Dog owners are usually fooled by their furry pets by putting on a "puppy dog eyes" every time they're guilty of something. News studies however, stated that dogs are not capable of feeling guilt or shame.
As per The Huffington Post dogs are simply reacting to their owners body language rather than experiencing more complex feelings.
Telegraph then reported that a research associate at the Cambridge University, Ljerka Ostojic is one of the scientists who did a thorough research in determining on whether the canines are capable of feeling guilt.
The research participants were asked to teach their dogs not to eat the biscuit. Then they were asked to leave the room. Another person then walks in the room to either remove the biscuit or encouraged the dog to eat it. [Daily Mail]
After the owners went back, they were asked to determine if the dog ate the biscuit by basing on the dogs 'facial expression'. The dog owners were not able to determine if their pets ate the biscuits or not. She then shared the outcome of her studies stating:
"If that guilty look is really an expression of contrition, they would only show it when they have done wrong. But that's not the case,"
"I had a client who had three dogs and whenever something happened like a shoe was chewed, it was always one of them that had the guilty look.
"Yet often she was not the dog who had done it. She was just the most timid dog, and got frightened more quickly by her owner's reaction."
A professor of veterinary medicine at Texas A&M University, Dr. Bonnie Beaver made a statement regarding the issue on whether a dog can feel guilt or not. She sent Huffington Post an email stating:
"We cannot know for sure because we cannot ask them, the body language we are really looking at... is simply a submissive response to the body language the higher ranking person is using. We are towering over them, showing direct eye contact, using an accusatory tone of voice."
