Do dogs remember old places?

Dogs brains have the ability to store visual, olfactory, and auditory experiences indefinitely, per Canine Bible. So when a dog remembers people, places, and experiences their reaction will be based on associations they have with them. If a dog sees an old owner, their body language will give you a good idea of the treatment the dog received in association with that person‘s scent. Dogs also remember people or situations visually and they have amazing facial recognition. Studies also show that dogs recognize individual voices, and are responsive to tones of voice. So as long as a dog can smell, has healthy eyes, and can hear, they will most likely remember you no matter how long you’ve been out of their life. It turns out they can remember someone their entire life. Dogs will associate any gesture, voice, and smell with you.

Dogs can remember what their owners have been up to, say researchers probing the nature of canine memory. The authors note that the rapid drop-off in success rates over time, together with evidence that the command was unexpected, shows that the dogs were recalling events that had not been imbued with importance – suggesting that they were relying on a type of episodic memory. This study shows that they can use a type of memory that allows them to recall and remember events that were not known to be important. Traditionally episodic memory has been linked to self-awareness but as we do not know whether dogs are self-aware we call it episodic-like memory. But, she added, it was not clear whether dogs are capable of remembering events with the same level of detail and context that humans do. When I think of my last holiday dinner, there’s a richness to that where I remember where I was, and when, and who I was with and so on. It’s not yet clear from the current study if dogs have that richness, but the paper is a nice step to starting to test these important questions.