Understanding dog cognition and communication can help you correctly interpret the “guilty look” and allow you to respond appropriately and preserve your relationship with your dog. Dogs feel emotions including joy, fear, love and anger. However, their ability to feel guilt in the same way that humans do is a different matter altogether. Dogs who were innocent but scolded showed just as much “guilty” behaviour as dogs who had done the wrong thing. The guilty look is their response to you, not what they did.