How long do dogs remember things?

Answer 1

It all depends on how much the memory impacts them. Pups that I have sold, still remember me 9 or 10 years later.

Adult dogs can't seem to remember to stay out of the trash!

The rule of thumb for training, is to repeat each tast 14 times before you can expect the dog to remember.

I think they remember about as well as I remembered what Mom told me to do.

Answer 2

It is call habituation. When you learned to smoke, you would 'tell' your hand to come to your lips and then after a while you don't even remember doing it. Same with nail biting, drinking etc. With animals if it is done over and over again it is called habituation. They also have olfactory memory. The smell can trigger a reaction. This is how they can 'remember' people (and other dogs! Remember all the stops they make when out for a walk?) Another word is entrainment. That is when you teach them tricks. Dogs are social creatures and they want to fit in with the pack (us). Certain commands trigger a response. Cats tend to be loners, because they are solitary hunters. Their entrainment or habituation stems from survival instincts. Can opener running could mean lunch. With entrainment and habituation it could be a lifetime.

Answer 3

Forever. Dogs are very intelligent. This is why they remember the things you train them to do. I have an 11 year old beagle that I purchased from a farmer for $20.00 and he is the smartest dog I have ever had. When we first got him at 9 weeks old, I watched him pull up the covers over him and my husband. I couldn't believe it. To this day, he still lays down, rolls over, speaks, sits, gets his leash if I ask if he wants to go for a walk and he also gets the car keys when I ask if he wants to go for a drive. I almost think he is smarter than some people. So all in all, I feel that dogs do remember forever.

Answer 4

It really depends on how much something impacts them. If they mess on the rug they don't remember doing it however they do remember the spanking and think that you are somebody who they should be afraid of. That's why it's very important NOT to hit your dog for any reason. Positive reinforcement. If something impacts a dog strongly such as a broom falling on them when they went into the closet they may become immortally afraid of that particular closet. Things like teaching a dog tricks and stuff takes a while for them to associate a certain word with a certain action because we speak totally different languages and have that barrier between us. Once they learn the trick though it isn't hard for them to remember but if you don't refresh their memory from time to time they will forget just like us humans. Aren't dogs great?

Answer 5

This has actually been researched. There are different kinds of memory,however. Event memory and associative memory are not the same,object memory being a 3rd type. Most humans perform poorly on object memory and event memory, thus we make bad witnesses and justice does not rule. We can recall events only partly soon after, and it gets worse quickly. We also substitute memory with formed lies easily, thus "versions" of what happened abound. People who can recall objects with accuracy are rare, and often 'abnormal" (idiots savants, autistics). Dogs are similar for one simple reason: their brains are built out of the same parts in the same format as ours. We're both mammals, after all. We have more necortex and less in the areas that control smell and coordination, for example.

Recent research shows that dog memory is much like human memory. They do not have th calculation space that we do. However, their memory is good. Dogs DO remember soiling the carpet, which is why your dog hangs his/her head and retreats as soon as you walk in,hours later, even though you haven't even noticed the dirty deed yet. They will not recall what they did until they see you. Seeing you reminds them that they are not supposed to do what they did, and they knew they were not supposed to when they did it.

Your dog's recall and association powers are very much like your 3-yr-old human child's. Your mature dog is like your 5-yr-old. They understand interactions probably better than the child, but their recall is similar.

The world record holder for non-human with the largest vocabulary of recognized words is a Labrador retriever, whose name I forget, and his total is 5K+. I know some fellow Americans who don't have that much in their vocabulary.

Meanwhile, my neighbor keeps saying, "If you don't punish him in 3 seconds, he won't know what it's about." He says this while the dog slinks around guilty as heck without having been scolded at all. Oh, well. There's no proof that all humans can learn.

Answer 6

It depends on how important something was. If a dog hears a car backfire while he's walking past a fire hydrant, he may be afraid of fire hydrants for the rest of his life - I knew one that was. If he just pooped on your expensive oriental rug - he may forget all about it in fifteen seconds. When your training a dog to obey commands, you have to practice every day until he knows them, and then give him a refresher course from time to time if you see him back-sliding.

Answer 7

FOREVER!
Our Westie never forgets anything. When he had his cancer surgery we would ask him where his bo-bo was? To this day he rolls over to show us!
Soccer! He also watches the World Soccer matches with his older brother(my son). We are amazed at how he brings us the soccer ball when the matches are on. We don't even ask.
PS he has three balls to choose from and it is always the right one... it's amazing!
He goes to the vet every 27 days for his DOCP injection. Before we turn into the road he is scratching on me to go home........how he hates going for his injection!

A dog can remember as much as you can teach them!

Yes, that's why it is so important to love your pet.
They never forget!

Answer 8

If you get an intelligant dog they will remember for ever

Answer 9

Im pretty sure they remember about 10 minutes but faces hey never forget

Answer 10

forever probably