Dogs’ understanding of time

For those that have dogs, how much indication do they give you that they understand time?

We used to have an Australian Shepherd that would look at the clock on the microwave and know when it was time for my wife to come home. I didn’t teach him to do that. I noticed that he knew when it was time then observed him to see how he knew. He’d glance at the clock every now and then and stare at it just before deciding that it must be now. He’d let me know about it. Better than setting an alarm.

We’ve got three Border Collies. The older two know the difference between “we’re going to X tomorrow” and “we’re going to X now”, but the young one doesn’t get it yet. I’m away from home, but my wife just told them that I’m coming back tomorrow and now he’s standing by the car yowling and hitting the boot with his feet. The others are just chilling.

I don't think our dogs can tell the time relating to events but they have a good sense as to when I should be arriving home from work. My wife says that they start to look out for me the same time every day. Our little Daisy will also watch the security cameras on the large TV screen looking for my vehicle.
When I'm doing overnight work they know I won't be back for a week or more but when I call home to say that I'm leaving to come home they know from hearing my wife that I am on the way.

I've never had a dog, but this is very entertaining!
Nearly all our neighbours have dogs. Big ones, little ones, agressive ones, affectionate ones, old ones, young ones, blind ones, deaf ones, bonkers ones. I'm beginning to see the appeal.

They’re smart. I love that Daisy watches the security cameras.

I think they recognise time in a different way to humans and it’s possibly more related to routine or picking up on things that are precursors (that we may not notice) to something we know happens at a particularr time.

Steve Maskery said:

I've never had a dog, but this is very entertaining!
Nearly all our neighbours have dogs. Big ones, little ones, agressive ones, affectionate ones, old ones, young ones bonkers ones. I'm beginning to see the appeal.

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Dogs are wonderful people. I had cats growing up and related to them as people too, love cats, but they’re not as human as dogs or the communication with them isn’t as direct. Dogs are fully people, but without all the lies and neuroses.

Blackswanwood said:

I think they recognise time in a different way to humans and it’s possibly more related to routine or picking up on things that are precursors (that we may not notice) to something we know happens at a particularr time.

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I thought the Aussie was hearing a plane or a bus going past because he was so accurate with the time. I was amazed when I worked out he was just using the clock.

Steve Maskery said:

I've never had a dog, but this is very entertaining!
Nearly all our neighbours have dogs. Big ones, little ones, agressive ones, affectionate ones, old ones, young ones bonkers ones. I'm beginning to see the appeal.

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The most four leg humans we have had at one time were six. All different personalities and great companions. Currently only have three.

Uncanny the way when they are at home with one of us and they seem to know when the other half is about to arrive.

Our dogs begin to pester us exactly an hour before their feeding time. It’s wonderful when we switch to BST in the spring but in the autumn…

I’m not sure animals can tell time like us humans but have a different way of telling when things will happen.
My old nabour had a fill in job 15 minutes from home and her days and times were completely random. Her cat would always sit on the wall when she left work and wait there for her to arrive home.
Telepathy?

Gill said:

Our dogs begin to pester us exactly an hour before their feeding time. It’s wonderful when we switch to BST in the spring but in the autumn…

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We have jack russels who wake up at 6:30 pretty much on the dot. Even when the clocks went wonky they still woke up at the new time. They can also tell the difference between me going in the shed or out. If I go in the shed they will lie down if I go out they will pine on the back of the couch looking out the window. Followed by mini howls to the sky.

It's mostly about routine. Our 11 year old lab knows exactly when it's her dinner time though she does try it on occasionally, like last week when my wife fed her 15 minutes early but she asked me at her normal time and got two dinners. She's just a stomache on legs.

My wife has a coffee in the morning, time varies a little but the mutt knows that as soon as she takes the cup through to the kitchen it's walkies time.

She also seems to know when my daughter is due to visit and sits by the door even though her name hasn't been mentioned. She's my wife's dog and when her time is up I'm leaving home for a while as it will be unbearable.

I don't like the mess, hair, smells and how tying they are but it will be a very empty house without the dog and she's our last.

It’s tough when they go. My wife thought it would be a good April Fool’s to tell me that her sister was going to bring a doppelgänger of the dear departed Aussie for us when she comes to visit. I didn’t really believe it, but then I started thinking about how we could make another dog work with the existing three and that made it real enough that I welled up when I realised that we definitely weren’t getting an Aussie (a duplicate of the best Aussie) after all.

As far as I have read the research dogs don't have an actual sense of time as such. They live in the now. But they are very good at associating. They will easily recognise a recurring pattern when it involves something that is important to them. In your example it is likely your dog has associated a visual pattern (the specific display pattern on your microwave's clock) with your wife coming home. It does not know what time of day it is, but it certainly does know "when I see this, she will be here soon". Dogs have very keen senses too. Sometimes you might even think they are clairvoyant. I had a Leonberger that could tell I was about to come home when I drove into the street leading up to our home. My wife always could tell by his behaviour I was almost home. How he sensed we never found out, but he certainly did.

There are days in my life I much rather would live with dogs than with people. They are wonderful creatures. I can't say I always think that of people. Our current dog (a Maremma-Abruzzese Sheepdog) is a stray that was found along a highway. She was extremely skinny and had almost no coat anymore from the mange. There is evidence on her body she must have been treated badly by a former owner too. We have had her for 5 years now and she is the most affectionate, well-behaved and brightest soul you could think of. How people could do those things I will never understand.

Definitely a dog’s conception of time is different than our own, but “dogs live in the now” is implausible to me both theoretically and from personal observation (of herding dogs and particularly Border Collies).

Dogs, like humans, have had to survive in a world with days and seasons and years, and dogs, like humans, have memory retention lasting many years. Survival competition suggests that time-sense would be an advantage and likely selected for.

By time-sense, I mean the ability for body & brain to synthesise a bunch of physical inputs - light levels, temperature, humidity, chemical decay - and produce a stable signal representing the passage of time that is robust to temporary changes in the inputs; and then make decisions based on that sense of time. Just as humans had time-sense prior to the invention of the sundial, I would suggest that dogs have something analogous.

My theory is that the Aussie knew when to start looking at the clock due to his innate time-sense and then, as you say, recognised the significant pattern. I wouldn’t put it past him to have recognised other significant patterns. In looking at the clock over days and weeks, why wouldn’t he have noticed that the preceding patterns went through the same sequence? I think he would. (I don’t claim that he had a generic ability to tell the time from a digital clock).

Our scientific understanding of dog cognition, at least as far as it’s represented in the media, seems really limited. You see articles like “your dog can remember things”, “your dog can recognise human emotions” and other such results that are deeply unsurprising to dog owners, but they’re presented like these are novel discoveries.

Better to treat dogs as slightly unusual people in relation to their cognition I think.

I wasn’t familiar with the Maremma-Abruzzese Sheepdog so looked it up. I’ve known a couple of Great Pyrenees though. Lovely dogs. Quite similar looking?

Gill said:

Our dogs begin to pester us exactly an hour before their feeding time. It’s wonderful when we switch to BST in the spring but in the autumn…

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When the time changes - after an adjustment period, say - do they pester you 2 hours ahead?

Hmm, I think I should have phrased that a bit differently, because I do definitely agree with you that dogs have a memory. Just like you, I have seen enough examples of that in my own dogs. What I meant to express was that dogs don't "think" of the past or the future. They build on experience. They associate events with results. And they most certainly can remember those associations and apply them later on.

You see articles like “your dog can remember things”, “your dog can recognise human emotions” and other such results that are deeply unsurprising to dog owners, but they’re presented like these are novel discoveries.

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Yes, I have had that feeling more than once as well.

Windows said:

I wasn’t familiar with the Maremma-Abruzzese Sheepdog so looked it up. I’ve known a couple of Great Pyrenees though. Lovely dogs. Quite similar looking?

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I grew up with Great Pyrenees (and Bernese Mountain Dogs). They have a fond place in my heart. Maremmas are quite a bit smaller, but in my limited experience (this is just our second rescue of that breed) they are more intelligent. They come close to what Border Collies can do. But, because they are so independent, they are much harder to train. As a matter of fact you shouldn't. Just like all mountain dogs they are not meant to be trained like you would a German Shepherd. They protect their flock by instinct. You let them grow up among the sheep, so they think of them as part of their family and once that feeling has established itself they will protect the sheep against all threats at all costs. They really are wonderful. Not as pure as the Carpathian Shepherd Dog we had in the past (he was really really special). And not as intimidating as a Great Pyrenees or Leonberger (see my avatar). But they are easily the most social and intelligent of all those breeds. What surprised me was the enormous differences that are allowed within this breed's standards. Our current dog is about 55 cm at the shoulders and she has an almost straight coat. Her brother had lots of curls and was 83 cm at the shoulders. Both were deemed OK when we visited a Maremma club day. Apart from our Leonberger, all were rescues.

Windows said:

When the time changes - after an adjustment period, say - do they pester you 2 hours ahead?

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Oh yes. It’s murder when we switch from BST to GMT in the autumn.

It’s possible your dog could see the clock display (they might well flicker like in some YT videos) and use association and pattern recognition when the digits show the right time.

Bear in mind, it’s very hard not to give off unconscious signals (and phermomones) that he could have been taking cues from.

I did see a study where dogs could time their owner’s homecoming by the level of scent. The scent level decays after they leave, and the dog learns the level associated with their return. It’s hard for us microsmatic creatures to imagine, since to them, we are as blind as bats in that department.

Some things just can't be easily explained. I mentioned my daughter who has a Labradoodle and she whatsapped me this morning to ask if her mum was at home, that she was coming over around 11 am and not to say as she wanted to surprise her. So nothing said or done out of the ordinary but the dog was pinned to the front door well before she arrived. I can't think how she would sense that.

Our last dog another Lab would suddenly run to the front gate as she'd learned the sound of the ice cream van's engine and knew when it turned into the estate, long before he turned on the chimes. Poor bloke gave her an ice cream when she was a pup and had to keep doing it for years.

She died aged 12 and I buried her in the field. My wife wouldn't go anywhere near for years and still can burst into tears when she thinks about her even though it's more than 20 years ago.

This is our lab and her best pal, taken a few years ago, she has a grey chin now.

Our dog has the uncanny ability to know it is half an hour before my alarm is due to go off no matter what time I set it for so she can bug me to get up to let her out even when she doesn't need to go.

Pete

Used to have an almost telepathic Border Collie
You could cast your eyes toward the item associated with an action or command and she would instantly comply.
On one occasion I was in another room and just had the thought that it would be good to go for a walk.Seconds later she burst into the room with her lead.
Co-incidence?

fuse said:

Used to have an almost telepathic Border Collie
You could cast your eyes toward the item associated with an action or command and she would instantly comply.
On one occasion I was in another room and just had the thought that it would be good to go for a walk.Seconds later she burst into the room with her lead.
Co-incidence?

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Sounds like you had a perfect apprentice there, who anticipates your next move and knows what you need.
But seriously how wonderful, what an intelligent dog.

Jonathan said:

I’m not sure animals can tell time like us humans but have a different way of telling when things will happen.
My old nabour had a fill in job 15 minutes from home and her days and times were completely random. Her cat would always sit on the wall when she left work and wait there for her to arrive home.
Telepathy?

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Nah…it’s what they do. When they’re not killing birds. Spawn of Satan IMO