Do dogs have a concept of time. I'm not talking about waking you at 8 every morning or knowing exactly when dinner is served but more conceptual. Like, how long they've been waiting for you to come home or how long they sit on their mat or waiting for the next downed bird to retrieve. Does 15 minutes feel the same as three hours or how do they perceive time ?
I've read that dogs know when their owners are due home from work from the intensity of the scent left in the house. So I guess that would mean they perceive time through their noses? Same as most of us have observed, when there are footprints for us to see, our dog start tracking the wrong way then quickly turn and go in the direction the prints go. Because they follow a scent increasing in strength, not diminishing. There are studies on this, don't have any links. I think it doesn't explain all time though.
It's a very interesting question and I'll like to see what replies you get. It could make a huge difference to how long we leave them alone - particularly in a single dog household - if we are able to understand their concept of time.
My brother arrives home from work at 5:30pm. Tatze starts looking out for him at 5:20 precisely every day. He only stays with us three days a week but she looks out at the same time 7 days a week. She knows tea time too, if I leave it a minute late I get the Labrador stare!
What an interesting question. I don’t see how we can know for sure but I wonder if their perceptions are similar to ours. For humans, awareness of the passage of time is definitely subjective - if we are actively engaged in something we enjoy time seems to pass more quickly, as it also does if we are in a waking but very relaxed / day - dreaming state. Whereas if we are frightened / worried (like waiting to hear if someone has come round from an operation) every minute seems to drag out for ever. Come to think of it, time goes slowly even when we are waiting for something enjoyable/ exciting / special to happen. So for humans I’d say it’s the actively waiting (rather than ‘switched-off’ waiting) that makes time go slowly. I wonder if it’s the same for dogs?
Wow what a question!... I think things happen in units to a dog...they cannot measure time like we do. There is some evidence that they have a degree of episodic memory like cats (there is some research will have to dig it out later) Dogs recognise sequence of events..patterns. So this probably helps if you live in a household where things happen at the same time each day. It is interesting though when you apply concept of time though to a dog who suffers deeply from separation anxiety..is there more of a biological response going on? 10mins vs 20mins vs 60mins for example. Diminishing and increasing scent now that is fascinating @Snowshoe..I mean how do dogs actually track? They know a scent in the distance is different from a scent right by their feet. So, do they know their owner is some distance away?? Could we put our scent on a timer? OK who started this thread?
I have read something - somewhere - sometime about this, and that dogs do know to follow the track along the direction of increasing scent. I see it with Willow when we play hide and seek, she'll run to where I last was and pick up my trail and follow it in the correct direction every time. While Shadow runs around like a drunk bee, head up and just looking for me with his eyes, bless him.
The scent degrades with time and weather conditions and dogs will often follow the strongest? New tracks are easier to follow than old ones?
I think temperature has a lot to do with it, I believe when the temperature drops the scent rises from the ground, so they don't pick it up so well. Something like that.
When it's cold, the scent molecules are less energetic, which means they don't interact with your nasal receptors as readily. Hence why frozen food doesn't smell as much as warm food. Because of the lack of activity in the molecules, the scent also "sticks" to the ground more - not less. This can preserve the smell but, because it doesn't "float" into the air above the ground as it does when it is warmer, it's harder for the dog to find. I imagine that the dog's nose being colder would also have an impact on their ability to smell, too.
I wonder how we would perceive time without watches and clocks and how different thus would be from dogs. Keeping children in from play for a minute is torture while they have to sit quietly before being left out.
go into hospital for a long time you loose all references to your normal life and time means nothing you sleep too much
