Can Dogs Tell Time?

Daisy
Dakota

Dakota looking out

Animals, esp. dogs are a lot smarter then people tend to

think they are.

I can remember as a child our dog Sam rushing to the door

when it was time for my Dad to get home from work. Dad

drove an old Rambler that made some noise but we just figured

that Sam heard time coming blocks away. Now...I wonder.

There are several things that make me wonder about this.

My Mom now has a beagle for Sam is long gone from this

world. As hard as training this hard headed beagle, Daisy, to

just stay out of the bedroom trash can was, she seems to have

found her calling.....or would that be howling?

It seems to be that at 2:00 each day, which is feeding time,

Daisy will let my Mom know that its time to be fed. This

started a few months back, while Mom sat in the recliner

in her room and Daisy came into the room made a small whine,

or two, looked and Mom and walked back down the hall. Mom

apparently did not move fast enough so in a few minutes Daisy

went and got her again, after a couple of times, and a few days

of this, Mom realized Daisy knew it was lunch time.

The funny part about all this is that dry dog food use to be left

down all the time for the dogs. But between the dry dog food

and the fact that once a day these dogs get fed a nice, human

meal they were packing on some pounds. Diet time! Daisy was

not adjusting to well to this diet and other then midnight raids

where she would open the cabinet door and steal and eat half of

packs of crackers or single services of moist and meaty dog food,

she decided she needed to get vocal for her meals. That getting vocal

for her meals went from a whine to a loud, whiney,

moaning type bark to get everyones attention.

In June we were all (house full) at Mom's for my brother's birthday and

Father's Day combo when in the mist of us playing a game, this noise

is heard. Everyone looks up, Chase (nephew) looks at me and wants to

know what is going on. At that time Mom yells from the kitchen, "Pam,

you know what time it is"? Of course, I explained it to the others...it

was 2:00....lunch time.

Problem is Daisy will continue this moaning bark until Mom has the meal

cut up and served so it gets a bit nerve racking. At the same time I think

it is a back up warning where she is telling the others to back off until its

ready. You see, Mom has her 3 dogs, one adopted that my youngest brother

left there 3 three years ago, then if we are all there Mark brings Thumper and

everyday, 5 days a week my dog goes over there to Granny's Doggie Day Care!

So at any given time there can be 5 to 6 dogs there, if not more depending

on if Ray brings one of his or Paige shows with one of hers.

Anyway, this story gets better. A few weeks ago my dog started the 2:00

feeding thing. Now he is not as bad as Daisy by any means but he will do is

best to get your attention to let you know. He is very persistent.

I was off a couple of weeks ago for a couple of days and Dakota came up to me

while I was on the computer. He starts stratching at my leg, then he jumps up

on the side of the chair and goes at my arm. I asked did he need to go out and

he did not run to the door like normal. Okay, so whats up? He backed off for a

minuted or two then he was back at it. I looked at the clock on the computer, it

was 15 till 2. Okay, so he was a little off, but he is getting there, he's young yet!

Yesterday while at work, Mom calls at 20 till 2 to tell me that she was laying

down and Dakota came to get her up with the stratching....to let her know that

it was feeding time! Around the same time he started this he also started something

else, Mom says that started going to the door and looking for something at about 4:25

everyday. I get to Mom's house at 4:30 daily unless I stop.

Now my question once again is, can dogs tell time?

Think about it...

Pam