One has to really wonder when this very popular viral video...shows clear guilt....


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I grew up with a cocker spaniel...and she sure did look guilty sometimes when appropriate.
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Now for some anatomy... I saw Dr. Amen on one of his lectures on PBS say that dogs have a small prefrontal cortex, but cats do not. That cats cannot form executive functions.

But you know, our Weezie taught herself how to turn on the answering machine to listen to the human on it at the time. She has also erased messages, since the left button does that while they are talking!
She often goes to this machine in the kitchen to check it out. She is very proud of herself too...you can see it in how she acts! Weezie is not keen for cat toys, but she LOVES our STUFF... hubby bought a new desk tray organizer and she thinks this is for HER! I am not kidding. Maya is perfectly happy with cat toys.
Our stuff does not "move" her at all. LOL

Dogs supposedly can do amazing mind feats, so I would think they have the emotional drive to do them. They seem to enjoy helping people too... to enjoy the work. So the flip side would be a disappointment or negative feeling as well.

I think dogs and cats are very much more than we give them credit for. I even saw a show on Nat Geo Wild, about honey badgers in South Africa. There were long videos of these wild smaller badgers like our N.America ones, using tools to escape enclosures. Piling rocks up a wall to raise them to get over it, and using shovel or broom handles to lean against a cement wall to climb up to get out. The enclosure was about 4.5 feet high and only tools could result in them getting out. This show was demonstrating how smart they are, and honey badgers are getting into domestic bee hives and demolishing them in S.Africa.
I was pretty impressed!

Here is one video from YouTube

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This badger did this many times with various tricks. If you can find the show in the future, you'll be amazed! I saw it last week!

It shows a response to being scolded. Hold up the dog's favorite toy and say, "Did you do this?" in the same tone of voice with the same inflections and body language, and you'll get the same reaction.

Hold up something else the dog has destroyed, without giving it a tonal or bodily clue, and the dog will most likely look at you unsure until it gets a cue from you whether you're angry, pleased, or whatever.

I think a better video to make the guilt argument is this one:
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but there's no way of telling how/what ways those dogs have been conditioned to respond to a scolding tone.

Doc

Cats have no executive functions?
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Mine used to try very hard not to knock over the potted plants on the windowsill. She got the concept at least.

judi