Just how do dogs, especially, know when we're coming home?

[kia cat]

We come and go at irregular hours, so how does the dog know when we're due back? He "hears" the car before it's in our road, or before I'm coming up the road. It's not all wishful thinking, I'm sure. He can be fast asleep, on his back dreaming or snoring. Suddenly he's up, tail wagging, by the front door, a good three or four minutes before.

[123everton]

Maybe you smell really bad. lol

[kia cat]

thanks for that, comedian

[DrFilth]

cats are the same kia

[fredpuli47]

Your dog can hear sounds at a distance four times further than a human can.He can also hear sounds as low as 40Hz and as high as 60,000 Hz , far beyond what we can hear.He has a very detailed sound picture of your car, since he hears a much greater range of frequencies to help him to distinguish it from other cars, That alone may explain the extraordinary ability of dogs to recognise such sounds as their owner's footsteps, but evolution may also have provided them with 'brain circuitry' which processes such information particularly effectively.

Sleeping? It's an old saying that no dog is ever sleeps !.

[paddywak]

Don't now how they do it but they do. Ché, my first GSD stopped with my parents during the day while I was at work, and mum always had the coffee made when I got in to pick him up, as no matter what he was doing Ché allways got up and went to the door a few minutes before I arrived. I've also noticed both Max,the dog I now have and Ché seemed to know what I was going to do, for instance they seem to recognise that if I put certain coats on to go out I would take them and others they may as well get comfortable in their basket as I wasn't going to take them

[karenmac60]

My dog sits and waits by the living room door about 10 minutes before I get in - at which time I'd just be driving home so there's no way it's the sound of the car he can hear since I'm a couple of miles away. Also, we live in an upstairs flat with a security buzzer and whenever the buzzer goes he barks, but if it's my daughter he does a weird yappy howling kind of thing. Our flat is at the back and I doubt he could hear her footsteps outside. They're just plain weird if you ask me ;)

[Dee Sa]

apparently my dog go to the window approx 10 mins before I come home whatever the time and he waits. Also knows when we are about to get visitors coming, dont know how, the worst one is when we get suitcases down from the loft becasue he knows they [ got 2 dogs] are going into kennels , well they go to the dogs hotel, but they know. Clever little bu**ers arent they ?

[carmalee]

Appros the above posts - any idea how a dog would react to a different person driving its owners car?

[boxtops]

Our cats do the same, they know when our cars draw up and they know if someone else opening the front door (and vanish)

[catcuddler2]

when my dad was working my dog always used to prick her ears up when he was due home
my dad used to work different shifts so sometimes he was home at 2pm other times if hes been shopping he wouldnt be home til 3-3:30pm and on afternoon shift he was home at about 10:20pm and 9 times out of 10 about 10 minutes before my dad was due home my dog woul;d get up look around prick her ears up and lie down by the front door waiting until he got home.my dad only worked a 10 min drive from our house so she wouldnt have heard the car drawing up

no idea how she did it but she did 90% of the time

[lankeela]

Something one of my GSD's used to do was when I occasionally returned to London to visit my mum he would sleep all the way (100 miles) in the car, but when I turned the last corner into her road he would get up and start whining till we pulled up outside her house. He could not see where he was as he was lying in the back of an estate car below the level of the windows. He seemed to just know the motion of the car turning that particular corner. Weird indeed.

[kita1]

Telepathy.

http://www.scientific...se_14_2_sheldrake.pdf

[kia cat]

Thanks all. They're clearly a lot smarter than they're given the credit for. Guess the hearing and scent explain why they can tell when a packet of biscuits are being opened and make a beeline for the door and their share!