Can Dogs Lie to Their Owners?

Have you ever wondered if your dog was being honest? You know your pet well, and you'd like to think that your dog always tells you the truth, but do they really? Can dogs lie? And even if they can, do dogs lie? Let's uncover the answer to that question and see what recent research has to say.

Can Dogs Lie?

It's tough to look at your sweet little furry companion and think that they may have the ability to conceal the truth. You'd like to believe that your pet is too cute, too good of a friend and too loving to willingly lie to you. However, recent research shows that dogs will be deceptive, or not "tell" the truth, if it benefits them in some way.

In a study completed by researchers at the University of Zurich and published in Animal Cognition, dogs were presented with a cooperative human counterpart and a competitive human counterpart. The person labeled as "cooperative" was the one who shared any treats with the dog once the treats were presented in the study. The person labeled "competitive" presented the treats to the dog for viewing, kept the treats themselves and did not share with dogs.

As the study went on, the dogs were asked to lead their human counterparts to one of three boxes — one was empty, another contained a plain biscuit and the third contained sausages, which were deemed to be the canine's top treat. The results showed that, when asked, the dogs were most likely to lead the "cooperative" counterpart to the box with the sausages, but they'd lead the "competitive" counterpart away from that box to one of the others.

The dogs simply didn't want to share their sausages, and they knowingly led the "competitive" counterpart away from the sausages, so the competitor wouldn't take them away — further proving that the dogs would deceive if it benefited them.