Posted on 11/23/2016 11:48:09 AM PST by blam
Claudia Fugazza, Ákos Pogány, and Ádám Miklós
November 23, 2016
People have a remarkable ability to remember and recall events from the past, even when those events didn't hold any particular importance at the time they occurred. Now, researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology on November 23 have evidence that dogs have that kind of "episodic memory" too.
The study found that dogs can recall a person's complex actions even when they don't expect to have their memory tested.
"The results of our study can be considered as a further step to break down artificially erected barriers between non-human animals and humans," says Claudia Fugazza of MTA-ELTE Comparative Ethology Research Group in Budapest, Hungary. "Dogs are among the few species that people consider 'clever,' and yet we are still surprised whenever a study reveals that dogs and their owners may share some mental abilities despite our distant evolutionary relationship."
Evidence that non-human animals use episodic-like memory has been hard to come by because you can't just ask a dog what it remembers. In the new study, the researchers took advantage of a trick called "Do as I Do." Dogs trained to "Do as I Do" can watch a person perform an action and then do the action themselves. For example, if their owner jumps in the air and then gives the "Do it!" command, the dog would jump in the air too.
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I did that to my room mate when he teased me, too.
A dog that expects to have its memory tested?????
Are they SERIOUS?
I accidently ran over my favorite cat this past weekend. She would sit by the side of the garage and wait for me to come home. When I would park she would run to meet me. This time though she ran to meet me as I was backing up to the barn. I just don’t understands why she did that. All I could was pick her up and cry.
I guess it’s my fault that I give my dogs and cats love and attention when I get home everyday and she just couldn’t wait for her share on that day...
...he remembers
I’m so sorry.
There’s an old saying, which I believe really does apply to our four footed friends...
“Tis better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” - Alfred Lord Tennyson
I have had at least one dog as long as I can remember breathing... as few as one, as many as four at once.
I never forget or have forgotten any of their faces or lives, or the things they did that made them unique.
Also had a Burmese cat for 17 years. She was not a friendly critter, but she loved me for sure.
Their forevers aren’t as long as ours, and it reminds us that every day IS unique, and not to be taken for granted.
Capt_Hank, I am sorry for your loss. It’s an awful thing to go through.
Back in the 80s I took my rather novice old college
buddy wild pheasant hunting. He mistakenly shot a hen
which my young and under trained German Shorthair found.
We placed the hen at the edge of the set-aside field
as we were not willing to be packing the illegal bird
while hunting in case the warden showed up. When we got
back to my pickup parked next to the county road
my dog was still in the tall weeds. Eventually she came
out with that hen in her mouth and a look on her face
that said, “ I’ve got your pheasant for you again,
dummies”. Thankfully, the warden didn’t show up
along with the dog.
That's OK with me, so long as he doesn't tell my wife!
I have a friend whose dog would chase cars and bite the bumper as you were driving away.
He’d follow you as you left and when you accelerated, he’d take off to get a head start.
Well, one day, I pointed our van in one direction but had the wheels turned. I gunned it and he took off and I turned and went in the other direction. He looked back with the most comical expression on his face. He KNEW he had been had.
I was never able to do that again. After that, he ALWAYS waited to see which direction I was going in first before chasing me.
I am so sorry. That is so sad.
Great looking pooches...they seem to understand they won the doggie lottery.
I’m more attached to my pets than most of my family members. Condolences.
Amen......!!!!!
me too...
Blam, you have a beautiful crew.
I’m so sorry about your Bella. Heart broken for you. Our yorkie Eiren will be 15 on Monday. We are trying our best to make sure she makes it. She’s been sick with pancreatitis. I refuse to give up on her. Her sister left us last year and I still cry over our loss. They steal your heart.
What a beautiful family!
So tragic. So very sorry
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