How Long Can A Dog Remember A Person?
Surely you have ever met again with a dog that you have not seen in years and he has greeted you as always. I remembered you! You keep wondering how it is possible, so … How long can a dog remember a person?
The memory of dogs
Knowing how far the memory of dogs reaches also helps us determine how much they remember the scolding we have given them or if they will remember us after a long stay in the hospital or after several days of vacation. How does the memory of dogs work?
Well, it is clear that dogs have memories, because they do not easily forget us, our friends and even other pets they meet after a long time. You could say that dogs have immediate and delayed memory.
The immediate works by remembering specific events that you will forget after 10 to 20 seconds. For example, if he chews on your shoes, and two hours later you come home, don’t scold him, because your dog doesn’t even remember what he did. If it were otherwise, he would hide as soon as you saw you, but he is going to greet you as cheerfully as ever, right?
Therefore, dogs live in the present without thinking about the past, basically because they cannot. That is, while you worry that you have not been exercising in a long time, your pet does not remember and will be just as happy that you take it out after a few weeks as if it had been yesterday.
Associative memory
On the other hand, dogs do not have a memory like ours, capable of remembering specific events for a long time and even making decisions based on this. Rather, the memory of dogs is associative. That is, they store in their brain a circumstance or image that they can then relate to a similar circumstance in the future.
For example, if your dog has seen you sick, the ambulance has come home with the siren on, he will not be able to remember this fact, but he will remember the sound of the ambulance every time he hears one and will relate it to something bad that happened. , so it will not have a pleasant feeling.
On the other hand, if a person has made you feel good by giving you pampering, speaking affectionately, and even playing with your pet, your pet will remember these events when he sees and smells them again.
So how long can a dog remember a person?
Well, let’s not beat around the bush: our whole life! The associations that are carried out in his brain and that are related to what that person made him feel, with his gestures and movements, with his look, his voice and his smell, is a memory that always remains with your pet.
Even if years have passed without seeing your pet, it would recognize you from afar and greet you again as if you had come home from work. These cases have already occurred. For example, a man recovered his dog eight years after his disappearance and the animal recognized him without any problem.
In cases where animals have had to be given up for adoption due to not being able to care for them or for other reasons, these dogs have recognized their owners years later when they have visited them. And what about those dogs that have spent years in the graves of their owners? They have never been forgotten and have been waiting even after their death.
If we were already sure that ‘the dog is man’s best friend’ was true, learning more about the memory of dogs, and how much a dog can remember a person, confirms it even more.
There is no doubt that there is no animal more loyal, faithful and affectionate towards human beings than a dog. Don’t you think they deserve all our consideration, love and affection? We think so!
