 Can dogs tell time?
#230882 - 03/08/2009 11:09 PM |
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Or more accurately, do dogs know what day it is?
I train with my Schutzhund club every Sunday, with the exception of that magical one weekend a month that I owe to Uncle Sam.
As Danke is getting older, I'm noticing that she honestly seems sulky on Sunday evening, as if to say, "What gives? Why no trip to the club? I didn't get to bite anyone!".
This morning she was visably excited as she watched me pack up my gear, only to whine pitifully when I walked out the door without her.
Granted, she's never happy to see me go, but she has never been vocal about it.
Now she has a cranky-pouty-butt attitude; has every since I came home this evening.
So seriously, do you think dogs "know" when it's training day?
Or is she just feeding off my guilt?
(She's giving me the stinkeye from the corner. I kid you not.)
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Re: Can dogs tell time?
[Re: Aaron Myracle ]
#230884 - 03/08/2009 11:18 PM |
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Absolutely, I think they know what day is the main training day. Mine do at least. They are super charged Sunday mornings and are ready roll as soon as I get out of bed. Heck, my two males know as soon as we turn on the road to the training field and they start to get wound up.
Hope Danke gets over her snit soon :-p
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Re: Can dogs tell time?
[Re: Ingrid Rosenquist ]
#230889 - 03/08/2009 11:38 PM |
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I'm glad I'm not alone.
I keep telling myself, there's no way she knows what day of the week is which... but boy, she's pretty convincing.
We'll go for a run tomorrow morning, and all will be forgiven.
If only people were as forgiving as our dogs, eh?
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Re: Can dogs tell time?
[Re: Aaron Myracle ]
#230894 - 03/09/2009 12:01 AM |
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Heck, I wish *I* was as forgiving as my dogs! Right now we have had lousy weather. 50 degrees one day and snow the next so the dogs have been going stir crazy. I am envious that you can go for a run tomorrow whereas I will be shoveling my sidewalk yet again <sigh>
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Re: Can dogs tell time?
[Re: Ingrid Rosenquist ]
#230907 - 03/09/2009 01:02 AM |
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I'm not training for schutzhund, but I take my dogs for walk almost daily. I usually take both together. That morning, I didn't feel like taking two dogs for walking. I wanted to go for a really really long walk, so I left one at home because I know he couldn't keep it up with us. Basically Teddy waited and whined by the door for almost 2 hours for us to get home. My elder sister is not a morning person so she woke up with his whining.
"It's better to be an optimist who is sometimes wrong than a pessimist who is always right" |
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Re: Can dogs tell time?
[Re: Aaron Myracle ]
#230909 - 03/09/2009 02:14 AM |
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I don't think they know what day it is, but I do think they are more attuned to our routines than we realize. I think there may be something about your Sunday routine that tips Danke off that it is a training day. Maybe you get up a little earlier or later. Or maybe you do something just a little bit different on Sundays that she has come to associate with training.
When my wife puts her knee brace on Hans gets excited, because he knows that means going outside to garden and he gets to go with her and keep the squirrels and birds away. (Honestly, you can't possibly garden with birds and squirrels wandering around!) When she puts on her brown shoes he knows it is time to go outside too.
This morning he heard her put the crate in the back of the Expedition. He got very excited, that means go for a ride.
So no, I don't think they know what day it is, the way we do. But I do think they can identify things about our routines that clue them in.
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Re: Can dogs tell time?
[Re: Rich Pallechio ]
#230911 - 03/09/2009 06:15 AM |
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Mike A.
"I wouldn't touch that dog, son. He don't take to pettin." Hondo, played by John Wayne |
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Re: Can dogs tell time?
[Re: Mike Arnold ]
#230923 - 03/09/2009 09:46 AM |
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I think animals are a lot more aware of time than we give them credit for. I tend to keep a fairly regular schedule. If I'm distracted or busy and it gets to be 15 minutes or so past my dog's usual walk/dinner time, he stares at me, hovers, and basically makes an attention-seeking nuisance of himself. This is not normal behavior for him around feeding times at all, only on the rare occasion that it's late.
Our horses used to walk to the barn right before feeding time too, I could almost set my watch by them. They had no indicator, (we were always still in the house when they did this) but every day they just stopped grazing and walked in from WAY out in the pasture, just in time for their grain.
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Re: Can dogs tell time?
[Re: Kristel Smart ]
#230924 - 03/09/2009 09:56 AM |
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They most certainly do tell time.
We changed our clocks an hour forward yesterday. My dogs, who are usually hovering impatiently near my bedroom door in the morning, were still in bed when I got up this morning, looking at me like "what are you doing up before us??" IN SPITE OF my alarm having been going off for over 45 minutes!!!
Try putting off their supper for 15 minutes and see what happens. lol
I have also heard many times about dogs knowing exactly what day of the week is training week.
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Re: Can dogs tell time?
[Re: Angela Burrell ]
#230928 - 03/09/2009 10:34 AM |
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I think they can react in context as well.
My weekday schedule varies quite a bit but when I do certain things while wearing my white clogs (work shoes) they don't flinch. For example, if I turn off the coffee pot while in my tracking boots they snap to attention. But if I do it while wearing the clogs they look up with one eye and go back to sleep.
The coffee pot button is a trigger for them but they react in the context of what I'm wearing. If I have running shoes on there's an immediate frenzy.
When I was a kid I had a collie who would go to the door every day at 2:40 and wait for me. Not 2:30 but 2:40. Then I have to wonder if my Mom was doing something around that time that triggered him. In any event, I think dogs know way more than we give them credit for with respect to our body language and cues.
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