Do dogs know you're coming back?
Arielle Bode
2025-07-19 16:34:42
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: 16
Dogs have no sense of time. I’ve been asked this question often, and always answered I simply didn’t know, but that it seemed reasonable that they had some sense of time, even if it wasn’t exactly like ours. In brief, they recorded the behavior of dogs left by their owners for 30 min, 2 hours and 4 hours, and found that if the dogs had been left alone for 2 or 4 hours they greeted their owners with more ‘intensity,’ and were more active and attentive, than when the duration of separation had only been 30 minutes. However, there was no statistical significance between the dogs behavior if left alone for 2 or 4 hours. For what it’s worth, my observations, which are just anecdotes, are that Willie’s greeting behavior varies tremendously based on how long we have been away. When we returned from New Zealand, after being gone for 3 weeks, he ran between Jim and I, whining endearingly, flipping in circles, licking our faces raw . . . a very, much more intense greeting than if one of us had been gone for a day or two. Do you observe that your dog greets you differently when you’ve been gone longer.
Alan Labadie
2025-07-07 09:43:33
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: 15
It's crucial that owners are able to communicate with your dogs that you are coming back, and that it's not going to be forever. They become anxious or depressed, and it becomes a problem. Saying goodbye to your dog can be fraught if your puppy has separation anxiety. It seems an impossible task when you consider that a dog's memory seems as though it's about as long as a toddler's, but it is possible. Separation anxiety for dogs is a real thing. They learn that this time will be fun and exciting, but that you always come back. If they know that it is just a thing that happens, they'll be ready for it.
Jacinto Wolf
2025-06-29 07:45:45
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: 15
Dogs know when you’re leaving. It may be the tinkling of car keys, picking up a purse or a cell phone, but there is always one dead giveaway that their human is getting ready to leave the house. They think about why and where you are going, and when you will return. Dogs possess the mental intellect equivalent to a two-year old child, and both understand the same number of words; about 160 to 250. Dogs miss us. They know the difference between us being gone for 15 minutes to run an errand versus three hours away. For some dogs, whether it is 10 minutes or two hours that you’re gone, it’s irrelevant to them, and they think about how much they miss you. They become super-attuned to the sounds around them in anticipation that it means you have come back; a car door closing on the street out front, a car horn honking, the sound of kids laughing or people talking, a wall clock chiming – all these sorts of sounds keep a dog’s mind working.
Janie Bradtke
2025-06-29 06:31:07
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: 18
It has long been thought, and oftentimes documented, that dogs have a sixth sense that allows them to “know” your ETA in advance. Rather, as she writes, “there was a potent combination of two forces leading to these dogs’ abilities. The first is the distinctness of our smell to our dogs. The second is the ease with which dogs learn our habits. It might be that the odors that we leave around the house when we leave lessen in a consistent amount each day. Basically, your smarty dog’s amazing nose knows that over the hours you are gone, your home begins to smell less of you. Dogs know based on their experiences. Dogs are also remarkably quick at associative learning. They’re very good at picking up on subtle cues like reading body language, changes in the environment, and listening to sounds. And not just your own signals, but maybe the sound of a neighbor’s car that starts up a few minutes before you arrive home. Environmental stimuli like light shifts, sounds, smells, and even cues you can’t pick up on can play a role in your dog’s ability to sense when you’re coming home.
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