I have been pet mindng a lot lately and I can't decide.
In many instances it seems pets I have looked after accept me as the new owner but maybe they are only living in the here and now.
How do they know if their human family is coming back to them?
They see the suitcases, the hurried goodbyes and the car disappear along the driveway and on to the open road.
For the first few days they watch for their return then this behaviour disapears and maybe they accept what they perceive as the inevitable.
Can pets possibly understand the human concept of holidays?
2006-12-20 07:10:06 · 8 answers · asked by ixlinxs 5 in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
not at all!! when dogs see you leave they understand that youre gone. when they constantly think about you( the owner), they miss you and want you back. but in no way do they get "christmas vacation" . some research has been done with dogs and their senses of when the owner is coming back (some dogs will get anxious and wait by the door at the same time their masters decide that theyre going home.)
when the dogs look at you, as you say, "as the new owner", its because theyve accepted you into "their home". dogs are territorial, and pack animals. youre just a pack member to them. especially since you feed them!! :)
one of my teachers told me that dogs only have about a 2-5 minute short-term memory span. so in theory the dogs youre watching have, more likely than not, just 'forgotten' about their real owners( just for the time being). when they come back home from wherever they are for the holiday season, the dogs will 'remember' them again, and accept them back into 'the pack'.
i hope i helped some and answered your question!!
happy holidays!!
2006-12-20 07:18:55 · answer #1 · answered by luvn_bois_is_sin 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
While I can't speak for cats, dogs generally have no concept of time passing. They DO get in biological sync with time...this is how they can tell when it is dinner time. They are so used to being fed at the same time that they get hungry at that time.
However...an hour is a minute to them. I've come across the behavior you mentioned time and again (pun intended, by the way) and discovered that the dog gets fixated on people, and actually "misses" them. For a period of time, days in your case and months in mine, the dog expects the people it is fixated on to return and waits. In severe cases, the dog doesn't get over it's fixation, and in rare cases the dog has passed away from loneliness...even with plenty of other people around them.
Most of the time, they simply get over it for the time being. Of course, this often means that when the person returns from their trip, the dog acts as if they are stand offish...which is generally read as "Yeah, your back, now it is my turn to ignore you as punishment". The dog just isn't as fixated as it was.
Things get back to normal very quickly, though. Takes my dog about 10 minutes...
2006-12-20 15:22:34 · answer #2 · answered by Fierybird 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I think they do. My dog gets upset whenever he see's a suitcase, knowing that it means that we are leaving. He obviously knows that we come back, as we always do, but if he didnt know we were going away for a while, why would he get upset? He would just think it is like any other day when we head off to work.
2006-12-20 19:07:50 · answer #3 · answered by Minerva 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not really. It is sad but even a dumped animal will remain in area where dropped waiting for its person to return.
I would encourage you to ask owner to supply a familiar object to leave with pet, not just one of their toys but something with owner's smell on it. A used pillow case or tshirt is good. I truly think it helps with the seperation time. They will normally sleep with it. Kinda like a kid's favorite blankie!
2006-12-20 15:19:50 · answer #4 · answered by pets4lifelady 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It might depend on how long you had the pet, some might a little...others may not even notice, or they might act like one of our dogs and go crazy if he sees you leaving.
2006-12-20 15:20:16 · answer #5 · answered by Konami 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
animals such as dogs have no concept of time. They see you leave and they can't decifer whether you have been gone for 5 minutes or 5 days.
2006-12-20 15:16:09 · answer #6 · answered by Melissa 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Nope. All they know is their owners have left them. And will hopefully come back.
2006-12-20 17:10:01 · answer #7 · answered by nokhada5 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
they normally get get all scared so they probably think that there owner isn't coming back.
2006-12-20 15:18:40 · answer #8 · answered by bex 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋