How Long Can A Dog Remember A Person?
Dogs have long and short-term memories, including an associative one for events they have experienced, and are able to remember even if they don’t know it. How long can a dog remember a person?
Surely you will have happened to meet again a dog that you have not seen for years and that he greets you as always. How is it that he remembers you? In this article we will tell you why I am able to remember a person.
The memory of dogs
Knowing how far the dogs’ memory goes also helps us determine how much they remember the reproaches and their owners if they don’t see them for a long time. How Do Dog Memories Work?
Yes, dogs are able to remember, so they don’t easily forget either people or other animals they meet. It could be said that they have an immediate and a later memory.
The immediate one works by remembering specific facts that are forgotten after about 10 or 20 seconds. For example, if your dog bites your shoes and you notice it two hours later, don’t scold him when you come home, because the animal won’t even remember. He will greet you as always.
Therefore, dogs live in the present without thinking about the past because they cannot do otherwise. That is, while you worry about the fact that it is a week that you have not done physical exercise, your 4-legged friend does not remember it, and therefore will be happy every time you take him for a walk.
Associative memory
On the other hand, dogs do not have a memory like ours, capable of remembering specific events for a long time and making decisions based on them. Furthermore, their memory is associative. That is, they keep a circumstance or an image in the brain that they can then associate with a similar event in the future.
For example, if your dog saw you sick and then the ambulance came home to pick you up with the siren on, he won’t be able to remember this fact, but he will remember the sound of the ambulance and report it every time he hears it. to something bad, so it will not perceive a pleasant sensation.
If, on the other hand, a person has cuddled him, he will remember it when he sees her.
So, how long can a dog remember a person?
Let’s not turn around: for a lifetime! The associations that will take place in the dog’s brain and that relate to what a person has made him feel with his gestures, with his actions, with his movements, with his gaze, with his voice and with his smell , is a memory that will remain with him throughout his life.
In cases of dogs given up for adoption because their owners could no longer take care of them, they were able to recognize them even long after, when they went to visit them. And what of those who have spent years on their master’s grave? They waited for them even after their death, not forgetting them.
If we were already sure that dogs were man’s best friend, we had confirmation of this by knowing more about their memory.
So don’t you think these loyal animals deserve all your love and consideration?
