From Drudge....

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-mishaps/201005/dogs-dont-remember

If I walk into the backyard, the dogs are overjoyed to see me and act like they haven't seen me for days. If I stay in the backyard, they quickly become bored with me. If I go inside and return after 10-15 minutes, my dogs are overjoyed to see me and act like they haven't seen me in days. They don't remember that I was in the backyard just a few minutes ago.

Prob'ly goes a long way towards explaining why we're best friends

The Hell they don't remember. Anyone with a dog that's ever found something in one spot can tell you that they will look in that spot again and again for it.

The overjoyed part is simple pack behavior. It comes from knowing that another member of the pack has gone somewhere else and may be bringing back good food, scents, etc., and the rest of the pack is interested and excited by the potential new discoveries.

Mistreat a dog and see if they don't remember.

Interesting read.

Have any long motorcycle trips planned with your old KLR650 in the near future?

My dogs proclaim this is all BS.

If you substitute liberal for dog you would be correct.

I don't buy it. My old Brittany would get somewhat excited if I asked if she wanted to go for a walk. If I asked if she wanted to go hunting she'd be bouncing off the ceiling. If we drove to my friend's house who owned her brother, it be the same thing, just about going nuts in the cab of the pickup. So no, I don't buy that they don't remember.

My folks Dachshund believes the Boogie Man or something similar resides inside of the closet that holds the HVAC unit. About 4 times a day, she goes and sits in front of the closet wanting somebody to open the door. She's convinced something is in there making noise when the heater or A/C kicks on, but she never can find it when we open the door..then she goes and lays on her pillow, until she forgets, hears noise and thinks there's a Boogie Man in the HVAC closet...

This has been going on for 10 years....

My dog worries I don't like her if I yell at her about something. Just the other day she got in trouble around 1:00 and when we went to bed, she suddenly jumps onto the bed, lays right next to me and looks at me as if to say "I'm so sorry. Can you forgive me?" My hunting dog on the other hand can barely remember his name.

When we return to Wyoming after 6 months in Arizona, as soon as we turn onto our street the dogs know exactly where we are and just go nuts with joy.

Our one little dog has a thing for cattleguards, he knows where all of them are that we go over once in a while, some only 2-3 times a year. Maybe 200 yards or so from the cattleguard he gets really excited and starts barking, he knows where we are and that the cattleguard is coming up.

These are just two example of why I think the report is sadly mistaken.

Answer this one.

Toby the English Cocker doesn't care all that much about other Dogs. She- correction he-tolerates them, but isn't all that interested in playing or fooling around with them.

Then one day at a gun club a guy pulls in with a Jeep and out jumps another hunting Cocker who looked to be Toby's twin. They did the smell thing and the guy and I started talking. Turns out they were brothers from a different breeding of the same sire and dam. The two were instantly inseparable. Running to exhaustion together in the field on a cool evening and finally laying in the grass side by side. One moved the other moved.

It was kinda spooky.

Addition: Toby often gets called she in error. Abby the Springer, now hunting in other fields is always there.

That was an interesting read. I have seen different reaction from my dog after I've been gone longer than normal on several occasions. But he is smart even by Labrador standards and been highly trained all his life (field trials). Does that make a difference, dunno? Breed specific maybe? What may be true for a pug may not be true for a border collie, again I dunno.

Hell,...... I don't remember what happened yesterday!

Try getting a dog into a travel crate the day after you have him fixed at the vet.

Why we're best friends? Lock your wife and your dog in the car trunk and let them out after an hour.

Which one is happy to see you?

*Caution: May not be legal in all states and provinces*

For the wife or dog?

What I think is your Dachshund has you trained very well.

You and Drudge are best friends?

Who?

I would do that to my dog, that would be cruel to lock him up anywhere with my wife

Mark, I have come to the realization that, fer me anyways, bicycles are much, much cooler....



....OTOH I can get from here to New York like thirty-one days faster on a motorcycle than I can on a bicycle

But no, I would not take the ol'KLR that far again, just too many old parts likely to need attention/replacing somewhere along the route.

Maybe when I get a new bike.

Birdwatcher

BS. Pass by a spot where they bounced a rabbit a year ago, and they will bee line over to check that precise spot.

That Drudge report is pure bull pucky as any non- druggie dog owner can tell you. It's a gross mid-interpretation of behavior as pointed out above. If the dog didn't remember/ recognize the "pack member" from before why the hell would it be happy to see him/her?

I have stories... Including delayed rememberances on the dog's part where he went ape-[bleep] with delight several minutes after reassociation.

My dogs remember more things than I do.

This researcher has stupid dogs and that
means more research bucks for him.

I'm no expert, but I think there's a heck of a lot about dogs that we can't fully explain. I had a springer that I used to give rawhide bones to, he'd run with it all over the property, and eventually come back without it. After a while, I'd ask him where his chew was, he'd sit down and start "thinking", then off he'd go and be back with it in seconds. He knew where it was, he didn't have to look for it, he'd beeline right to it. He was a smart dog, pretty sure he knew more about me than I knew about him.

The OP report is a bunch of horseschit. My dog remembers plenty.

Often times much better than I do.

twofish

Dogs remember better than many voters.

That's for damn sure.

Our JRT "knows" when we are a couple blocks from homes of family members 100+ miles away we may only visit 1-2 times per year.

I have deliberately taken different routes to their homes, and it's still the same result. When we are within a quarter mile or so it's like the GPS unit beeps and she's on full alert.

Dogs amaze me.

Priceless.

When I put on a certain pair of shoes the
dog knows we're going for a walk.

I know of at least two examples of dogs "going home."

A family took young mutt with them to grandmas house 70 miles away. Dog disappears from yard in afternoon, they search till dark and the kids are heartbroken. Dog is on front step next am.

Client sold a 2 yr old coon hound to a guy that lived west of Lincoln, NE. A couple months later the dog shows up here, we're 100 miles east of the Missouri river. That 200 mile trip took most of a week IIRC.

Dogs amaze me.

Last summer I sort of took a liking toward a little dog I often see out wandering around town on my regular trips to the post office and store. I started giving it dog treats and sometimes a meat bone or can of dog food when ever I see it. Now it comes running when it sees my vehicle. I thought it was pretty amazing how it only took giving it treats a couple of times for it to know my vehicle among all the other white vehicles around.

the guy was full of caca, probably dog caca. It said it all to me when he said he walked into the back yard and the dogs were happy to see him. Yeah, if you were in the back yard ignored all the time.
I have had probably 15 golden retrievers through the years and i live with two of them now.
this morning max, the boy dog, was kind enough to move over on the bed so i could get under the covers.
He was horrible mistreated as a puppy and is a rescue dog. He remember a lot.
My girl princess is sitting beside me right now and barking/growling etc. Could have something to do with her knowing i will share breakfast with her.
our dogs have always lived with us, not in the back yard. They are experts at reconizing emotions and behavior. My guys also alert at humans. If they seem to think there is a problem, there probably is.

About as valid as Deflave - possibly joking - saying dogs do not exhibit jealousy.

Don't buy it, either.

Read a good book few years ago on dog psychology/research, and while it was fascinating and did explain the how/why of many dog behaviors that made sense, it had a chapter claiming the same about dog memory, and I'd say bullchit for all the reasons already mentioned.

Too, I wonder how breed may influence this observation. Also, how do we define "memory" in a dog? Does the dog percieve an instictual or gut-feeling associated with a past experience, or does it experience a replay of that experience, lush with full color/sound/smells/emotions as we might? I don't know. Is the study saying they have remote memory, but not short-term? That makes no sense.

I do know it's remarkable how much a dog remembers. They know you've turned onto the road headed to a favorite place. They know you've hidden an object at play (and surely don't forget). My sheepdog has an keen aversion to guns of all shapes/sizes; she knows where I keep them and she won't enter that room to save her life. If I carry a gun to another room, she watches from afar and won't go in that room until I take it out. She needs no "reminding" or "re-experiencing" to remember that.

So no, I've never seen a dog living a "50 First Dates" life.

Jealous dogs?

You should see my lap dog when the grandkids visit.

Book it.

My dog knows instantly if I "cheated on him" by petting another dog. He gives you that same look you get from your wife that just found lipstick on your collar...

doggie divorce is temporary however, and a lot less costly.

We have a little cotton tail living under the pallets that the hay is on down in the barn. It comes out and sits in the alleyway most mornings. Our dog seen it one morning and now every time I go out to feed, that dog beats me to the barn to check if that rabbit is out.

It is indeed.

I have 2 Parson Russell terriers that will dispute that with no problem. I will put a chew toy on any number of hiding places and they go from hiding place to hiding place sniffing to find them day after day.

my girls remember every spot they have ever flushed a grouse or a snowshoe. they still cross the road at the driveway to the house they were raised in and abused.(though sometimes they will drop a load dead center of the drive before crossing). my chocolate starts winning whenever we near the spot she fell out of the back of her former owners pickup and was run over.
they both will fall back on their run to be close to me when we get to the spot they ran into a pizzed off black bear.
but they don't have episodic memory?
total bs.

I had a dog that whizzed on an electric fence. He had a loooong memory.

Odor, that's why they stick their heads out the window, IMHO they remember what an area SMELLS like. Remember, their sense of smell is so acute they can even smell tumors, beneath the skin.

number of years ago i had a small electric fence running around our yard, which the dogs were familar with. One day i was out on a wet lawn barefoot and bent over the fence and accidently touched it with my forehead. I was laid out on the grass. Both dogs were about ten feet away as my wife was gagging she was laughing so hard. She was sorry for my condition, but she was laughing at the dog's faces as they were watching me, kind of like look at that stupid guy, doesn't he know better?

Folks is confusing SEMANTIC learning with EPISODIC learning.

The memory of dogs has been legendary since ancient times, recall that Ulysses' dog was the only one to recognize him after his 14 year (??) absence. Elsewhere on these boards some time back someone posted of bird dogs brought back to a location six years later and remembering where training dummies has been hidden the last time.

Semantic learning is learning from experience, even a goldfish can do that. Episodic learning is recalling when and how you learned it, and anticipating what will happen the future.

The link puts it this way....

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-mishaps/201005/dogs-dont-remember

Experience influences all animals. Most mammals and birds can build complex sets of knowledge or semantic memory. You and I also remember the experience of learning these complex sets of information. Dogs don't.

So for example when Fido recalls the guy in that white car feeds him or associates a neighborhood odor smelled through a car window with people he likes, he doesn't ponder HOW he knows that, he just does.

IMHO the Dog Whisperer is all wrong about pit bulls and the prospect for "reforming" problem dogs (I have NO problem with slipping non-functional and problem dogs the needle)...

....but one thing he IS right on is this; dogs live in the "now", no thought for the past or future.

JMHO,
Birdwatcher

Bullchit.
My boxer remembers everything.
I can see it in her eyes.

Semantic learning is learning from experience, even a goldfish can do that. Episodic learning is recalling when and how you learned it, and anticipating what will happen the future.

my goats must be confused. I can't really ask them how and when they learned to do it, but they sure can tell time. 4:30pm every afternoon they butt heads on the back door to get their goat chow.
and i have seen them as they are escape artists puzzling out new locks etc on the gate. And how to breakout. And I have seen one of them lift the fence with his horns, allowing the other one out sidways under the fence, who will then turn and repay the favour. It is a typical human experience to downplay the intelligence of other species. Don't get me into dogs dreaming etc, which they do too.