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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Dogs are smart.
Your dog knows exactly when its time for a walk and when its time for dinner.
Cats would remember, but they just don’t care.
....ask Buddy Clinton....???...oh wait
My dog has much better memory and application of the events on a daily basis than I do.
So my dog knows what I did last summer?
Oh oh.
My dog is also smart. He knows when it’s time to get in my chair. His way of telling me it’s time I went to bed.
God put dogs here to make us remember we have hearts.
An we remember every time we lose one of them how easily they break.
My dogs mean the world to me.
That’s great, I have 4 rescue cats, I swore I would never get another after we lost our beloved cat.
And I know it will be 4 more heart breaks, but the love does out weigh the grief.
That's what they want you to think.
I once took my female Australian Shepard on a canoe trip. Trying to get her in the boat and have her not just jump right out was a hassle to say the least. She wanted to explore the smells in the woods and swim in the lake. I finally got her in and we had a fun adventure.
Years later, I took her on another canoe trip. This time she walked right over to the canoe and eagerly waited for me to lift her in and she didn’t even try to jump out this time.
So it was clear she must have remembered the previous trip years later.
So handsome!
My dog has been blackmailing me.
Damn, I just got weepy again. Three weeks, today, our Yorkie “Bella”, had an operation for a liver shunt. She didn’t make it. The sad part, it was her 2nd Birthday.
Come to find out, 30% of this breed has this condition. She was sick, from day one.
We are a mess around here. More tissues....
Yep, sometimes my schedule would change when I’d walk her, even with a one day change she would come and bug me at the “new” time the next day. She knew my behavior, she could tell when my day was done - which meant it was time for her walk.
I learned a lot from her. RIP.
LOL! So true! As a college student many years ago I lived in an apartment with two room mates. One of the room mates had a cat. I had no problem with the cat and always treated it with a minimum amount of respect. The other room mate liked to amuse himself by teasing the cat. As payback the cat amused himself by routinely pissing on said roommate's bed pillows and clothes.
Yes....I’d like to meet the person who can train The Little Dog.
His big trick is to run as fast as he can and jump into the middle of your private parts when you’re sitting down.
He starts out by the front door so he can work up some speed.
Then he leaps.
I don’t know how he does it, but somehow, he gets all four paws together just before he lands.
I’ve seen Olympic gymnasts that couldn’t “stick” a landing like The Little Dog.
I yell and chase him, but I’m bent over and then I crash headfirst into a wall.
This usually brings the other two dogs into the room to see the excitement.
I holler at The Youngest Brother Dog to go and kick The Little Dog’s behind.
He believes in brotherhood amongst dogs, so he just licks my cheek while I’m bent over. My face cheek.
That leaves The Princess Dog to exact my revenge.
The Little Dog tried to sneak a bite from the bowl of The Princess Dog.....once. She looked like that bear in Revenant. I ran and hid.
She would get him like a white guided missile.
“Get him!, I croaked.
She laid down and rolled over so I could scratch her tummy.
There may be no loyalty among thieves, but there is darn sure loyalty among dogs.
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