Posted on 03/02/2015 10:55:47 AM PST by Red Badger
I’m not sure I buy this. I’d agree that their memory is much lower than humans, but my experience with dogs is that they do remember negative episodes.
When I first got my previous dog, a choc lab, we went for a walk. She was still quite young and we walked past a parked school bus. Right when we were by the rear wheel, the air brakes let loose and scared that poor puppy nearly to death! For the rest of her life, she was scared to death of school busses! Not all busses, just school busses!
Now I have an adopted coon hound and he reacts very aggressively to men wearing carhart coats! I suspect that his previous experiences haven’t been nso great with men wearing carhart!
That said, I do agree that they only remember the most traumatic episodes! I suspect that they “don’t sweat the small stuff, unless it is about bits of food.”
;-)
All the dogs I used to own would learn what the sight and jingle sound of a walking leash meant to them. It was time to go out! Just like people, most dogs have very good memories for negative events; such as a particular person who always yells at them, or treats them with cruelty, or a particular tone of voice you have when it’s time to give them a bath.
The moment I used to put my dogs on a Vet’s exam table, they start trembling, expecting to get a shot after all the obligatory petting. I’ve seen dogs become traumatized by prior events, such as being attacked by other dogs, so the dog in question no longer wants to go down that street, even on a leash with their master.
I call BS on this too. My dogs remember a lot of things. They remember when I go out a door that I will come back in that same door, they are waiting for me there. When my chair makes a squeak, they know I am getting up, when this happens at night, they know I am going to bed and they are already ahead of me going down I the hall. When I put on my yellow plastic apron they know they are going to get a bath and I can see them hang their heads. One of them even knows the word “bath” so i am careful not to say it or she will hide from me. I think this guy has some dumb dogs.
My dogs know exactly what time dinner occurs, within minutes. Horses, cats, goats, and cattle do as well. Only the switch to daylight savings time trips them up. Don't mess with dinner time.
I had a Cocker that did that, and if they moved to a different tree the next time he would skip the first and go to the different one.
Hmm, then why after every walk does my Basset Hound sit in front of the refrigerator waiting for a snack? Or when I say ‘lets go take a walk’ he knows where the leash is and goes and stands under it, and it can be in one of several placces.
Oh, and don’t try and hide snacks from a Basset Hound.
yeah. the part about memory...this story is BS in my not-so-humble opinion
Try always returning by another door on alternate days. It’s a simple pattern that we would eventually grasp, but do you think they would catch on?
On the other hand, I’m not sure I understand the difference between abstract memory and memory association. I mean it’s obvious that dogs have memory for association.
Freegards
My basset, Georgie, hid a milk bone dog biscuit when we were packing the car to visit in laws for 2 weeks. We took our dogs with us and when we returned, I opened the door to let the dogs into the house and Georgie immediately ran upstairs to get the biscuit he hid in my husband’s shoe.
They remember.
Sure, but that’s classical conditioning, e.g. a reinforcement is given for a behavior causing the frequency of that behavior to increase. And dogs have very keen noses, so they can easily follow those scent clues that are invisible to us. Amazing animals, but their memory is based on experience rather than reasoning.
The more I am around people the more I love my dog!! (black Lab rescue)
LOL, just like my buddy Schultz.
Get rea-day to rummmmmblllleeee! ;’)
We took our Golden Retriever up the road to a pond on a trip to the mountains.He dove in and chased sticks for an hour with a happy face on.We left to go home a week later.
The following YEAR, we went back to the same house and Charlie leapt out of the car as soon as a door was opened, raced up the road and jumped in the pond, waiting.
No memory?
I am amazed what my dog remembers. Brought home a company vehicle that he had never never seen one day and he was ready to repel the invader until I got out. Two weeks later I brought it home again and he knew it was me.
We have an underground “invisible” fence. We let the dogs out occasionally without collars and they remember exactly where the boundary is, even chasing the crack-like fix of a tennis ball.
Your example is one that actually contradicts the study findings, unlike some of the others here. The study’s point is that dogs can learn from experience, but cannot access specific memories— in particular of the events leading to the learned behavior. I’ve got another, my dog sees/finds a particular animal (racoon, possum, injured bird) in the yard in early evening when I put her out. The next morning, she remembers this particular episode and eagerly waits to go outside, and then races out to that exact spot to see if they are still there. When they are not, she realizes the animal has gone and does not try to do this again. Another example, I put my dogs favorite bone/toy out of reach/sight/smell because she won’t stop playing/chewing and I need sleep. She sees me, and knows where I put it. Several days later (even weeks) she will remember and suddenly remind me by looking at that spot and crying- even though i myself have long since forgotten... lol. They do indeed remember, and have some ability to access those memories.
“But dogs (and other non-human animals) are missing something we take for granted: episodic memory. Dogs don’t remember what happened yesterday ....”
BS! No one fully understand what goes on in a dog’s mind. No doubt, dogs think differently than humans. Dogs must have some degree of self-awareness to have survival instincts, even if they don’t recognize themselves in a mirror. Their concept of time is probably different than ours, but my dogs know within minutes what time it is, whether to get up or to be fed.
Dogs sure enough do have long memories. On one occasion walking my girl around the block, she was freaked out by people atop a house, banging away on new shingles. ‘Taint natural, the terrified dog thought, as she struggled to get away. She was afraid to approach that house for the next six months. No memory, phooey!
Same with the laundry. If I went in to do laundry, he would sit outside the doorway behind me and start getting a little anxious. So I would step out for a minute to give him that window of opportunity and he would go in to the pile and get his treat and run off to another room. He didn't have to sniff them out. He knew right where he stashed them.
I also kept his frisbees in a backpack in the closet by the front door. The moment I opened that closet door, he was at my side waiting for me to pull it off the shelf. He did not wait to see the frisbees and sometimes he was disappointed to see that I was merely getting a coat. But he knew that's where his frisbees were and each time he lobbied his hardest to sway me into taking him out for his favorite game.
But thinking about all this, how would "experts" explain dog's dreaming? Isn't there memory at work while dreaming?
My parents had a Cock a poo years ago. There were three different roads that we could take to get there. When we got to within a mile, it didn't matter which road that dog jumped up and barked an wagged his tail.
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