Does My Dog Have Any Sense Of Time?

[allyboo]

I think yes, and no. My Milly has the same 5-minute syndrome. I can go to put the bins out, come back in and it's like she hasn't seen me all day.

But then I recently went away for a weekend and my mum was dog-sitting her. When I came back she went absolutely bonkers. So yes, I do think they have some concept of time, but "any absence is still absence" applies too.

[Nancy1999]

There are some studies that indicate that anything over 20 minutes a dog loses his sense of time, in other words, 20 minutes is the same as infinity to a dog! They do have a very good sense of time regarding time of day, for example, Joey knows exactly when Daddy's coming home, and he also knows when it's time to eat!

[manolos mom]

Originally Posted by AllDogBoots

I've always heard that dogs have no sense of time. Does my dog know if I'm gone for 5 minutes or 5 hours? Does he know if i'm gone for 5 days?

Does he know the difference? Usually when i leave the house, i can come home 5 seconds later and he's just as thrilled to see me as if it was 5 hours later.

My dogs sense when I am about to come home. They also know dinner time. When my husbands driving home from work he often phones me, the dogs must sense that he is on his way because they will sit by the door waiting.

[margaritaville]

I'm positive mine do. When it's time for me to come home from work they sit by the door waiting. My husband said he can tell time by them, if it is 4:45p they are in the kitchen by the door otherwise they are asleep on the couch. The first week in May I was in Haiti with Project Medishare and my husband said they waited at the door every day and at night every little noise they heard they were up and waiting. When I came home last Monday they went crazy and were right beside me every minute. Every pair of scrubs I pulled out of my suitcase they smelled and my sleeping bag-well they must have crawled in and out of that 50 times
http://projectmedishare.org/