It was a Saturday morning many years ago, and I’d just brought Rocco in from his daily walk. He’d managed to find and roll in something awful and so I gave him a bath. As I placed his tiny, soggy and irate form down on the ground, my husband advised me, “Pick up your shoes!”
It was good advice. If Rocco received unfair (in his mind) treatment from one of us, such as a vet trip or a bath, he could pick the offending person’s shoes out of a line up, and he’d poop in them. He never made a mistake.
Was Rocco Exacting Revenge?
Most pet blogs will assure you that dogs are not capable of complex emotions like revenge. This is simply not factual. There are plenty of examples of revenge in the wild, where animals trade injuries with a rival who injured them.
Elephants, crows and primates are all examples of animals who have shown behaviors that look like they are exacting revenge.
It stands to reason that dogs, who are also highly social animals, are capable of similar emotions. The basis for the average blog saying they can’t experience revenge is based on the confusion between revenge in general, and things like separation anxiety soiling or submiss gestures.
The Human-Dog Confusion
The assurances from blogs usually come because owners will come home to a pile of dog poo and a guilty looking dog, and think the dog got revenge for being left alone. Let’s be clear here, the most likely scenario isn’t revenge in this situation. Let’s start by deconstructing the ‘guilty look’ dogs tend to give.
A scientific study targeted the ‘guilty dog look’ had owners tell their dog to not eat a treat and then leave the room. The treat was then sometimes removed, and the owners were told when they came back that the dog ate the treat.
In response to the accusatory tone of their owners, the dogs promptly looked guilty. If a dog had not actually done the crime but was still admonished, they looked guiltier.
That “guilty” look was actually a submissive response. The dogs, puzzled as to why they were being yelled at, were trying to appease their angry owners with submissive gestures.
Dogs often use appeasement gestures when they are getting yelled at, regardless of whether they have done something or not.
House Soiling in General
For our poor chihuahuas, house soiling is kind of an unfair topic. It’s not really fair to seal a dog inside a house for 10+ hours while someone is at work, and then be angry when they simply can’t hold their dime sized bladder any longer.
Many dogs also learn that when they poop in front of a person, they get shouted at, but when they poop by themselves (whether inside the house or not) they are ignored. They learn that pooping in private is the only acceptable place to poop, not that the house is off limits.
They also learn that people really don’t like looking at poop, so when a person comes home they feel bad because—well—you’re about to see poop!
None of this is in any way revenge.
This is why so many websites assure us that dogs aren’t doing these things out of spite (most of the time true) and that your dog isn’t feeling guilty about it. (They likely aren’t.)
Is Revenge Possible?
Although many instances of dogs being ‘spiteful’ are actually human-dog miscommunications, that doesn’t mean they are not capable of revenge. It just means that after finding a toilet paper disaster or finding poop in our shoes, we should take a step back and review it to make sure this isn’t one of those misunderstandings.
In Rocco’s case, the Poo-Shoe only ever happened after a bath, going to the vet, or a highly offensive (to him) cleaning product was used. All the rest of the time, shoes were ignored. If there was a group of shoes left at the door, Rocco could tell whose shoes belonged to whom and would only poop in the offending party’s shoes.
The behavior could be stopped by hiding your shoes in the closet, and even if other people who did not commit the “crime” left their shoes out, the pooping would not occur. He never exacted any other kind of revenge besides the Poo-Shoe.
Since he’s no longer with us, I can’t set up any experiments to try and get more details on whether his feelings were revenge or not—but it certainly seems close. None of our other dogs do anything that looks like revenge, but I imagine there are other cases out there.
Do you think your dog exacts revenge? Please share your stories with us in the comments section below!
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You deal with house soiling in such a sensible way. Some people never think of the ‘why’ only the end result, but what you say makes so much sense. That paragraph alone is gold dust. I hope it makes people think long and hard (and take their dog for a nice walk!)
I absolutely believe they know what they’re doing and whom they are taking revenge on when they poop in your shoes (or elsewhere). I had a cat who would always poop in the middle of my bed if she felt she hadn’t received enough attention or the other critters in the house where getting more attention than her. When she got plenty of attention she never revenge pooped. I also have a friend who’s dog will poop if she thinks her human has been paying attention to other dogs, especially if she comes home with their scent. It would be interesting to do an experiment, though. I bet there is someone willing to test the theory. I’d be interested in the results. Great article, Andrea!
I do believe they do it to punish us as such but I have never had a dog that did it, I would not shout at the dog either as in my opinion it is adding fuel to fire, Layla had one or two accidents in the house if I was out too long but I never made a big deal with it, I just cleaned it up and hugged her hoping she would not feel bad for that accident. Great post as always and making me think a lot
Aww, that’s the right thing to do. I’m sure Layla felt embarrassed and was glad you didn’t make a fuss.
Oh, my, dog…I had laugh as soon as I saw this poo in the slipper! My Mom’s Poodle used to do this…and I remember her telling me it was always after she had left for a bit! She believed her dog did revenge poo and I think it was for sure! Mom used to say, “She got hunk on me!” Translation: She has my full attention and got revenge on me!
Priceless post!
That is so fascinating! I find it hard to believe that dogs are actually vengeful. I feel like there must be an explanation, but who knows! Certainly is food for thought!