Do dogs know when they’ve done something wrong?

It’s a question that every dog owner has asked themselves, especially when they’ve come home to find their cushions have been destroyed or their favourite shoes have gone from a pump to a peep toe.

While your dog may show signs of guilt through their expression and posture whilst being scolded, the question is… do they actually feel guilty for what they’ve done?

We know that dogs have the ability to feel emotions, with scientific studies revealing that they experience chemical responses in their brains just like humans (albeit less complex). For example, when they’re feeling happy their brain releases oxytocin just like human brains.

It’s long believed that dogs experience primary emotions like happiness and fear, however more complex emotions like guilt, pride and jealousy are more difficult to prove. A 2009 study by Alexandra Horowitz found that the ‘guilty look’ that you swear your dog has given you after doing something naughty, is more of a learned submissive behaviour in response to their owner’s anger.

As part of the study, Horowitz had owners try to keep their dogs from eating a treat when they left the room. The study observed the dogs' behaviour when they ate or didn’t eat the treat. The conclusion was that dogs’ behaviour didn’t change whether they ate or didn’t eat the treat, however their behaviour did change based on their owner's reaction. If they were scolded for eating the treat, the dog exhibited 'guilty' behaviour.

So why then do dogs show guilt before their owners have even noticed their dodgy behaviour? Because dogs are intelligent animals and have learned to associate particular behaviours and events with a human response (ie. They’ve done this before and been in trouble for it).

This behaviour was developed from their wolf ancestry. To punish members of the pack who have done something wrong, wolves would often ignore them. In order to be let back into the pack, the wolf would need to approach in a submissive (or what we know as guilty) posture.

The same applies when they have done something to displease their owners, so they try to make amends by looking guilty. And we have to say they’ve mastered the art, because we all hate to be upset with a dog who ‘already knows they’ve done something wrong’.