We all know the look of a guilty dog, perhaps surrounded by de-fluffed sofa pillows or a wee left on your duvet. Of a stubborn dog, refusing to jump in the car, even though you watch them effortlessly jump onto the couch every day. Embarrassing you in front of family members, as they show an expression of contempt; spitefully disobedient.

But what if we have these all wrong. What if when how we view our dogs changes, we uncover another, more obvious truth? The idea that dogs are secretly plotting against us in a bid for power and control, that they are actively choosing to be unruly, is an unsettling one. These old ideas are long disproven, yet show tough to shake. Thankfully though, we know that scenarios like these don't explain the true picture - even if it can sometimes appear this way on the surface.

Take the "guilty" dog, for example. From the dog's point of view, they needed an outlet to shred something, a natural dog behaviour. Therefore, they shredded the couch pillows. Perhaps there was no suitable dog-intended alternative, or perhaps the pillows simply had the desired smell and/or texture. Hours later, their human is home and upon seeing the chaos caused, they are quite rightfully feeling mad.

To the person, it may seem that the dog appears "guilty", that they clearly know what they did wrong. However, there is a more likely explanation. Over the past have 30,000 years of domestication, dogs have learnt, expertly, to read our microexpressions, tone of voice and body language. [1, 2]. Likely, they are even able to smell our emotional state [3]. As such, it makes a lot of sense that the expression of guilt we percieve on our dog's face, found red-handed at the crime scene, is actually more about our present anger, even if we have tried to conceal it, than what activities they got up to hours ago. Is it guilt: averted gaze, low wagging tail, wide pupils, licking lips, crouching low to the ground? Or is this exactly what a freeze / fawn response looks like, from the evolutionary Fight, Flight, Freeze or Fawn? Is our dog actually just uncomfortable with their human's anger and is trying to cope and diffuse the situation by using common appeasement signals? [4]

Moving onto a different example, the "stubborn" dog. When you know your dog is perfectly capable and yet they seemingly refuse your direction. Maybe they won't jump into the car, digging their heels into the ground as you try desperately to encourage them. But what is often missed with dogs is subtle, hidden pain [5]. It's not nice to think about, but it must be addressed. The dog who jumps up on the sofa can often do so, even if it hurts, they still desire their home comforts. The young dog with arthritis can bounce around on hardwood floors, fetch a ball for an hour and not understand that they will be in pain later, when the current fun and adrenaline, which was masking pain during the high impact activities themselves, wears off [6, 7]. Refusing to do something physical, such as jumping in the car, sitting down, crossing a slippery floor, stopping to stand on a walk or refusing stairs, can often be pain-related. Just because they are compliant in other contexts, does not mean their behaviour is stubbornness, there is often an underlying reason.

Even if there is no present pain, a previous learning history can be powerful - for example, slipping and hurting themselves on the hardwood floor, even just once, can leave a lasting hesitation. Consquently, they might "refuse" to be led across smooth-textured floors when leashed. So when we catch ourselves thinking the dog is stubborn, we invite you to question why, what else could explain their behaviour? Maybe something hurts, or maybe they are otherwise distracted/overwhelmed, but either way, we know that dogs are not intentionally being stubborn. They, often like us, are trying their best, given the circumstances [8].

If dogs aren't guilty, if they aren't stubborn, naughty, shameful, spiteful or any other complex human emotion concept, then what are they? Well, we certainly don't believe them to be emotionless beings! Every minute with our and your dogs is a gift. It would be hard to explain why we love them so much if they were simply filled with apathy. The science tells us that dogs can experience a range of emotions. Although the classification of emotions can be fluid and overlapping, we might think of dogs as experiencing similar to the primary and [some of the] secondary emotions we do, such as joy, fear, love, anger, frustration, anxiety, disgust, suprise and excitement. However, it is unlikely they possess the capacity to experience tertiary emotions or some secondary emotions, which are more complex, such as resentment, guilt, remorse or envy [9].

So the next time you find yourself assigning emotions to your dog, labelling them "naughty", "ignorant" and/or "manipulative" , we encourage you to ask, is this really what's going on? This is particularly important when we find ourselves falling into outdated ideas, such as forcing a puppy to face the "guilt" and "shame" of their toilet accident. We are hopeful this mindset shift will help to protect the relationship and foster understanding between dogs and their people.

 Written by FOUR P4WS team member Jess, behaviour consultant of HeartHounds.co.uk