I’m willing to bet the cats are sleeping hard when I’m at work. The house is peaceful without the rumbling of a clothes dryer and four dogs competing for my attention.

The dogs lose it before I can unlock the door. The four of them are boundless with energy. Malibu, the puppy, flies at me like the lid blown off an instant pot. Everyone converged, sniffing at my pants leg as if to say, “Heck yeah, mom is home,” and “Wow! The scent on your clothes is intoxicating. Let me lick your face.”

The pack missed me, but how did they react to me leaving them alone for 8 hours out of the day? What did they think about?

To understand what my dogs might be thinking, I researched dog cognition. My dogs hop around like toddlers, so I doubt their thought processes are as evolved as ours. I’d like to know what type of thinking they are capable of, but please read my disclaimer before I go any further.

I’m not a veterinarian, vet tech, or medical professional. I am a pet parent, researching and sharing personal experiences on an exciting topic.

Rewards Please

Like humans, canine brains are motivated by rewards. Holding the winning Powerball numbers would activate our brain’s caudate nucleus, the brain’s reward center. It would set off a chain reaction to my online shopping habit in a flash, too.. The caudate region of the brain controls free movement, learning, reward, motivation, and emotion. Our motivations are primarily based on reward.

Emory University showed the same is true of canines. A pair of trained dogs sat alert and awake through Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans of their brain. The same region of the human brain, the caudate nucleus or the brain’s reward center, was triggered by a cue that the dogs learned meant they would receive a treat. Found at https://esciencecommons.blogspot.com/2012/05/what-is-your-dog-thinking-brain-scans.html

Is it possible that the dogs are as motivated to see their favorite human, their mom, at the end of her work day as they are by a treat? Or are my dogs daydreaming of treats during my workday? I know that they are trained to go into their crates for treats. My bully, Maze, expects a treat when she doesn’t crate. She stares at me as if to say, “I promise not to pick on Mimi, our cat, or eat anything I shouldn’t.” She usually wins the staring contest, walking away with a treat in her mouth, sinking her teeth into something else when she’s finished, for instance, a throw blanket on the couch or table leg. I have to select auto-ship on Amazon for all her chew toys to keep my house intact, which tells me she’s quickly bored.

According to the American Kennel Club, dogs sleep half of the day. They spend less time in the dream stages of sleep and wake up frequently. Elderly dogs and larger breeds need more rest. If this is the case, my dogs are waking up to bark at delivery vans, stay-at-home moms pushing strollers, and the retired couples I see walking all the time. It’s no wonder my crew is ready to play when all I can think about is unwinding in the evenings. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/why-do-dogs-sleep-so-much/

Still, I wonder what my dogs think or dream about during their waking moments. I hope they recall the fun times we played fetch on the weekend. It would be amazing if Malibu practiced sit and stay while I was at work. Imagine if she were into metacognition, studying the commands in her head and how she might improve to earn another reward.

What would that look like?

Furry Friend Memory

My crew knows the meaning of treats. I say it often enough. The thought of the reward or treat excites them. This explicit memory, called semantic memory, is based on rote memorization. They know the reward is coming. It’s the same with their toys, especially the word ball for my puppy Malibu, who loves to fetch.

Semantic memory is how we retain and recall vocabulary words. There are dogs with extensive vocabularies. Their learning is dependent upon how we teach them.

In 2011, NPR’s Two Way featured an impressive Border Collie named Chaser, who had the world’s largest vocabulary for a canine. According to the author, Eyder Peralta, “Chaser learned the names of 1,022 objects, and she demonstrated that she understood the meanings of those separate names, categories, and commands in a series of hundreds of fetch trials.” https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/01/11/132839704/good-dog-border-collie-learns-more-than-1-000-words .

Our canine companions also show signs of episodic memory, considered uniquely human. An example of episodic memory is recalling what you did yesterday or how you felt last week. These memories stick without rote memorization. For example, I don’t need to practice recalling that Maze chewed the door frame in the doggy room when left alone. Even though it happened months ago, I know better than to turn my back on her and clean another part of the house. She and Malibu had a party with my throw pillows a week ago when I cleaned the dog room. Cotton filler was strewn everywhere.

Researchers in Budapest tested dogs for episodic memory in steps. First, they taught the dogs to repeat their human actions on command. After this, they had the dogs lie down. In having the dog lay down, the expectations were changed from repeating the human actions. The researchers tested the dogs over an interim ranging from one minute to an hour to see how much the dogs recalled. The dogs remembered the commands even though their recall to carry out the actions diminished over time. The results suggested that dogs have episodic memory, previously thought to be a uniquely human attribute. Found at https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27889264/

While my crew may not recall their days in the shelter, they remember the feeling of being loved by their human family. I believe our furry companions are the essence of what we pour into them; I want their cups to overflow. Their joy and affection when I walk through the front door express reflection on the best times.

Bourbon scoots closer for a good scratch behind the ears. Maze dishes up the best doggy hugs. Max nudges me for a back rub, and Malibu chases a ball rolling on the floor before she sprints to the patio door.

Have they been thinking of me their human family all along?

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References

DiGiacomo, R. (2023, July 25). Should I Let My Dog Sleep Late Every Day? Retrieved January 27, 2024, from https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/health/why-do-dogs-sleep-so-much/

Fugazza C, Pogány Á, Miklósi Á. Recall of Others' Actions after Incidental Encoding Reveals Episodic-like Memory in Dogs. Curr Biol. 2016 Dec 5;26(23):3209-3213. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2016.09.057. Epub 2016 Nov 23. PMID: 27889264.

Eyder, P. (2011, January 11). Good Dog: Border Collie Learns More Than 1,000 Words. NPR. Retrieved January 27, 2024, from https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/01/11/132839704/good-dog-border-collie-learns-more-than-1-000-words