If you’re a pet owner, you likely know that our furry (or scaly, feathery, etc.) friends can be extremely smart. They learn how to communicate with us without using words, and we find ways to understand one another’s emotions. But this intelligence can come back to bite us when our pets realize that we don’t always give them what they want. Sure, accidents happen, and especially when pets are young, they have a lot to learn. But the hilarious photos on this list seem to be a bit more like calculated revenge than honest mistakes.

To gain more insight on our naught pets and whether or not their actions that we perceive as revenge are intentional, we reached out to Board Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist Dr. Megan E. Maxwell, PhD. While this article is all in good fun, we wanted to know if our pets are actually capable of plotting revenge against us (and if they are, should we be worried?). 

Lucky for all of us, Dr. Maxwell told Bored Panda that no, animals don’t consciously seek revenge. “To really carry out vengeful behavior, you need to be able to picture the future and find pleasure in the future misery or suffering of others,” she explained. “For our pets, this is much too complicated. Nonetheless, we see behavior from our pets all the time that LOOKS like revenge, but this is only because we humans put our own motivations onto pet behavior sometimes.” We shouldn’t be projecting our own emotions onto others, so let’s not do it on our pets either!

Dr. Maxwell also provided some possible explanations for why our animals might seem vengeful. “Most dogs and cats engage in destruction in the house either due to boredom and the natural enjoyment that comes from chewing things, or due to anxiety either from being home alone or from any changes that may have occurred in the pet's life that cause stress,” she noted. 

To try to prevent our pets from seeking revenge (or appearing like that’s what they’re after), Dr. Maxwell provided some advice. “We should teach our pets how to be home alone calmly, and be sure to provide plenty of appropriate things for our pets to destroy to meet their chewing needs.” She also recommended trying to get to the bottom of why they are displaying destructive behavior, because it’s not actually to seek revenge. “For example, be sure all of the pet's basic needs are met, including plenty of exercise, enrichment, basic training, and socialization,” Dr. Maxwell told Bored Panda.

If you’d like to gain more insight into pet behavior and learn more from Dr. Maxwell, be sure to check out her business’ site, Pet Behavior Change, right here! 

Thankfully, our dogs and cats aren’t as vengeful as humans often are, but they are intelligent enough to feel other emotions that might lead to them partaking in destructive behavior, including jealousy. Paul Morris, PhD, a psychologist and animal behavior expert at The University of Portsmouth in England found that dogs will consistently push in between themselves and their “rivals” to compete for attention. “All we can do is look at behavior and context,” Dr. Morris says. “Both the behavior and the contexts observed are consistent with current scientific definitions of jealousy. I suspect that a highly social species such as the dog has a very developed repertoire of social emotions.”

If you’re wondering why your dog might be acting a bit off, it can be useful to be able to spot the signs of jealousy in your fur baby. They might start displaying signs of aggression towards whomever they’re jealous of, display attention seeking behavior, start sulking or even withdraw from you. If you notice this behavior in your pet and it’s unusual, your animal might be feeling insecure. To combat these negative feelings, it can be helpful to maintain routines for your dog. “Think back to what your schedule and habits were like before the new pet or person was introduced, and, whenever possible, try to reestablish that pattern,” The Dog Daily writes.  

If an animal is jealous, they might just need some extra love and affection to remind them how much you care. Give them an extra treat, take them to the park more often, and spend plenty of time playing with them. Just like humans, dogs need to be shown they are loved sometimes. It can also be useful to reinforce your dog’s basic training if their jealousy is turning into destructive patterns. “You must remain the leader, so gently show your dog who is boss by verbally scolding negative behavior as soon as it starts,” The Dog Daily says. “At the same time, reward positive behavior with sweet talk, head rubs, and treats, especially if your dog makes an effort to socialize with your new pack member.”

It can also be important to empathize with our pets rather than assuming they’re trying to seek revenge against us. For example, separation anxiety can be a cause for some of the behavior featured on this list. “Factors which can precipitate a separation anxiety problem include a change in the family’s schedule which result in the dog being left alone more often, a move to a new house, the death or loss of another family pet, or a period at a boarding kennel,” MSPCA explains on their site. “Separation anxiety may manifest by excessive vocalizations or house-soiling, along with destructive behavior. These behaviors are not motivated by spite or revenge, but by anxiety, and punishment will make the problem worse!”

MSPCA also notes that regardless of what your pets have done, it’s important to never be too hard on them. “Punishment alone rarely is effective in resolving destructive behavior problems and can make them worse,” they write. “Punishment after the fact is never appropriate. When punishment is indicated, the goal is not to punish the animal, but the behavior. This can never be accomplished with punishment after the fact. For assistance in resolving destructive and other behavior problems, once medical problems have been ruled out by your veterinarian, contact a certified applied animal behaviorist.”

As humans, we often assume that we are in charge of our pets. But as these photos clearly show, they can’t always be tamed. If they’re upset or seeking revenge, nothing can stop them. Keep upvoting the photos you find hilarious (but you wouldn’t if they had happened in your household), and let us know in the comments if your pets have ever expertly gotten revenge on you. Then if you’d like to check out another Bored Panda article featuring petty revenge, we recommend reading this article next!