A Dog’s Ability To Remember Someone
Honestly, a dogs’ ability to remember someone is incredible, almost superhuman. While they do rely heavily on their associative memory to recall a person or event, they also use their powerful noses to do so. This means that your particular scent will remind the animal of the feelings he felt, during past interactions with you.
Dogs don’t remember the specific experiences, only the emotions felt while actually experiencing them. Compare it to a certain smell that can bring back a sweet childhood memory, or a perfume that reminds you of a past love, it is the same exact concept, although their smelling capabilities are much, much better than ours.
A canine cerebral cortex is simply not as developed as in the human brain. This means that they are unable to support the same level of abstract thinking that we are capable of. Again, not unlike a child, dogs are perfectly able to experience a range of emotions, however, they do not have the capacity to process those feelings in the same way that we do.
While we are able to recall minute details of our memories and distinguish between faces, a dog will use his ultra-superior nose instead, to identify specific humans by scent. Don’t underestimate the power of smell though, your scent, in combination with their associative memory, means that your pooch is not likely to forget you for a very long time, if ever.
How Long Does It Take For A Dog To Forget A Person?
So, how long does it take for a dog to forget a person? Dogs can recognize a person by smell or sight. Their sense of sight is more powerful and stronger. They can use their sense of sight to recognize a person. If the dog has a pair of strong healthy eyes, he will never forget you or anyone associated with him.
But that’s not quite the whole story. There is a whole lot more to the memory of a dog. Keep reading to learn the impact of short-term and long-term memory in a dog. You might be surprised by what you find.
Will my dog forget about me?
Your dog will not forget about you. It is true that dogs don’t have the same kind of running narrative-based long-term memory that we do. However, studies show that dogs do remember key events and often associate those events with anyone present.
Dog’s have surprisingly short working memories. They only actively remember about two minutes into the past. But that doesn’t mean that dogs forget everything they know. It just means they don’t ‘think’ back very far into the past the same way we do.
Humans have a far more complex system for managing short and long-term memories, and our short-term memory can store about 7 distinct ‘thoughts’ at once. It’s impressive, but it only lasts about 20 to 30 seconds.
Even though two minutes does not sound that bad compared to our 20 something seconds, it’s not a fair comparison. There are a couple of additional types of memory that humans have that dogs don’t. So, what kinds of memories do dogs have?
Your Dog Forgets You When You Leave
Will your dog remember you after months apart? Luckily, the answer is yes! In fact, studies have shown that the longer a dog is separated from their owner, the happier the dog will be when they return! So, it’s actually true, even for your pups, that time really does make the heart grow fonder!