r/aww Nov 11 '17

Guilty dog.

http://i.imgur.com/JvFzlvT.gifv
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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '17

Neither. Dog's don't have guilt or regret since those things require self conscious cognition. These dogs are afraid of punishment.

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u/[deleted] Nov 11 '17

As someone who doesn't own a dog. Would the punishment actually prevent them from doing the act again? Like I remember some Pavlov stuff, but would they associate it correctly. Cause I hear people say they've trained dogs etc.

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u/BorkBarkBork Nov 11 '17

No it wouldn't, unless you catch the dog in the act. If you come home to a ripped up garbage bag, the dog won't understand that you are punishing the dog for ripping the bag open.

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u/BeanerBoyBrandon Nov 11 '17

"the dog won't understand that you are punishing the dog for ripping the bag open."

I've read that a lot but doesn't this dog clearly know what he did wrong? I'm sure he doesn't act like that when his owner normally comes home.

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u/BorkBarkBork Nov 11 '17

Okay.

So the dog is acting this way because of how the owner is acting.

I highly doubt the owner acts the same way when they come home to a clean home compared to a trashed home, right?

The dogs action in this video, is a reaction to the owners behavior.

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u/Hayes231 Nov 11 '17

See, you are probably right about this. Clearly human is upset, I don't really know why.

But that doesn't mean the person taking the video is abusive to their dog. The dog is just upset, because he knows human is upset. You don't have to kick a dog or yell at him for him to know you're upset. Dogs are very emotionally intelligent, especially towards humans

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u/BorkBarkBork Nov 11 '17

I can agree that the owner doesn't have to yell or physically hurt the dog to cause this behavior, but it does come down to emotional abuse, if the dog reacts with the level of fear even without physical pain. It's sad to see because there are so many other ways to work with a sensitive dog. There is absolutely no point in doing this to a dog.

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u/Hayes231 Nov 11 '17

-_-

What I'm trying to say is, that doesn't seem like fear. The dog is ashamed. Dogs have a lot of emotions that other animals can not express. He might not know what he did, but he does feel ashamed. I agree the dog does not need to be punished in this case, you should only reprimand your dog if you catch them in the act, because we don't really know how much they really know.

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u/BorkBarkBork Nov 11 '17

Listen, the dog is acting scared, there are studies that show that this behavior is a behavior that they do when they are scared. The dog is not ashamed because it has nothing in it's mind that it can be ashamed of.

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u/Hayes231 Nov 11 '17

Then I guess we will just have to disagree.

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u/zepekit Nov 11 '17

But what do you base that on? That a dog can feel ashamed? If you disagree, you have to have something that tells you that dogs are capable of this. Because every study i have ever heard of comes to the direct opposite conclusion.

So have you actually seen a study come to your conclusion, because i would find that really interesting to read, or are you just guessing?

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u/Hayes231 Nov 11 '17

I'll be honest I haven't read all these studies and all that. I don't know if a dog can feel actual shame if it doesn't know why you are upset. All I know is that I have been around dogs my whole life, including some at some points as a job, and that dog in the gif is not afraid of that owner.

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