Your Dog’s Guilty Look May Come From Wolves
Published on April 18, 2017
When your pooch bows his head low and looks at you with big sad eyes after he’s done something wrong, he may be using a complex survival tactic evolved from wolves, writes Nathan H. Lents, a molecular biologist with the City University of New York, in Psychology Today. Young wolves use the “apology bow” as they begin social integration into a pack. If the young wolf bites too hard, for example, he might be spurned by the pack. He will then use the apology bow to get back in the pack’s good graces. “Dogs have inherited this behavior and they will use it after any kind of infraction that results in being punished,” Lents wrote. “As social animals, they crave harmonious integration in the group and neglect or isolation is painful for them.” — Read it at USA Today