Your dog is excitedly nuzzling up against you and wagging her tail at five o’clock. Your pet is hungry and appears to be aware that you usually feed her at this time. But is Ginger really able to read the time, or was this performance just a simple response to a stomach rumble?
According to anecdotal evidence, many dog owners will claim that their dogs appear to look forward to dinnertime or the time when they usually go for a walk. Some owners claim their dogs are able to predict these crucial times to the minute, alerting them at precisely 5 p. m. a meal should be served, or possibly at 4:49, 5:01, or occasionally 5:03, but hardly ever more than 5 minutes earlier or later. It appears as though the dog is interpreting a signal—possibly from the amount of daylight or possibly from another sense—that informs him of the time. However, in the sense that we typically think of it—in terms of seconds, minutes, and hours—time is a human invention. What’s Up With That Each week, we’ll explain the science behind a strange phenomenon that you might be wondering about or hearing about for the first time right here. This week: Can dogs or other animals actually understand time in the same way that we do? If there’s something you’ve seen or heard that you want us to explain,
Animal memory formation is a topic of interest to cognitive scientists primarily because it provides insight into how our own brains function. Researchers often break down our long-term memory into two categories. Implicit memory refers to the unconsciously used muscle memory we use to carry out actions we have learned and repeated numerous times in the past, such as tying a shoelace or riding a bike. Additionally, we have declarative memory, which is where we store the details of our past experiences and other relevant information.
Dogs and other animals, according to Pavlov, have implicit memories that are used for conditioned responses or trial-and-error learning. However, there is still some debate over whether non-human animals possess declarative memory. Finding out whether animals possess episodic memory—the capacity to recall contextual information about past events, such as what was happening or where and when it occurred—is of particular interest to researchers. Stewart called this capacity for reflection and reliving the past a form of mental time travel.
Researchers have examined the episodic memories of some birds, including crows, as well as apes, monkeys, rats, bees, and other creatures. Numerous studies have attempted to ascertain whether these species possess a “www” memory, or the capacity to recall the essential details of an event, including what, where, and when. The design of each animal’s test is fairly straightforward.
Imagine giving a chimpanzee two sealed, opaque jars filled with treats. One jar has a non-perishing snack, something like a grape. The other, however, contains a treat that must be consumed quickly, such as a frozen juice cube that will eventually melt. The chimpanzee is given the opportunity to open one jar after five minutes. After an hour, it can open the other.
Most creatures will begin by cracking open the jar containing the treat that disappears after the test has been administered several times. Experience has taught them that if they wait too long, this one won’t be available. They have demonstrated the three w’s. What: a tasty treat. Where: inside this jar. When: within five minutes or it won’t be around anymore.
This test is easily passed by bonobos, chimpanzees, and orangutans, which appear to possess this type of episodic memory. Additionally, there is solid proof that rats and crows can develop www-type memories. It has been demonstrated that Rhesus monkeys can recall the what and the where, but struggle with the when. Additionally, it appears that even bees have a form of episodic memory connected to their circadian rhythm.
While there is plenty of evidence to suggest that dogs can recall details about people (like their owner) and events (like going to the park), it is unclear whether or not they have the capacity to go back in time. This is due to the sad neglect of man’s best friend in laboratory research. For a long time, scientists believed that since dogs are domesticated, they couldn’t use them to study the behavior of natural species. In-depth research on the canine mind has only recently started, about 15 years ago.
However, Stewart noted that “there is very little, if any, research when it comes to dogs” for www memories.
So, maybe, but we really don’t know if dogs can tell time. However, there are some intriguing suggestions for how they might pull it off if they can. Stewart offered some theories to explain your pet’s behavior during mealtime, but made it clear that these aren’t yet supported by scientific evidence.
Like most mammals, dogs have an internal clock known as a circadian rhythm that regulates when they should sleep or be active. Maybe their bodies, not their minds, are the ones that can roughly tell what time it is. Therefore, if your dog is used to receiving food in the middle of the day, her body will start to growl in anticipation at this time and demand a bowl.
The ability of some animals to read environmental cues may provide another explanation. Maybe dogs can tell what time it is by the length of the shadows.
According to some researchers, dogs can detect how long it has been since an event by using their highly developed sense of smell. Your odor lingers after you leave the house and slowly ages throughout the day. If you follow a routine, it’s possible that your dog has learned that you’ll unlock the front door when your smell has subsided by a certain amount, at which point he should be prepared to run up to you.
You can watch an experiment where researchers misled a dog by dispersing his owner’s scent throughout the house in the video up top. The dog was perplexed when the owner returned at his usual time. While there is no evidence to support it, it is still a fascinating theory.
Though there isn’t a satisfactory response to the question of whether your dog can tell what time it is yet, there might be one in the following few years. Scientists are paying more and more attention to dogs, and it won’t be long before they are examined for possible web-based memories. In particular, cognitive scientists are curious to learn more about the origins of our own episodic memory capacities.
The Cut Shop
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Systematic changes in odors may allow dogs to mark the passage of time.
According to the behavioral biologist I was chatting with at a scientific conference, “You know dogs have some kind of little clock inside of their brain which allows them to tell time.”
“Its not just their circadian rhythm,” he continued. [These physiological processes operate on a roughly 24-hour cycle, responding to cues like the shifts in light and darkness throughout the course of the day. ] Ill give you an example. Rex was a rough collie (similar to Lassie) that belonged to our family when I was in elementary school. Rex would accompany me on the six-block walk to school every morning before leaving me at the door to return home. Every day when I walked out the door to go home after school ended at 3 o’clock, Rex would be there. Up until the day of his death, he continued that meticulously timed routine each school day. “.
There are historical examples of similar timekeeping abilities in dogs. One of the most well-known transactions involved Hachiko, an Akita owned by Dr. Eisaburo Ueno, a professor at Tokyo University. Each day, Hachiko went with his master to the train station to bid him farewell. Then he would depart, only to return each afternoon to the station in time to meet his master. Professor Ueno left one afternoon and did not come back; he had passed away in Tokyo. Hachiko waited at the station until midnight. The following day, and every day for almost ten years after that, Hachiko arrived at the Shibuya station just in time to catch the train that his master always took.
Both Rex and Hachiko’s dogs are believed to have returned home after spending the morning with their owner. They remained in the home until they decided that enough time had passed and they now needed to depart in order to meet their human companion in time to accompany them home. This implies that the dogs needed a highly accurate sense of time to be able to keep track of how long their favorite humans had been away from the house. Do canines actually have that much sense of time passing?
There haven’t been many studies that have attempted to provide an answer to this. The most well-known was carried out by two researchers from Uppsala, Sweden’s Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. 12 dog owners and their dogs were observed by Therese Rhen and Linda Keeling. The owners abandoned their dogs for longer periods of time, and the researchers recorded the dogs’ reactions when their owners came home.
Their findings showed that while the dogs could distinguish between short and long time intervals, they were unable to process more precise time intervals. They discovered that the dogs reacted more enthusiastically when they saw their owners after two hours apart than when their owner had only left them alone for 30 minutes. However, the dogs’ response after a two-hour absence versus a four-hour absence was the same.
However, there are countless anecdotal reports that claim dogs can tell time accurately enough to anticipate their owners’ daily return from work. The dogs do this by standing close to the door or window 15 to 20 minutes before their special someone is expected to enter. Even though each report is just anecdotal evidence, the volume of similar stories raises the possibility that there is some truth to them. But in that case, what signal or mechanism does a dog use to determine how long their owner has been away?
A psychologist from Barnard College in New York City named Alexandra Horowitz thinks she has the solution. She suggests that dogs may well be smelling time changes. She gives the example of how many dogs will choose to follow a scent trail by moving from where it is weakest (oldest) to where it is strongest (most recent), even though the change in scent intensity may only be a few nanometers over the course of a dozen or so steps. Stronger odors are frequently more recent, whereas weaker ones are typically older, so when dogs detect weak odors, they are interpreting recent events. Dogs are actually perceiving events that occurred over a period of time since they are able to detect both new (strong) and old (weak) scents.
Let’s now consider the scenario where you must leave your home to travel to work each day. Over time, odors can change, and this usually happens in a predictable way. With each hour you are gone, the intensity of your scent in the house decreases as you walk out the door. It’s possible that your dog has discovered through simple repetition that you usually enter the house when your odor has diminished to a certain level. In other words, the intensity of your lingering odor in the house determines when you will arrive home.
Unfortunately, this intriguing hypothesis has not been thoroughly investigated by scientific research. However, the BBC television network did set up an informal demonstration that does seem to suggest that the dog can sense the passing of time and recognize when you are about to return because of the dissipation of your body scent, which is acting as a sort of clock.
This demonstration is intended to show that if you can somehow revive or refresh the scent of humans in the home, the dog will mistakenly believe that more time has passed and won’t be alert and waiting in anticipation as usual.
Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd. May not be reprinted or reposted without permission.
LinkedIn Credit: Yuriy Kozak/Shutterstock
Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd. May not be reprinted or reposted without permission.
LinkedIn Credit: Yuriy Kozak/Shutterstock
Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd. May not be reprinted or reposted without permission.
LinkedIn Credit: Yuriy Kozak/Shutterstock
Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd. May not be reprinted or reposted without permission.
LinkedIn Credit: Yuriy Kozak/Shutterstock
Copyright SC Psychological Enterprises Ltd. May not be reprinted or reposted without permission.
LinkedIn Credit: Yuriy Kozak/Shutterstock
Rehn, T. & Keeling, L. (2011). The effect of time left alone at home on dog welfare. Applied Animal Behavior Science, 129: 129-136. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159110003242
Horowitz, A. (2017). Scribner: New York, Being a Dog: Following the Dog Into a World of Smell, pp 336.
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FAQ
Do dogs know the time by smell?
Dogs perceive past events when they detect faint odors. Dogs are perceiving events and substances over a range of time periods because they can detect both fresh and stale odors. Dogs use smells to determine the passing of time every day, even in the same location.
How do dogs sense what time it is?
We are aware that dogs have a circadian rhythm, an innate ability to discern when it is time to sleep and when to be active. Perhaps it’s more advanced than we think. Scientists have also theorized that dogs could be sniffing time.
Can dogs tell sense of time?
Dogs have a sense of time but lack the ability to comprehend the “concept” of time. Dogs cannot create actual units of time, such as the second, hour, or minute, and they are unable to read clocks, unlike humans.
Can dogs smell time of day?
Many attentive owners can attest that their pets seem to have a sixth sense for things like when their owner is about to get home or when it’s time for bed. According to Horowitz, dogs can actually use their keen sense of smell to determine the time of day: As the day progresses, smells in a room change.