I have no problem with telling a dog NO! and scolding when the dog is caught in the act - I too use it when mine tease the cats (usually because I didn't get Leave it! and a distraction in quickly enough). Assuming that when they show conciliatory behaviours minutes or hours after the act that they are demonstrating guilt puts us on much less certain ground, though. Poodles are very intelligent, and very quick to pick up on cues from our tone and body language. If you have punished your dog for spilling the garbage, and then spill garbage yourself, and take a deep breath to start yelling, I suspect the dog will show all the same signs of "guilt". The cause and effect the dog understands is Mess on the floor + cross human = bad stuff for dogs. Not Dog knocked over garbage an hour ago = justifiably angry owner. It is great that we are recognising the intelligence and emotional life of our dogs - and there is a lot of excellent research that shows how right we are to do so. None of it has indicated that dogs feel guilt as we understand it (lucky things!).
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