Many owners are sure that their dogs understand it when they “misbehave”, because they tend to “feel guilty and show signs of remorse”. But can dogs really experience guilt? 🧐 Let’s see.
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Say, you come home after a busy day at work, and the picture that opens up before your eyes is a complete mess everywhere.😳 Your dog is not in a hurry to meet you at all, instead he/she is keeping the head low, the ears pressed to the head and the tail – down.
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Your pet knows that it’s not desirable behavior – “what a guilty look (s)he has on”. But then why would the dog keep doing it then? “Definitely out of spite” – you’d think. But this conclusion is wrong.
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There is a big BUT here, and that is: dogs don’t feel any guilt. And this is proven by scientists.
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So then, you might ask, if dogs don’t know the feeling of guilt, what do these “remorseful” signs mean? It’s quite simple. This behavior is not remorse at all. It is a reaction to the threat and a way to block human aggression.
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By getting lower to the floor, lowering the tail, pressing the ears to the head and avoiding looking you in the eye, your dog is signaling you about his/her desire to avoid conflict.
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By the way, this often works perfectly – the owner calms down and gives the dog what (s)he was aiming at from the very beginning. And this doesn’t at all mean that the dog understood his/her mistake and will never repeat it again.🐶
