How many times do we look at our dog and wonder, what is he thinking? Will he remember the attitude I corrected him the other day? Dogs have behaviors that can resemble that of humans, but the functioning of their brains is obviously different. Obviously our little furry ones store memories in their heads, because when we get home they recognize us.
If you want to know more about his psychological nature and you would like to find out if he can remember the moments, experiences and experiences he shares with you, continue reading this article on our site and you will know ifdogs have memory or not.
Do dogs have memories or not?
Yes, dogs have memory Perhaps this answer is not surprising to many since, as we have advanced in the introduction, our dogs they have the ability to remember us and recognize us when we get home. In the event that you are not a guardian, you may also have noticed that the dogs of your closest friends are able to recognize you when they see you. This is because they associate you with good behavior such as playing with them.
Dogs learn the rules of coexistence and basic training orders by associating them with words and gestures, so when they see a limb being raised and you give them a treat, they know that by repeating that action they will be rewarded again. In short, we could say that yes, dogs have memories.
How is the memory of dogs
Now, although we know that our dog is able to remember us and our friends, what about the other things? What memory do dogs have? We can say that dogs have memory, but its mechanism is different from that of humansDogs can remember some things, while others quickly come and go inside their heads.
This is because dogs do not have a type of memory known as episodic memory, which is responsible for absorbing, retaining and sealing episodes in our hard drive and giving us that feeling experiential so important.
A dog's memory is based on a type of associative memory which, as its name suggests, allows certain things to be associated and converted in a kind of memories. Basically, dogs are 100% coded animals based on habits and repetition.
For example, your dog could survive a fall from your balcony at home, but then either won't want to go any closer or will have reservations about doing so. He will not do it because he remembers the fatal episode itself, but rather because he has associated the place with pain and fear.
The same goes for the leash you use to take him for a walk. It is normal for your dog to get excited every time you take him out. This is because he associates that object with the moment of going out to stretch his legs. The good thing is that with training and positive reinforcement all associations can be changed, especially the negative ones.
Don't hesitate to take a look at the following post on our site about Positive Reinforcement in Dogs, here.
Do dogs have long or short term memory?
Currently, studies on dog memory have evolved so much that dogs have long-term and short-term memory [1]. Still, dogs do better with short-term memory than long-term memory.
Short-term memory, and staying there, helps them develop an action, immediate reaction or behavior, which does not necessarily represent information that must be stored for a long period of time. In fact, such short-term memory in dogs is a maximum of 2 minutes
However, like any other animal, all knowledge that may later be needed to survive could be recorded, as we have explained previously, associative memory allows them to associate an object, person or situation with a sensation, either joy or fear, so we would be talking about the long-term memory of dogs.
It should be noted that dogs' senses are very closely related to their memory, because through their sense of smell or hearing they can associate the smell of a food or a person with a situation that they like or don't like. On the other hand, having less developed vision, it does not play such an important role in your memory.
Can dogs lose their memory?
Unfortunately, our dogs can suffer from memory lossPopularly we can talk about Alzheimer's in dogs, but the exact term is Cognitive dysfunction syndrome in dogs Many of the guardians see behaviors in their senile dogs that make them think they are normal for their age, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't worry or institute a therapy to take care of them in the best way.
Some of the symptoms of cognitive dysfunction in dogs are as follows:
- Altered social behaviour.
- Delayed learning and memory loss.
- Sleep cycle disturbance.
- Disorientation.
- Decreased physical activity.
- Anxiety.
