How does your dog know when you're due home...? · Puppy Owners Support Network

How does your dog know when you're due home...?

You’ve probably heard people say dogs can “tell the time” and know when you’re coming home because they can smell how much your scent has faded during the day.

Interestingly, there actually is some science behind the idea, although not quite in the way the internet often presents it as absolute fact.

Researchers know dogs can detect incredibly tiny changes in scent strength and can even tell how “fresh” a scent trail is. Because of that, some scientists believe dogs may learn that when your scent in the house fades to a certain level, it usually means you’ll be home soon.

So your dog probably isn’t sat there thinking “it’s 5 o’clock”, but they may be using scent as a kind of timer.

That said, there’s currently no definitive study proving dogs mainly track time this way. Most scientists think dogs are probably using a combination of:

• scent changes

• daily routines

• light levels

• sounds in the environment

• their internal body clock

So the “dogs smell time” idea is currently more of a fascinating scientific theory than a fully proven fact.

Either way, dogs are far more incredible than most people realise.

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