Also, this is a fine distinction, but I was just reading about it and thought it was interesting: dogs figure out pretty quickly that people get mad when they find pee/poo on the floor, but they don't necessarily associate that with the fact that they are the ones doing the peeing and pooing.
Basically, I just read about a woman whose dog seemed guilty because she would hide every time she messed on the floor. Then another dog visited them, and the woman saw the OTHER dog mess on the floor. When her own dog discovered the situation, she ran and hid as usual. This dog knew that mess on the floor = yelling human, and she didn't consider whether it was her own or someone else's. She hid because she felt afraid, not guilty. |