Dogs & memory

How much does your dog remember, & for how long?

New research suggests for longer than you think. Dogs in the study recalled and repeated an action modeled by the handler for up to an hour. Undermines the idea of dogs as stimulus-response machines whose world is a Skinner box.

Also, call me sentimental, but I like to think my dog spends her days thinking, "That was a good hunt & my life is so much awesomer than that fat labradoodle next door...." :)

http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/...more-you-think

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Good topic Welsh,
In retriever competitions, memory is critical to be able to find birds at long distances with no visual clues all the while doing other retrieves.
My dogs remember where I have placed certain birds(blinds) a year later in many fields and show you very clearly that they do.
It is far more than a trained attribute but like people.....some have a much better memory!

It's the same with our upland dogs.
They will go to the places on a course where they have found birds in the past.

My dog remembers routes through places we hunt often, come to think of it.

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I definitely believe in a dogs ability to remember "things" even years after it actually had a positive (or negative) experience . From 1982 to 1991 I enjoyed the friendship of an American Water-Spaniel . My pooch was a good "upland-hunter" but had an aversion for water . He (it) was a Water-Spaniel only by name but I loved him anyway . --- Case in point : One cool fall-day we took a stroll along the pier of the Whitby Harbor . Right at the edge was a customary wooden beam (15"x15" ???) , the entire length of the pier . --- Suddenly my buddy decided to jump across the beam . --- Well , --- it was ~ 10-12' down to the water AND that water was icy-cold . --- I had to climb down to get him out again . --- Bum (his name) never forgot this incident . Afterwards (for another 5 or 6 years , until he died) he never went any closer than ~ 6' to the edge . ---

I know puppies that were born here and went to their new homes at 7-8 weeks of age will remember me for their whole lives. I may not have seen them for years but they remember me and get all excited. I have had their people be absolutely dumb founded. I had one of my puppies that was very sick this summer at 13 years of age and I went to see her. When I got down on the floor and talked to her she waged her tail and the owners were surprised as she hadn't moved or shown any sign of connection for hours. So yes they have a long memory, but not just the eyes but the nose (especially).
deb

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Originally Posted by Longgun

I know puppies that were born here and went to their new homes at 7-8 weeks of age will remember me for their whole lives. I may not have seen them for years but they remember me and get all excited. I have had their people be absolutely dumb founded. I had one of my puppies that was very sick this summer at 13 years of age and I went to see her. When I got down on the floor and talked to her she waged her tail and the owners were surprised as she hadn't moved or shown any sign of connection for hours. So yes they have a long memory, but not just the eyes but the nose (especially).
deb

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yes, dogs remember stuff for quite some time; especially negative experiences. had a lab once that never wanted to go back to a certain vet (just knew where we were when we parked the car)
what I find interesting is your statement about the age. humans forget early life experiences.
I wonder if it is just you as a person (some people have the ability to get dogs easily excited; regardless if they met before or not). have you had any comparison between the former pups remembering you vs. recognizing their own mother years later?

I have had more than 1 of my pups react the same way, but there is no way of knowing. I don't think it is possible to compare human moms to dog moms. I guess we will never know for sure. I have also had some of my pups not show the same recognition, whether it is me or the dog who knows.
deb

Here's a vid made by the researchers explaining their project.



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Many times I've seen dogs look for birds at locations where they found them on previous hunts - and they don't do it by scent - they'll b-line it there.

The longest memory recall I can remember. One fall I shot a grouse over my beagle while deer hunting. I cleaned the bird and the beagle ate the head, guts and feet, but buried the wings under the edge of a log pile. The next year we stopped by the same place she dug all along the edge of the log pile but couldn't find the hidden wings. I'm guessing they were dug up by some woodland critter shortly after she buried them.