Citation

Ostojic L, Tkalčić M, Clayton NS. Behav. Processes 2015; 111: 97-100.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.beproc.2014.12.010

PMID

25562192

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.

Language: en