Don't Be Fooled When a Dog Looks Guilty

Often that look is really meant to avoid scolding

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Live with a dog, and you have most likely met the “guilty look.” You come home. The plants are knocked over, and soil is tracked all over the floor. The dog is abnormally still and averts its gaze as it thumps its tail slowly.

But does the dog feel responsible for the mess and sorry about having disobeyed your rules? That is hard to say. Research to date, including an open-access study published earlier this year, suggests that the answer is no. Moreover, the findings reveal that scolding or punishing dogs will not necessarily decrease unwanted behavior.

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