Dog Community

Do dogs intentionally misbehave when they are angry?

Posted : 10/5/2006 9:55:57 PM

Tonight I was eating. Bailey wanted some but, I did not share with her. I showed her that my hands were empty and the food was gone. She them promptly jumped up and peed on my bed! Was she "getting back at me?"

mrv

Posted : 10/6/2006 6:19:59 AM

I sincerely doubt it. Think more of excitement and an accident, or possibly a response that is some how linked to a set of behaviors and cues of which you are not presently aware.

Scout in Canada

Posted : 10/6/2006 6:57:31 AM

I don't think dog's minds work in that way. They don't think like humans, and as far as I know they do not act out of 'spite' or for revenge. Dogs do what works, and for some reason peeing on your bed seemed like a good thing for Bailey at the time.

Hard to say why she did that.... there are so many possibilities. Maybe she thought by peeing on the bed that you would come running and she would get attention.

houndlove

Posted : 10/6/2006 8:15:29 AM

While having never gotten that extreme, Marlowe goes through periods where he "experiments" to see if some new behavior will work for him to get what he wants (usually something I'm eating). His training is to just lay down quietly, but every so often he'll decide that maybe he ought to try a couple new things to see if those are the magical behaviors that will make me give him food. Of course they never are, so he tries them a few times and then goes back to what he already knows.

Deb

Posted : 10/6/2006 4:45:21 PM

Most of the things dogs would think to do on their own are things we don't want them to do. So if a dog is left to think of some behavior to do, and if the dog is trying new behaviors in order to get your attention perhaps, or is bored, then yes it will appear as if your dog is "misbehaving" because "he is angry".

Sounds like Bailey was just excited and/or is not housetrained yet. Haven't you posted before about the peeing on the bed?

luvmyswissy

Posted : 10/8/2006 7:39:18 PM

Here's a good article on just that "can dogs think?"

[linkhttp://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_1_114/ai_n15863544]http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_1_114/ai_n15863544[/link]

faramir denethor

Posted : 10/8/2006 8:15:49 PM

sparky doesn't get mad...he get's even.

i have no doubt he decides to take revenge.

bichinpanda

Posted : 10/9/2006 12:40:30 AM

Well, I'm not sure. But, all I can say is that Dweezil was nearly housebroken (not peeing anywhere ... we're still working on her not stealing all our stuff and jumping on the dinner table) and could very well every single day hold it while gated in the bathroom while I was at class. Then, I noticed. I would come home from class, and let her out. If I ever needed to put her right back in for another couple of hours to run errands, I would come home to a puddle of pee RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of the bathroom. She knew how to pee on the puppy pads without fail, if I wasn't home to take her out. But, conveniently, on the days that she had two significantly long periods of time in the bathroom, even though it had only been maybe an hour or two the second bout, she would always, always, pee in the middle of the bathroom. I don't think that's coincidence! [

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Xebby

Posted : 10/9/2006 12:47:49 AM

Once Giz was begging and whining for me to let her out. She had already gone out for the day and did her thing, I didn't want to make a habbit of letting her out whenever she wanted. So I closed the door to my room. Later I find her chewing my mom's good shoe, Giz is not normaly a chewer[&:] (I don't think my mom has discoved her shoe missing yet[:-])

I wonder why she did that, I know dog's don't think like us but it really seemed she wanted revenge.

mudpuppy

Posted : 10/9/2006 12:02:00 PM

yeah, but dogs don't consider "pee" to be a bad thing. They like pee. Why would a a dog give you pee to "punish" you?

most so-called "revenge" episodes all have one thing in common-- the dog was left isolated for longer than normal/ or at a different time than normal. What are dogs likely to do under such circumstances? be unable to hold their bladder and therefore pee, or get bored and therefore go destroy things.

Richard Dragin

Posted : 10/13/2006 2:00:48 AM

Dogs are not coniving, vindictive or revengful. We like to give them human characteristics but they just live in the moment and don't dwell on the past or the future. A good lesson for all of us.

Deb

Posted : 10/13/2006 8:41:24 AM

Richard, yes. This is actually why I am such a huge fan of dogs. I overthink things, but my dog really doesn't. If I am going to have a good relationship with my dog, I have to stop that bad habit and look at what is really going on, ala Mudpuppy's excellent post above. Dogs pee when they have to pee. They destroy things when bored.

Xerxes

Posted : 10/13/2006 8:52:05 AM

ORIGINAL: luvmyswissy

Here's a good article on just that "can dogs think?"

[linkhttp://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_1_114/ai_n15863544]http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1134/is_1_114/ai_n15863544[/link]

That is a great article though it doesn't answer many questions, or the most important question. It does give one pause to think though.