Not Guilty! - Appeasement Behaviours in Dogs

“They KNOW they shouldn’t have done that…” 

You come home from work and it’s not a pretty sight. Your dog has chewed the corner of the couch, and drops low with their ears back, offering you ‘kisses’, tail tucked, body side on because they are avoiding eye contact, and they  maybe even try to leave the room. 

Everything about their body language points towards the guiltiest dog in the world, who knew that by chewing the couch they were letting us know that they don’t like being left alone all day - that they did it out of spite!

Except that’s not the case at all.

This blog has been put together to help dispel the idea that your dog ‘knows’ when they’ve done something wrong - to help you build empathy and understanding for what your dog is really trying to tell you.

A moral compass is something that humans have, as we know and learn the difference between right and wrong. There have been complex discussions and studies to show that animals might know this as well, but this notion can cause more harm than good.

No studies thus far have shown that dogs can grasp the concept of right and wrong.

Wynne (2004), believes that by bringing human psychological frameworks into animal behaviour, we make it more complicated and it can be unfair on the animals . Ascribing human attributes (also known as anthropomorphism), can create a storyline that may be harmful in the way we approach and move forward when working with our dogs.

In more basic terms, the reality of a dog who skulks away from you when you come home and something has been destroyed, is not about a dog who knows they shouldn’t have done it… It’s a dog who is worried you are going to tell them off - no matter what happened beforehand.

Dog’s are extremely in tune with our body language. If you come home and see a massive hole in your petunia plot, you can guarantee that you will have physical responses and cues that your dogs pick up on. Perhaps you get more tense, or you stare at your dog asking them ‘did you do this?!’ You may lean over them, or march on over to rub their nose in the dirt.

For a dog, this is all intimidating behaviour - and they want it to stop. The moment you come home and start reacting to the scene before you, your dog is in anti-conflict mode. The kisses? They’re trying to tell you they aren’t a threat. Rolling to show their tummy? They're showing you their most vulnerable organs, and that they won’t put up a fight so ‘please stop telling me off!’ Eye darting, dropped body language, ears back- these are all ways dogs DIFFUSE conflict and show stress, and you are basically coming in hot with the threat of harm. 

Multiple studies have shown that even entering a room where owners have thought their dog has done something ‘wrong’, the dogs will show appeasement behaviour upon seeing their owner return (whether they have done the wrong thing or not). The studies set the dogs up to be left alone with a treat in a room, and be told to leave it. Different trials mixed up whether the dog really ate the treat, or didn’t, and whether the owner got told they left the treat alone or not (Ostojić, L, et al, 2015)  (Hecht, J. et al, 2012)

The owners who got told their dog ate the treat, before even speaking to the dog, had dogs presenting appeasement behaviour when they came back through the door. It is the way we approach situations when we see how ‘guilty’ our dogs are.

Think about the puppy who has been reprimanded for a toilet accident inside. The consequence of toileting inappropriately was something stressful and scary, so the next time they need to go… the choice of hiding away from you is the better one to avoid the telling off!

Past experience of how you’ve responded to your dog can create what is called 'pre anticipation of conflict'. Your dog doesn’t want to have a fight with you. They’re not guilty, they just don't know. It's likely they don’t understand what your expectations are of them in those moments. 

Next time you think your dog is acting out of guilt, it’s important to think WTF.
​As in… what’s the FUNCTION?

Why, in reality, would your dog have dug a hole in the petunias? Were they bored and needed more stimulation while you were away?
Did they chew on the furniture because they are teething - and there’s nothing more appropriate for them to bite?
Are you simply being intimidating and stressing your dog out for views on tiktok? (This is a pet peeve of the author - scaring your dog is not funny!)

Looking at your dog’s behaviour from their point of view is a fairer approach when we are looking at working as a team. It helps us understand where we may be able to help them, and more successfully get their needs met.

So again, next time you think your dog is acting ‘guilty’, put yourself in a metaphorical big white wig, with a gavel and tap it. Your dog is ‘not guilty!’


Authored by Sarah Endres
Dog Trainer and Behaviour Advisor


References

Hecht, J., Miklósi, Á., & Gácsi, M. (2012). Behavioral assessment and owner perceptions of behaviors associated with guilt in dogs. Applied animal behaviour science, 139(1-2), 134-142.

Ostojić, L., Tkalčić, M., & Clayton, N. S. (2015). Are owners' reports of their dogs’‘guilty look’influenced by the dogs’ action and evidence of the misdeed?. Behavioural processes, 111, 97-100.

Wynne, C. The perils of anthropomorphism. Nature 428, 606 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/428606a