Ben rolls in fox poo - in my eyes its 'wrong' but not in his 

But Ben in particular has a certain 'look' that alerts me he is planning to do something wrong - which is the other way round. When we are out if there is anything to eat or roll in, he will give me a glance really quickly which tells me that he is going to do something, and I know at that point I can recall him, if I miss the look then its too late! I don't know where they learn these things.

Also who told a spaniel how to do that 'thing' with their eyes when they look up at you when you are eating - that makes you give them something. I guess these things are just inherent!! 

[tritonx]

It's an interesting question as guilt is a word and concept freighted with religious meanings and those presumably don't apply to dogs (but maybe I'm 'guilty' here of speciesism in assuming there is no doggie concept of spirituality. I suspect 'god is food' rather than 'God is good' would be the statement of belief  )  Probably most people's operating morality is based on what they know society approves of and what it doesn't and we feel guilty when we go against broadly held notions of right and wrong--cheating, stealing, betraying etc. And we lay down the rules for doggie behaviour i.e. training. So when a dog goes against the training (the boundaries we establish), they know it. Though I must say, Fraser knows I want him to 'stay' when I say that word, but he doesn't act guilty if he breaks from a stay. What was distinctive about the fig stealing incident was the flinch when I spoke to him in a completely ordinary and friendly way. He never flinches when I speak to him, so it really stood out. Heheh, something was clearly on his mind when I spoke. And he was back in the same position I left him when I went to the kitchen, so I don't know how long after he nipped down, scarfed the fig there was before I came back into the living room again. 

[wendall]

I don't know if its guilt but certainly they know when they have done something they shouldn't! I can always tell if Honey has something that she shouldn't have just by her body language. She "plinks" along with a spring in her step, and sometimes she will actually come to me with an item in her mouth (usually underwear ) and look as if to say, try and get this off me!! It does make me laugh....

[Toni-UK]

Here is a link to a short article that i found quite informative. 


http://positively.com/2014/02/27/does-your-dog-feel-guilt/

[tritonx]

Good article. In that one and the one I linked to, they both say the dog is responding to the body language or attitude of the owner. In my case, I didn't know he'd taken the fig, so when I spoke to him there was no disapproving body language or words, just a friendly greeting. Yet he reacted. He must have been holding it in his mind that he'd done something he was not supposed to as he was been told off in the past when he's taken food off the coffee table (as in the infamous whole wheel of Brie incident). Plus, he was back in position as if butter (or fig) wouldn't melt in his mouth until the 'guilty' flinch. 

[abkb]

Good article. In that one and the one I linked to, they both say the dog is responding to the body language or attitude of the owner. In my case, I didn't know he'd taken the fig, so when I spoke to him there was no disapproving body language or words, just a friendly greeting. Yet he reacted. He must have been holding it in his mind that he'd done something he was not supposed to as he was been told off in the past when he's taken food off the coffee table (as in the infamous whole wheel of Brie incident). Plus, he was back in position as if butter (or fig) wouldn't melt in his mouth until the 'guilty' flinch. 

Same here; the way I can tell Molly has got something (e.g a leaf or twig off a walk, or something from the he's) is her reaction to my normal greeting. Fin isn't quite clever enough to do that though 

[Loopy Lucy]

Anthropomorphism, or the attribution of human feelings and emotions to animals is a no-no in the scientific community, and for good reason, however I think it is often taken too far, having now formed a general belief in the scientific community that animals don't have emotions unless one is specifically proved scientifically beyond reasonable doubt. Anyone who has actually spent any time with animals would have to be willfully blind not to see that animals do have emotions and, depending on the species of animal, the range of emotions may or may not correspond closely to human ones.

Dogs appear to me to display many/most human emotions and guilt is certainly one of them. Lucy (all too) frequently misbehaves, knows it, and looks guilty whether or not I have observed the act and responded with any sort of reproach. She also displays the 'I'm thinking of doing something bad' guilty look that tritonx talks about. That's the very reason why we keep dogs as pets, we can interact with them emotionally. I'd go as far as to say that the range of emotions that any given species shares with humans is one of the main things which define whether that animal makes a good or a bad pet.

I have a scientific training, but when something looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

[Mudmagnets]

I have a scientific training, but when something looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

Then it must be a fish? 

[Nicola]

Dogs appear to me to display many/most human emotions and guilt is certainly one of them. Lucy (all too) frequently misbehaves, knows it, and looks guilty whether or not I have observed the act and responded with any sort of reproach. She also displays the 'I'm thinking of doing something bad' guilty look that tritonx talks about.

You're interpreting how she looks as 'guilty' though - it doesn't mean that she is actually experiencing that particular emotion. Those looks/actions are appeasement behaviours which look 'guilty' to us with our human take on things but that doesn't mean that the dog actually does feel guilty in the sense that we understand it. They may or may not know if something they do is appropriate or not (and I think they often do, or mine seem to a lot of the time anyway), but it's us that interprets their subsequent behaviour as 'guilt' rather than them trying to appease us so we don't get angry with them (which they will do regardless of whether or not they actually understand why we are angry).

Animals obviously have feelings and emotions; but as much as there is a danger of attributing no feelings or emotions to them I think there's an almost equal danger of attributing too high a level of emotional thought process to them and deeming them capable of full-blown adult human emotions/thoughts/processes when they are simply not. The danger here is then that people feel disappointed in or angry with the dog/animal because they've 'let them down', 'knew it was wrong', 'should have known better' etc. etc. when they are genuinely not capable of thinking or reasoning like an adult human.

I have a chart somewhere we got when I was doing the canine behaviour degree that shows canine emotional development on a par with human emotional development and dogs stop short somewhere around the toddler/young child stage which is after things like love, fear, suspicion, anger, contentment, affection, excitement etc. but before adult emotions like guilt, shame or pride.

[Loopy Lucy]

Whilst you correctly say that I can only interpret Lucy's actions and expressions and can't be sure that I know what's actually going on in her head, that's sort of my point, in a round about fashion. The same is actually true about humans, but people seem to overlook that point.

What it boils down to is sometimes Lucy does things which she knows we will disapprove of and she will betray this in her actions and expressions both before and after the event. The fact that we can observe, interpret and often correctly predict those actions and expressions shows that there is at least a good correlation between the act of doing something which will knowingly elicit disapproval and an outward expression of an internal emotion. That's as much as you can say about a person as well. We simply assume that all people feel the same emotions as we do when they act in a particular way or show particular expressions or body language.

[Loopy Lucy]

I have a scientific training, but when something looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck...

Then it must be a fish? 

I knew there had to be a joke in there somewhere but gave up in the end 

[JeffD]

I don't believe dogs feel any guilt but no other dog can give the guilty look as well as a cocker 

[Nicola]

Whilst you correctly say that I can only interpret Lucy's actions and expressions and can't be sure that I know what's actually going on in her head, that's sort of my point, in a round about fashion. The same is actually true about humans, but people seem to overlook that point.

What it boils down to is sometimes Lucy does things which she knows we will disapprove of and she will betray this in her actions and expressions both before and after the event. The fact that we can observe, interpret and often correctly predict those actions and expressions shows that there is at least a good correlation between the act of doing something which will knowingly elicit disapproval and an outward expression of an internal emotion. That's as much as you can say about a person as well. We simply assume that all people feel the same emotions as we do when they act in a particular way or show particular expressions or body language.

It's not an equal comparison though, as humans are actually capable of experiencing the emotion of guilt (unless they have some type of extreme personality disorder), regardless of how, or if, they actually show it. The point with dogs is that even though they might appear to us to feel guilt, they can't reason like that. We can interpret their actions/looks and make predictions but in doing so it's very easy to infer human feelings and capabilities which are not there. In order for a dog to feel remorse about carrying out a particular action they'd have to be capable of having an awareness of right and wrong and how their actions might affect others which is something that occurs past the stage where canine emotional development stops.

Dogs know what is 'safe' and what is 'not safe' and act accordingly, including trying to diffuse their owner's anger by means of 'guilty looking' body language. Rodaidh knows I disapprove of him digging in the sofa cushions but he still sometimes does it when I'm not there because it's 'safe' If a dog shows appeasing body language prior to or after carrying out an action it doesn't mean they understand and feel remorse, they just understand that at some point before when they did that their owner was displeased and they're trying to make themselves safe by avoiding that displeasure. We can obviously interpret that as them knowing that we disapprove of x, y or z, but they're just trying to avoid the disapproval, the actual action is pretty irrelevant; if you ask a dog to sit and then show displeasure when it does they'll show the same appeasing body language even though they haven't done anything wrong. Whether or not the distinctions actually matter as long as the dog knows what is 'safe' to do/not do and acts accordingly is a matter of opinion though I guess.