I was reading a very interesting book on dog behavior and according to the author's research, dog's biological clock is extremely accurate. They get tuned to when things are supposed to happen - when you are supposed to get home from work, when they eat, when they go for walks, and can "tell" the time these things are supposed to happen with in a few minutes during a 24 hour time period.
I think there is a lot of truth in that and that many of our behaviorial problems stems from the dogs anxiety over things not happening when they are supposed to. One example he gave was that if you are supposed to get home from work at 6 pm - a few minutes before six the dog will start getting anxious. If you don't get home on time he will find something that smells strongly of you - perhaps your slippers, underwear, etc. and mouth them because they miss you, the later you are the more anxious he gets and will progress from mouthing to chewing.
I haven't tested the theory, but it really sounds logical. I know that watching our small herd of horses, I can tell what part of the pasture they are in according to what time of day it is. |