do dogs have a sense of time?

hughjohn

I live for my dogs. We do a one hour circuit every morning before I go to work . I complete this even if it makes me late for work , which it sometimes does!

I have a seperate shorter route ( half hour) which I do each evening on my return.

Often neighbours dogs tag on also. At times I have had 8 or 9 with me.

On days off and weekends I throw in a few 10 minute jaunts during the day.

Thing is they seem just as content with short hops as one long one so I just got wondering do they have a concept of time ie can they tell the difference between a long walk and a short one?

What do you think.

Paco Rodriguez

My father's dog back in his parents house used to meet him off the bus down the road at 4pm each weekend he visited.

Not related but there is a farm at home the farmer leaves the gate open and at 6pm the cows walk themselves to the milk parlour a hundred metres down the road.

aonb

I think dogs are so happy to get out for a walk/sniff/stroll that they dont care how long its for. I do know if I bring my dog home after a quick stroll, he looks at me as if to say "what, turning back HERE?!?!" The stimulation of the walk - smells etc etc - are all so enjoyable and critical for their mental health (!) that even a 10 minute outing is better than nothing. I think any healthy dog will enjoy a longer walk more of course, but as I say even 10 mins is better than nothing. My elderly dog was reduced to 10 min strolls a few times/day towards the end - the other dogs eventually werent so enthuastic about these little short slow outings, but they still came along happily enough.

jack presley

I'm always confused as to whether my lads have any sense of time. When I go out for a few hours and come back they jump around as if they're saying "yeahhh, you're back!!". But If I go out to but forget my phone or something and have to go back into the house 30 seconds after leaving, the reaction's the same so i wonder what they're little heads are thinking.

peasant

They certainly do have a sense of time ...or rather a sense for the timing of their routine.

Benno wakes me at 7:20 every day (incl. Sundays and bank holidays) because that's when he gets his breakfast during the week. The whole lot stands at the ready shortly after four when I'm expected home.

As for walkies ...they know their route and get disappointed when deviations occur. Having said that, a short walk on a new route is certainly much more fulfilling for them than a long one on a route where they know every blade of grass by name for the last five years.

Toulouse

Yep, they definitely get used to a routine.

Mine get very thrown out when the clock goes back or forward.

Pretzill

Toulouse wrote: »

Yep, they definitely get used to a routine.

Mine get very thrown out when the clock goes back or forward.

Know this one well - although I think the dogs just stick to natural time - they get dinner at five but when the clocks go back they are looking for dinner at four!

Hooked

There was a great example of how dogs kept 'time' on that 'secret lives of dogs' prog that was on a few months back.

Basically, the owner would arrive back from work at 5 daily and the dog would be up on the front window, seconds before...

It was down to smell, or lack thereof. They showed how a persons smell diminished over time and the dog was measuring his masters arrival home by the smell diminishing throughout the day.

They placed an item of clothing in the room as an experiment, threw the dogs 'timing' out and you should have seen the look of utter confusion on his face as his owner entered the house as usual at 5.

Great show

minipink

If I check the CCTV, Lola is waiting in the hall at 2.45 for my arrival home from work. She also cops the weekends and you can see an extra wag in her tail when we go downstairs in our pyjamas. She gets a 20 minute walk in the mornings before work as a mental health break as suggested for her separation anxiety and we go the same route daily and she knows where to turn around and go home. She does do a lot of sniffing during this walk. It's very interesting to read about the smell diminishing as the explanation. I used to put clothing and a throw from my bed for Lola for separation anxiety but that didn't work for her. She will leave any treat I leave out for during the day until I get home and she's then like cookie monster eating them!

AryaStark

I spend a lot of time with my dog because I work from home and she is always with me. She reminds me around 12 to get coffee and at lunch time etc its great! Sometimes if I have a meeting or have to go out early to see a client she notices me dressing and starts giving me sad eyes! I love that she knows her day by what I wear in the mornings!!!

Mountainsandh

Minipjnk, my dog does the same with the guilt treats, glad to get them but won't touch them till we're home
I am at home 2 days a week and he knows when it's time to do the school run for his human siblings ... Within a 2 hour mistake scope, that is, he has a general idea it must be time, but not at all precise.
By contrast, the cat wakes me exactly a minute before my phone alarm goes, and the days I'm at work, he goes out to greet me back at the gates at the right time every time.

I think, like others say, that to a dog experiencing the present moment is more important than time, so they might come back from a 10 minute walk with a big event like sniffing a mouse in a bush more satisfied than a really long but uneventful walk.

Ashbx

My opinion is they don't judge time on walks....it depends on how much exercise they get. Every morning, I bring my dogs for a 15 min walk. However, this walk consists of me constantly throwing the ball for them and they are knackered when we come home. My second walk in a day is for 1 - 1.5 hour in the evenings, but this is a stroll in the park and not an intense ball catching session. So I feel my dogs benefit from the 15 mins intense walk than they do with the 1 hour evening walk.

However, I finish work at 5pm everyday and usually am home by 5.45pm. My boyfriend tells me that EVERY DAY at 5.30, my dog will get up from her bed, go into the hall and sit on the stairs to wait for me. Also, when I was growing up, my granny used to collect us from school every Thursday. Any other day, i would come home from school and my dog would be on the couch, no interest in the fact I just came home. However, on Thursdays, she used to sit on the windowsill before I even got to my front gate waiting for my granny! So in this sense, yes I am convinced they have some sort of sense of time.