Do dogs remember doing bad things?

agnes

agnes

agnes

Soldato
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So, argument the wife and I are having and I shan't mention which side I'm on or her side. Just the opposing opinions so there isn't any bias in it.

In short, we went to an open mic night last night and we didn't get time to walk the pupper properly during the day so he had a bit more energy than usual (1yo, needs at least 1 long walk a day).

So, he took his frustrations out on one of the sofa pillows. Now he rarely chews and hasn't destroyed anything in a while, he's not snipped so gets those 'moments' of madness still. A bit of a shock when we got home and the place was a snowy winterland of pillow stuffing and a very excited pup eagerly awaiting out return.

1 opinion is that he didn't know what he did wrong until one of us confronted him with part of the evidence and put on a stern voice. After that, he should know what he did was wrong and will remember it the day after.

The other opinion is he was acting to nothing other than the angry tone and doesn't know nor remember what he did wrong. So any punishment the day after (punishment is sort of silent treatment, not the usual tonnes of love and fuss and a reminder with some of the evidence of yesterdays onslaught)

What are your opinions? Do dogs remember? Or only react to your behaviour at the given time?

Just to add in, we don't beat or smack the dog, we give him taps on the snoot when he's putting it places it shouldn't be and a little slap on the arse if he's pushing his luck but barely enough for him to feel it. We've trained using positive reinforcement and it's gone amazingly well (better than I expected), he knows all the tricks, well behaved but just has a few bad habits which are yet to be ironed out as he is still a puppy after all.

This is the little **** in question in his crate, we have him crate trained but we never lock him in it. We treated it sort of as his 'safe space', we don't enter it and anything in there is his and he often chills in there to get some shut eye.

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Of course dogs remember. However their depth of thought might not go down to the level of contemplating it's actions.

Remember your hyperactive, excitable puppy doesn't turn off when you leave the house. And tearing up pillows is awfully fun.

My dog used to chew when it was bored and lonely. So we got her a little friend to keep her company - and the problem went away.
 
I can only comment on a dog I had between 1981 to 1988 and she definitely knew she'd been naughty.
She'd meet me in the front room with her head down and one eye looking up at me, I'd then ask her what she'd done and she would take me straight to it.
I could put at things in the house asking "Who did that?" and she would go into the same pose.
 
They have memories, obviously.

But yeah we tend to anthropomorphise animals. It probably did this out of boredom. Animals like dogs live in the present. They can't really imagine when the humans will be back home, though due to the way we leave a scent which dissipates during the day, they get an idea when it should be home as our smell goes.
 
You essentially need to catch them in the act and tell them off, otherwise you're just telling them off and they don't really know why in general, although some probably realise more than others.

Let it happen again bit next time, put the fluff out and say did you do this? In a normal voice and see how they react ;)
 
Have you both learned the lessons the dog taught you ?

Don't neglect the walk.
Don't leave pillows in chewing range.

Does he need to repeat until you learn :p
 
They don't remember and understand enough to understand that you're giving them the silent treatment for something they did yesterday. Punishment needs to be at the time of the misbehaviour, they can't reason that you're punishing for previous behaviour.
 
Kenai said:
They don't remember and understand enough to understand that you're giving them the silent treatment for something they did yesterday. Punishment needs to be at the time of the misbehaviour, they can't reason that you're punishing for previous behaviour.
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That’s my understanding too.
 
Kenai said:
They don't remember and understand enough to understand that you're giving them the silent treatment for something they did yesterday. Punishment needs to be at the time of the misbehaviour, they can't reason that you're punishing for previous behaviour.
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Aye, we left some of the evidence to test and see if this morning when confronted with it, what he would do. And he backed away knowing it was not to be touched.

This is all our fault though, we didn't walk a VERY energetic puppy and paid the price.
 
agnes said:
Aye, we left some of the evidence to test and see if this morning when confronted with it, what he would do. And he backed away knowing it was not to be touched.

This is all our fault though, we didn't walk a VERY energetic puppy and paid the price.
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I've done this when ours shredded their beds a couple of times after moving house. If I used a stern voice they slinked off. I also tried with a happy voice and they were happy as Larry. They respond to your tone more than anything.
 
yeah they can remember if you confront them at the time - thing is they can sometimes be a bit sneaky if they think the reward is worth the punishment

for example you have to be careful leaving food unattended on the kitchen table at my parents house, just popping out of the room for a moment can lead to it being scoffed (depending on the food)

the dog knows full well she's not allowed to touch stuff on the table and will be sent to bed if she does it but if she sees something that is worth it she'll have a go... for example one time when I was at home my dad put some smoked salmon out on 4 plates then popped out of the kitchen to tell people dinner was ready... within seconds the dog had scoffed it from all 4 plates - my dad came back in, saw what had happened and didn't even need to say anything - the dog walked out with a guilty look, tail between legs, and put herself to bed in the utility room...
 
Very similar to humans in the way they can be trained with regards to rules/laws and yes once an animal experiences something once it will never [insert animal 'forget' word in here]. Studying abused animals will teach you this. They can be healed but they will never forget to the day they die.

Difference between us and them is that although we can be trained we also inherently know the difference between right and wrong, i.e morality and conscience - although that sense can be various shades of grey.
 
Unlike other domesticated animals, There has been active, if unintentional, selective pressure over many thousands of years on Dogs to process information in a human like manner.

Whilst the intellectual capacity of dogs is not of the same level as Human, it is still pretty damn good.

There was a program a while back where a collie (?) had learned the names of over 250 toys, as in "Go Get XXXX" and the Dog immediately does so.

Considerably more remarkablely, this Dog was also able to almost instantaneously work out the names of unfamiliar items not seen or heard of before.

As in "Go get YYYY" (Where YYYY is a new toy not seen or heard of before) Dog goes and successfully identifies and recovers YYYY because it is the only toy it does'nt recognise! Now, quite seriously, Most people, even smart ones, wouldn't be able to do this on the fly.

In my own experience, we used to have a little Staffie Bitch.

She was lively and sharp as a knife. Her Bed was in the kitchen and she had a load of chew toys (Staffies love to chew) Anyway, I would also routinely leave my Shoes and Sandles in the kitchen too, She knew which items she was allowed to chew and which not. I hadn't trained her as such mind, she had just worked it out for herself.

One day I came into the kitchen and she was in her basket looking miserable as hell. In among her heavily savaged chew toys was one of my sandles.

The plastic buckle had one single bite mark (I subsequently had them repaired)

She had clearly chewed it by mistake, immediately realised her error, and realised that it was a bad one!

So yes, she knew! And it was nothing to do with the tone of my voice.
 
if you showed him the pillow and made it clear you weren't happy I think he'd remember tearing up that pillow and knows that's why you weren't happy

if you just shouted something at him without showing him then he'd have no idea....unless he'd done the same thing before and was made aware by pointing it out the first time...then I think he'd remember 'yeah I chewed that thing today...got the stern voice last time I did that'

I'd say dogs have a pretty good memory.....they do manage to remember to not **** in the house :D
 
dowie said:
within seconds the dog had scoffed it from all 4 plates - my dad came back in, saw what had happened and didn't even need to say anything - the dog walked out with a guilty look, tail between legs, and put herself to bed in the utility room...
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This reminds me of an episode of the old Richard Chamberlain "Shogun" series.

In this episode "Chamberlain" had hung a pheasant up to ripen, at this time this was considered extremely offensive to the Japanese. So his servants drew lots to decide who would throw it away, and one of the other servants then beheaded him because he had defied his Masters orders, as was considered a fitting punishment for his disobedience and disrespect at the time...:p
 
Cats and dogs are a bit like autistic humans, and that comes from an autistic guy with cats on YT so no offence meant but I see the point.
 
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