How does a dog remember a person?

It is very difficult for a person who has got a pet to imagine his life without this wonderful four-legged friend. But how is their memory arranged and do dogs remember their former owners?

Of course, scientists still have to do a lot of research in this direction, but today there is already some data on the memory of dogs.

How long do dogs remember

That dogs have memories from the past has already been proven. However, researchers have not yet studied all the details, for example, how well pets remember certain things.

“There are many legends about the memory of dogs, but very little experimental research has been done yet,” Adam Miklosi, head of the department of ethology at Eötvös Lorand University in Hungary, says in an article for Dog Fancy.

Fortunately, research into canine memory is ongoing, including at the Duke Canine Cognitive Research Center at Duke University, looking for answers to the following questions: What cognitive strategies do dogs use to comprehend or remember events? Do all dogs understand and remember events in the same way? Are there systemic differences among breeds? The answer to any of these questions can lead to surprising discoveries.

Types of memory in dogs

Due to the lack of empirical data on how exactly the dog’s brain “remembers” events, when trying to answer the question “Does the dog remember the owner?” a good follow-up question would be: “How can you find out?” 

Dogs are excellent test animals, which allows experts to extrapolate information based on their behavioral patterns.

Dogs are known to be highly intelligent, but not enough research has yet been done to assess differences in memory capacity between breeds. In general, dogs exhibit various types of cognitive abilities, including the following:

Memory

Pets have a very short-term memory. “Dogs forget an event within two minutes,” according to National Geographic, citing a 2014 study conducted on animals ranging from rats to bees. Other animals, such as dolphins, have a long-term memory. But dogs don’t seem to have a memory that lasts much longer than those two minutes.

Associative and episodic memory

Despite the lack of memory capacity, dogs are strong in other types of memory, including associative and episodic.

Associative memory is the brain’s way of making a connection between two events or objects. For example, it can be difficult to put a cat in a carrier because she associates it with visiting the veterinarian. And the dog sees the leash and knows it’s time to go for a walk.

Episodic memory is the memory of something that happened to you personally and is associated with self-awareness.

Until recently, it was thought that only humans and some animals had episodic memories. Anecdotal evidence has suggested that dogs have this ability, but a groundbreaking study by Current Biology has provided compelling “evidence for episodic memory in dogs.” A team of scientists trained dogs to respond not to commands like “down” but to “do this.”

According to some data, dog training for the development of advanced cognitive abilities is just around the corner. Renowned dog psychologist and author Dr. Stanley Coren wrote for Psychology Today that he once interviewed a man who, having lost short-term memory due to a traumatic brain injury in childhood, relied on a help dog to help him with ” new episodic memories. For example, the pet told him where he parked his car.

How long does a dog remember a previous owner?

The findings support the hypothesis that animals can remember their previous owners, but how exactly they remember them is still unknown. For example, a dog that has lived in difficult circumstances may associate negative emotions or disturbing behaviors with certain objects or places. 

But it is known for certain that dogs miss their owners when they leave, and are incredibly happy when they return home.

However, this does not mean that the pet yearns for another family. If you surround your dog with an atmosphere of love and care, he will be happy to live in the present and enjoy being in his new permanent home.