Does your dog actually feel guilty?

You come home to find a chewed shoe or a knocked-over garbage can. Your dog lowers their head, avoids your eyes, and tucks their tail. It looks like guilt. But does your dog actually feel guilty, or are we interpreting their behaviour through a human lens?
Dr. Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist at Barnard College and head of the Horowitz Canine Cognition Lab, explored this question in her landmark study, “Disambiguating the ‘guilty look’: Salient prompts to a familiar dog behaviour.