engleski

Are owners’ reports of their dogs’ ‘guilty look’ influenced by the dogs’action and evidence of the misdeed?

While dog owners claim that their dogs’ greeting behaviour after having performed a misdeed indicatesthe dogs’ ‘guilt’, current experimental evidence suggests that dogs show these ‘guilty look’ behavioursas a response to being scolded by their owners. Given reports that ‘guilty look’ behaviours are shownalso in the absence of being scolded, we investigated whether the dogs’ own actions or the evidenceof 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’ greetingbehaviour, 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 aconcurrent negative reaction by their owners.

domestic dog ; ‘Guilty look’

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