 I found this article
regarding dogs having concept of time. I'll try to copy and paste the relevant parts.
Dogs are not lonely, people are lonely," explained Matt Margolis, a Los Angeles-based dog trainer and host of PBS’s "Woof, It’s a Dog’s Life." If you are going to be out of the house all day, you should focus on safety, not loneliness, he said. If your dog is under two, or older but new to you, he needs a confined space in the house free of furniture where he can be while you are gone. A dog of any age needs access to the outdoors through a doggy door, and an enclosed outdoor area where it can do its business.
It’s natural to assume that these spaces must be large, since the dog will be in them all day, but Margolis says this is still thinking like a person and not like a dog. A dog does not have a sense of time, and he will not feel the weight of those empty hours going by as you would if you were confined to one room and one outdoor area for nine or 10 hours.
The enclosed outdoor area can be modestly sized. Forty square feet--an area 4 by 10 feet--is sufficient for a dog weighing 60 pounds or less. For a larger dog or two dogs, a 4 by 16 foot area will suffice, though some breeds are high energy and need more room.
These areas may sound small, but most dogs won’t use this area for exercise—"they sleep 95 percent of the time when you’re away," Margolis explained.
I realize the paragraphs may not make sense but I only copied and pasted the relevant parts about dogs having concept of time and how much they sleep. The article also mentioned that our departing and arriving should not be lengthy and a big deal made but rather non-chalant (sp). It even noted that upon our arrival home, we should not make a big production but rather ignore the dog for a few minutes and then go to it.
What do you guys think? |