Yes I am a dog person and since it is the weekend and I found another report on dogs I will pass it on.
If you are a dog lover then you know that look of shame they get when you scold them, right? Those sad eyes and their lying there looking all hurt and remorseful……but are they?
Every dog owner knows the “guilty dog” look that has made sites like Dogshaming.com a hit, but animal behavior experts say the pooches don’t really feel ashamed at all, the AP finds. Researchers have found that the droopy-eyed, cowering look dogs give angry owners is a reaction to the anger, not any expression of guilt over shoe-chewing or food-stealing that happened hours earlier. “I don’t think dogs actually feel shame,” says Pascal Lemire, creator of Dogshaming.com and author of the book the same name. “I think they know how to placate us with this sad puppy-dog look that makes us think they’re ashamed of what they’ve done.” A psychologist who researched the “guilty dog look” says “the ‘look’ appeared most often when owners scolded their dogs, regardless of whether the dog had disobeyed or did something for which they might or should feel guilty. It wasn’t ‘guilt’ but a reaction to the owner that prompted the look.” She adds that while it’s possible that dogs may feel guilt, there is a difference between that and shame, and the “guilty look” is no sign of either. In Tulsa, Okla., meanwhile, two dogs are presumably feeling no shame after going for a joyride in their owner’s pickup, Fox 23 reports. Their owner says he briefly left them alone in the truck and one of them put it into gear, sending it three blocks down a hill. It came to a stop in a riverbed and while the dogs were fine, the truck was badly damaged.
There you have it….but I do NOT buy it.
We do tend to anthropomorphize all things non-human 🙂
Dogs are human at least in my mind….they are just as smart as most people I meet….
I have to agree with you to a large extent Lobotero. I have had 3 dogs in my life. One of them was very special. Once we left her home for too long, almost two days (exactly why escapes me at this moment) and we weren’t mindful enough to get a neighbor to let her out. It was one of those.. just a little longer type situations.
She had to poop. She did poop. She made a point of doing it on the crappiest cement corner in the basement instead of the hardwood floors in the living room, the linoleum in the kitchen, or on the carpets.
When we walked in the door she immediately put her head down in shame and/or guilt, and we figured out why quite quickly. Know this, we didn’t walk in the door mad at her. We walked in the door saying: Brandy, I’m so sorry, trying to comfort her and let her outside right away. Instead of letting us do that she crawled under the dining room table, her safe space, because she was ashamed and didn’t want to get in trouble, even though she had obviously held it as long as possible and done her best not to wreck anything.
Obviously this is anecdotal evidence, and like I said, she was a special dog; but I think they are capable of shame and guilt. I think it is self-evident that they are productive evolutionary emotions for pack animals. Why do scientists think we evolved them? This study’s findings seem evolutionarily inconsistent to me.
Anyway, what I’m trying to say is simply this: Dogs are people too.
P.S. I did read the article too and I thought the same thing. Dog lovers unite!
My present friend is a rescue from Katrina and we had a storm a couple of years ago and she would not go outside she had to poop but she waited 2 days and then when she could out she went and such a relief look on her face…..I never pass up a post on dogs….thanx for the share…look for you soon….chuq
I like to think (Pretend) that dogs have human-like emotions sometimes and so it doesn’t matter to me what scientific evidence might say. Besides, “Scientific Evidence” may be questioned sometimes. I have always felt like dogs have emotions and I like to feel they have emotions and I will keep on feeling like they have emotions because it is comforting to me to do so.
(John at “My American Times” – http://myamericantimes.blogspot.com)
John, in my opinion they just as ‘human’ as us so-called humans…there is little deceit in their actions…humans cannot say that….chuq
🙂