Your dogs memory

How good is your dogs memory?

How long do you think your dog would remember you?

This is a question that is often asked and no one has a definitive answer because there are so many variables that have to be considered.

How well did the dog bond with its owners?

How long has the absence been?

There are countless stories of dog owners being away from their pet.

Some of reasons are:

Because of an illness, military service or a number of other reasons and when they return after a lengthy stay their dog goes crazy with excitement.

Which would confirm in these cases that our pets do remember and miss us when we are gone for long periods of time.

There is an argument that dogs only live in the moment and they forget things that go on around them in short order.

Not sure I agree with that assessment and I believe my dog would remember me forever.

The science backs up the idea our dog’s have better memory than we thought

There have been countless studies done on dogs and their behavior, one such study published in Current Biology concluded that your dog’s memory may be far better than we have given them credit for.

The study indicated that humans and dog’s mental abilities when it comes to recalling episodes are very similar but not exact.

Breaking down the experiment

Scientists had to test their theory since we can’t quiz a dog with a series of questions about what they remember.

Since dogs can be easily taught to perform tricks or other commands by repetitive coaching with praise or treats they would need to work without commands or rewarding the dogs.

Using several different dogs’ scientists attempted the Do As I Do approach, dogs were taught to lie down after observing a human perform the task.

After the learning phase they were given a command without warning, come to find out the dogs would imitate the human action.

What to conduct an experiment of your own? Watch the video presented here on how to test your dog's memory.