A Dog’s Sense of Time

Posted on May 05 in Small Dog Behaviorby Jeff K.Print

Have you ever heard someone say “Dogs have no sense of time?” They may also comment how your dog has no idea whether you have been gone from the house for 10 minutes or 10 hours. As far as I am concerned, you can put the idea that dogs have no sense of time in the meat section of your refrigerator right next to the stack of baloney. Dogs have a very accurate sense of time. In some cases, you can set your watch according your dog’s behavior. I have bunch of examples to prove my point. Here are a few:

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At Kelsey’s Dog House, dogs in our boarding section know, down to the minute, when it is feeding time, even when no human has made a move towards the feeding area or made a comment about food. Just today, Khaki, an old Labrador who spends several days a week with us, sounded the alarm for lunch with a loud series of barks at precisely 11:30 a.m. as she does every day. She did this from her resting place in our front lobby, where only our receptionist resides. The receptionist has nothing to do with feeding Khaki. She is busy with administrative duties that vary from day to day, so she does not give any cue to the dog that it’s chow time.

Our dogs Kelsey and Royce start bugging us for their nightly rawhide chew at 8:25 p.m. They do this at exactly the same time each night. If the treat is not forthcoming at 8:30 p.m. they organize a protest march. This behavior occurs every night no matter where we are or what we are doing together or separately. If we happen to be in a room apart from our dogs, they will come get us at the appointed minute to make sure their treat arrives on schedule.

If I have not put Royce in his kennel for bed at 10:30 p.m. he goes to bed himself. Kelsey likes to patrol our yard every day from 7:30 a.m. to 9:15 a.m., at which time she goes off-duty for a 2-hour nap.

As for that comment that dogs cannot tell how long you have been out of the house? You can shoot that idea down yourself. If you can manage to greet your dog in the same manner regardless of how long you have been away, you will notice a distinct difference in how the dog greets you for each circumstance. If you have been away for a short time, say less than a half-hour, your dog may be happy to see you when you come in the door, but he won’t do handstands. Stay away for longer and you will notice your dog showing more enthusiasm upon your return. The longer you are gone, the more energy your dog is likely to put into his greeting when you come home.

Animals in general are very aware of the passage of time. Animal behavior, such as migration, mating, sleeping, hibernation, eating, and hunting all have a basis in time. Even fish, which do not have nearly the brain power of a dog, know when it is time to sleep, eat, and head upstream.

How dogs tell time remains a mystery. It may be based on sensitivity to daylight, or careful observation of the rhythms of nature. Perhaps they can read the clock on the wall, or they have a physiological clock that ticks away the minutes. Or, maybe they simply watch us and take subtle cues from our behavior to help them understand how much time has passed. Of course dogs have a sense of time—one that happens to be quite refined.

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