How do dogs tell time?

[marvman3]

Theodore......it's time for your castration.

Have you ever wondered how the hell/heaven do dogs tell time?

Well according to Jane McGrath (based on the theory of Dr. Roberts),
of HowStuffWorks.com, it is fairly simple....

They are "stuck in the moment".

As most animals who don't have the abilities to "travel" backwards and forward in time, mentally, as humans can do with their own memories and perceptions.

Read the full couple pages of the article.
To get a better grasp....


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How do dogs perceive time?

by Jane McGrath



Most dogs are never late for a meal -- they know exactly where to be at the same time every day. They also know when to expect their owner home and, like clockwork, place themselves patiently at the door for that arrival. When you witness this behavior, you assume dogs have a sophisticated understanding of time. But what is time really like for a dog?

Dog Image Gallery

Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Does a dog understand the passing of time in the same way a human does? See more pictures of dogs.

They say a human year is equivalent to about seven dog years. But what does this common theory tell us about a dog's perception of time? Actually, very little. The idea of "dog years" comes from the life expectancy of dogs compared to humans. So it wouldn't be correct to apply this idea to the concept of time perception.
To understand how dogs perceive time, we first need to understand how humans perceive time. Arguably, each person experiences the passing of time in different ways at different times. Albert Einstein once explained the principle of relativity by saying, "When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute -- and it's longer than any hour. That's relativity" [source: Shapiro].
Even though the experience of time is relative for every individual, all humans think about time in similar ways. For instance, our memories are inextricably tied to how we understand the passing of time. Our ability to remember events in a particular order plays a large part in our perception of time. We're also able to predict things. Though we don't all claim to be psychic, each of us counts on certain events in the future -- even as simple as assuming that the sun will come up tomorrow. These abilities have important implications -- for instance, memory and prediction allow us to have a sense of continuity, personal history and self-awareness.
Do dogs and other animals have these same abilities? If you climbed inside a dog's mind, would you be presented with the memory of eating a raw hide bone earlier this morning?

How a Dog's Memory Works

Research on how dogs perceive time is limited. But we can learn more about it when look at the extensive research done on other animals, such as rodents, birds and primates. In his studies on how animals perceive time, animal cognition researcher William Roberts made some remarkable conclusions regarding animal memories, anticipation and more. He says that animals are "stuck in time" [source: Roberts]. By this he means that, without the sophisticated abilities it takes to perceive time -- like truly forming memories -- animals only live in the present. Roberts thinks animals are "stuck in time" because they can't mentally "time travel" backward and forward. Humans can consciously and willfully think back to specific memories and anticipate events. Animals cannot.
To many, this seems like a fallacious theory. After all, can't we train animals? And doesn't this training depend on the animals' own memories?
Not necessarily -- at least not in the way we usually think of memories, according to Roberts. Animals might be trained to do things in the same way young children are trained to do things. According to studies on children, by the age of four, kids have learned lots of things -- crawling, walking -- but without the mental ability to remember where or how they learned them [source: O'Neil]. In other words, they don't have the power of episodic memory, or the ability to remember particular events in the past. A dog can know how to respond to the command "sit" without having a memory of the specific event in which it learned that command.
That's not all that's at work in the dog's brain to help it, for example, impeccably predict the arrival of its owner. Internal biological rhythms also play their part, according to Roberts. Researchers have discovered from experiments on pigeons that an "internal clock" allowed them to learn when and where food would be available [source: Saksida]. Similarly, dogs might use circadian oscillators -- daily fluctuations of hormones, body temperature and neural activity -- to know when food is likely to hit the bowl or when owners are likely to return from work. Instead of remembering how much time passes between meals or what time meals are given, dogs react to a biological state they reach at a particular time of day. And they react the same way at the same time every day to this stimulus.

Making Time
In his article, Roberts argues that time is a human construction, created to keep track of such things as days and significant events. Time-keeping devices from sundials and precise clocks to wristwatches revolutionized how humans perceive time, and animals don't have the advantage of these tools. If dogs can't store memories like humans can, can they plan for the future? On the next page, we'll learn what dogs comprehend about the future time.



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So do you at least got a sense of an understanding as to
how dogs may or may not know the difference
in time of the day?

And do you agree with Dr. Robert's theory
of "present" integration of an animal's thoughts?


Rockn.

[smashfan120]

Wow thats wierd Marvman.

[ssxxdragonssxx]

That is some information that might be useful to...
Ah, who am I kiddin'? That is not gonna help me. I'm going to be a programmer (hopefully for Nintendo) when I get through college. This info can be useful for vets or dog lovers or something. It's some interesting info, at least. Nice post.

[Mimi]

Originally Posted by smashfan120

Wow thats wierd Marvman.

xD I agree But interesting!

[fleameds01]

I think you are watching your dog's activities clearly......
I too enjoying my dog's funny things......
I got new informations from your forums...
Thanks for your information!!!!!!!!!

[Skullz]

I can't really respond to this because my dogs don't really have a schedule. When we get up (which is maybe 6-9 am) we feed him. After they eat, we let them outside. And throughout the day we just let him out when they either scratch the door or if they look bored.