title: Are owners' reports of their dogs' 'guilty look' influenced by the dogs' action and evidence of the misdeed?
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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK. Electronic address: lo245@cam.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Ljerka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ostojić
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Sveučilišna avenija 4, 51000 Rijeka Croatia.
authors.forename: Mladenka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tkalčić
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK.
authors.forename: Nicola S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Clayton
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D003463:Cues; D004285:Dogs; D005502:Food; D006167:Guilt; D001841:Human-Animal Bond; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Domestic dogs; ‘Guilty look’