Something to Smile About: Are Dogs Always Honest?

It has been written about quite often, and there is plenty of cause for discussion. Anyone who keeps a dog will, of course, insist in response to such a question that their own dog is always honest. But if you take it precisely, that is not true in every case. Time and again there are situations in which you stand beside your dog, dumbfounded, marvelling at what it has got up to yet again.

The proverbially innocent dog look

Take, for example, the pillow, which for many a dog is a wonderful prize. It can be shaken and torn apart so beautifully until the feathers fly. If the mistress or master discovers the chaos, it can happen that the four-legged friend is sitting in the middle of the mess with an innocent look. It seems as if it wanted to say: It wasn't me, it just happened by itself. What do you do in such a moment? Whether you scold or laugh – this dog look alone shows that it is not being honest.

• Feigning innocence through deliberate facial expressions
• Quickly removing itself from the scene of the crime
• Using favourable moments for small thefts
• Appeasing behaviour to avoid consequences

The familiar strategies of our dogs

The same thing can happen with torn socks or nibbled slippers and similar things. Or with the schnitzel that was on the plate just a moment ago. If you suspect the dog of having pinched it, it is often lying with an innocent look on its cushion, where it has dashed at lightning speed. How can a human even think such a thing, when it is far away from the scene of the deed and can therefore not be called a thief at all? Or when the dog has spotted something edible on the table that smells so good but seems out of reach: if you pull on the tablecloth, it just might work. Unfortunately, it is not only the small morsel that falls down in the process. The only bad luck is that its human has observed this deed. Then the dog usually shows its special trick: it ducks down and slinks away, so that you are supposed to think it is sorry.

The story of two vanished sausages

You should not believe it, however, for it merely wants to avoid trouble. It is not sorry, insofar as it has after all got hold of the desired morsel. From my own experience I can report: there were once two large dogs in my household who could effortlessly help themselves to something from the table or the sideboard. That is exactly what happened with two sausages that I had accidentally left lying on the sideboard. When I came upon the scene, they were sitting like two lambs in the same dog basket, looking at me. It seemed as if they wanted to say: It wasn't us, and we're protecting each other now. What does that show us? You should not claim that your own dog is always honest – but at most usually.