What is Digg?119 Comments
- pizzler, on 04/07/2008, -1/+86Animals have to have some sense of time, because my cat knows the time I come home from work and everyday about 30 min prior to my arrival, he sits in the window and starts meowing and waiting for me.......
- Wacer, on 04/07/2008, -5/+72My dog get way more excited when I am got for a long time and I come home than when I just go outside for a few minutes. I don't think they know what they are talking about.
- seastobble, on 04/07/2008, -3/+50this is ABSURD, of course animals have a sense of time. for example, everyday, around 4:45 my dog takes a nasty ***** right where he knows I will be walking on my daily travel from garage to house. I guess it's just his way of saying "welcome home"
- jcastillo81, on 04/07/2008, -3/+49My dog eats her own poo. We only had to feed her once.
- adml_shake, on 04/07/2008, -1/+31Why do I have this image of Seymore (Fry's dog in futurama) sitting out front of the pizza shop all those years floating around in my head?
- t0ny, on 04/07/2008, -2/+29Same here every night I come home from school 9 or 10 depending one the night my dog is sitting at the gate. And my mom says she normally goes outside to wait for me 5 to 10 mins before I get home.
- Ceadda, on 04/07/2008, -2/+24Unfortunately, this doesnt mean in either case that the dog/cat can tell time. It just means that they have a memory clue as to the when is occuring. I say this because I have 2 cats. Both successfully wait at the door as trip hazards in the dark for me to return home from work at the same time every day. They also do this for my wife.
Telling time? Not exactly.
On days off, I've noticed they only head for the door to greet my wife "after" the cuckoo clock goes off for 6 o'clock. Stop the clock, and they don't go to the door to wait.
What this basically means is that they have a memory of 6 cuckoo's thats close together with an arrival and they've put the two into one memory?
So basically, my cats can't tell time, but they do understand clocks? Maybe that's worse, oy. - brufleth, on 04/07/2008, -2/+23Well it sort of a different awareness isn't it?
My cat knows I get up at 5AM and will often wake me up a few minutes before that every morning. He has been trained to this and does it out of habit.
An animal showing signs of excitement at seeing someone after that person being away for 5 minutes vs 5 hours shows awareness of current state. The presence of a person vs the absence of a person. The presence of the person may be associated with good things (food, attention, cat nip, whatever) and it could be that animals are equally excited by the change from person not being there to person being there regardless of elapsed time in the "person not there" state. - fragler, on 04/07/2008, -1/+19I disagree. When my dad comes home from an extended business trip, my dog is EXTREMELY happy to see him. He whines and stuff.
When he's away for an hour, my dog is indeed happy, but not as such. Another situation is when he's away for a week, he's excited, but not as much when he's away for months. - staffell, on 04/07/2008, -0/+18Well my cat perpetually wants to eat, sleep and piss me off at 3am in the morning, so I agree with this sentiment.
- duke1981, on 04/07/2008, -3/+20Just like on Tuesdays when I get excited right before work is over because Buffalo Wild Wings has their special?
- Lone1, on 04/07/2008, -1/+16There are people you might not be familiar with called "wives", you lure these creatures with shiny things they like to wear on their fingers. They are often at home when you are not, and they are able to observe and report back to you things that happen in your absence. Usually highly trusted, you don't want to disagree with them when they tell you something.
- liquidpele, on 04/07/2008, -1/+14Not to mention rats != dogs
- fadetoone, on 04/07/2008, -0/+13I bet switching to and from daylight saving time totally screws with your cat.
- Wartz, on 04/07/2008, -0/+12There are creatures called "moms" as well. They are generally fat but mostly kind. Many Diggers claim to have had sexual relations with the "moms" belonging to other Diggers while those other Diggers were away from their basements. A few have even banged some "Moms" while its Digger was on a WoW raid or even just arguing with someone Wrong on the Internet.
- wesd, on 04/07/2008, -1/+12The clue is in the reading of the comments:
"And my mom says she normally goes outside to wait for me 5 to 10 mins before I get home" - everett3, on 04/07/2008, -1/+10This article decides that rats are "all animals that aren't human" grouping practically every creature on earth together.
- mentallyinhell, on 04/07/2008, -1/+10I don't think animals can comprehend time beyond their biological clocks(Day, Night, and seasons). I've read that apes that know sign language can't differentiate between yesterday, or any of the days before.
- yournamehere, on 04/07/2008, -2/+11my wife does the same thing
- timusca, on 04/07/2008, -1/+10This may show that animals know what time it is (by observing daylight and whatnot), but that doesn't mean it knows how long you have been gone. My dog does the same thing - it waits by the door about 15 minutes before I get home every day. But I could walk out to the freaking mailbox and she's just as excited to see me.
Basically, your cat knows when to expect you home, but it has no idea how long you've been gone. - ChzPlz, on 04/07/2008, -0/+9Yeah, I'll call ***** on this, at least wrt dogs.
My dog doesn't do this, but I've heard many people say that after being away for more than a few days, their dog will snub them for a while. - Grok22, on 04/07/2008, -0/+7I can't even tell how many days ago something happened.
- Durrok, on 04/07/2008, -0/+7Saddest episode ever :(
- lejake, on 04/07/2008, -1/+8Like everyone else, I disagree. When I visit my parents and their dog (where I lived a few years ago) every 3 months or so, the first time I walk into the house my dog goes berserk with excitement. But then every time after that during the same weekend, he acts normal because he already knows that I'm home for a few days.
- icyhaught, on 04/07/2008, -1/+7Maybe you dog just smells your father's other wife, kids, and dog on him when he is away for those months on a "business" trip.
- bicyclethief, on 04/07/2008, -0/+6And they always fall for the fake throw. They must see other dimensions.
- EazyE303, on 04/07/2008, -2/+8I think this sounds like solid research. Comparing a lab experiment to your pets is pretty worthless considering all the confounding variables.
Imgaine the implications if it were true... If animals cannot really comprehend time, the fourth dimension, what does that mean for us. Does that mean that there may be dimensions beyond the fourth that we simply cannot comprehend sufficiently to actually "see" them because we have not evolved enough yet? - Scynet, on 04/07/2008, -0/+5Well now, looks like you finally found them elusive perpetual motion machines...
- Stupidumb, on 04/07/2008, -1/+6All creatures are vermin in the eyes of Morbo
- inactive, on 04/07/2008, -0/+5I don't know why you're being dug down. I have two cats and notice similar things. They can't tell time, they just have a good memory. For instance I wake up just after someone who lives here goes to work, and they both greet me every single morning, walking down after this person leaves for work. The day he doesn't work, they don't come down until I call them.
Just because you can't tell the difference between having a good memory, and telling time, doesn't mean you have to dig down someone who's pointing out your mistake. Grow up. - bubba9999, on 04/07/2008, -0/+5My dog has a GPS tracker installed in my car somewhere so she knows when to get off the sofa before I walk in the door. You can't trust some breeds - they're sneaky.
- staeiou, on 04/07/2008, -0/+4It could just be dementia - a neurological disorder that some humans get as they age. My grandmother has it, and she can't tell the passing of time well at all. Sure, she knows what time it is now and has a sense of linear progression, but can't really remember the last time she saw someone.
- pauleric, on 04/07/2008, -0/+4I know that's true because I am an animal and I have no sense of time. I can only remember when something happened by associating it with some other thing that happened.
- HalfGiraffe, on 04/07/2008, -1/+5My dog can tell time but always confuses the big hand and the little hand.
- WNW3, on 04/07/2008, -3/+7I'm with Wacer. My dog is always proportionately excited to see me the longer I've been away.
Also, DOGS ARE AWESOME! - yukevster, on 04/07/2008, -0/+4Or are we trapped in the illusion that there IS such a thing as time...??
- jayhawk88, on 04/07/2008, -3/+7Just a heads up to everyone posting "Yeah but my dog/cat..." stories. The people running this study likely have PhD's in psychology, and have probably spent a majority of their adult lives studying animal behavior. In other words they have forgotten more about how a dog thinks then you will ever know.
- akzidenzgrotesk, on 04/08/2008, -0/+4oh but the definitely know if you've been gone LONGER than you're supposed to be. my cat greets me at the door when i come home every night and all that, but if i'm gone for more than a day, he'll pretend to ignore me when i first come in, then proceed to chatter at me until he feels better. i think they can tell long from short, even if they can't tell the difference between 5 minutes and an hour.
and maybe they get excited when you get back because they miss you no matter how long you've been gone. (most) animals get attached to their humans just as surely as their humans get attached to them. it's not exactly love in the sense we think of it, but it's something pretty close. - Miknarf, on 04/07/2008, -2/+6It could also be you transferring your excitement on to your dog, kind of like when you are watching a funny movie in a theater you usually assume that everyone else around also finds it funny. It could also be that your dog can sense you being more excited and is more exited by the fact that you are excited, if you just randomly ran up to a dog and acted like you were really glad to see them they would mirror that excitement.
- shaka999, on 04/07/2008, -0/+3Never trust "dog people" when they talk about their dogs. They always seem to put anthropomorphic qualities to their dog. I have a dog and consider her part of the family, but she's a dog.
- AnarkeIncarnate, on 04/07/2008, -0/+3That's just because she smells the other girls at work on your clothes
- inactive, on 04/07/2008, -0/+3Well it sorta makes sense it would be just things that happened before, not days in the past like we think of them.
- rowjimmy, on 04/07/2008, -1/+4this is strange, because i remember seeing some show where they wanted to figure out how birds knew exactly when to jump up and fly away when they were standing on a road and a car was bearing down at them - they found (by using a screen with a flashing dot that, when pecked, dropped a food pellet) that birds could measure precise intervals, down to the second - eg, they would flash the dot every 5 seconds for a bit and then stop, and if the bird pecked the screen exactly 5 seconds later (when the dot should have been there but wasn't) it would get food. they did this for a bunch of different time intervals and found the birds could differentiate between most of them. this would indicate that birds can "count" seconds (or at least remember and mimic given time-intervals) and if birds have got this down, I'd figure mammals would too. can't remember what program I saw this on, but maybe somebody else recalls it?
- wertach, on 04/07/2008, -0/+3It screws with mine. She is over it now and bites my toes at 5:30 AM DLST she let me sleep for a few days. I hate when we change back in the fall, she does it at 4:30 AM.
- liquidpele, on 04/07/2008, -2/+5They only proved that it's the case for RATS. Saying rats and dogs have the same mental capacity is stupid though.
- snoop101, on 04/07/2008, -1/+4I dunno my puppy gets excited the same way if I only leave for 5 min, granted he gets excited over the pizza guy coming to the door.
- gwinerreniwg, on 04/07/2008, -0/+3this may indicate your dog is not getting enough nourishment from the food you're feeding, or possibly an anxiety issue. Puppies especially do this when they miss their moms. You might try a higher-quality pet feed (something high in protein and preferably organic) and see if this resolves the behavior. There are also additives you can put in your pet's food to make their feces less-appetizing, though I have no experience with these.
- Hekate666, on 04/07/2008, -0/+2OMG I KNOW
- aethelberga, on 04/08/2008, -0/+2You should read Rupert Sheldrake's 7 Experiments that Could Change the World. This is one of the ones he proposes - testing to see if animals really do know in advance when their owners are coming home. Thought provoking book.
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