how do dogs know someone is coming home?

Telepathy.I honestly believe that my dog has this ability.

My dog is exactly the same. Although i believe she can tell the time.

If shes that sharp can she pick your placepot selection?

I had a dog who could recognize the sound of my car up to at least 400m before I drove into the driveway.

Is your car radio fitted with sub woofers?

A dog's hearing ability is far superior to a human's. They can hear sounds at about 4 times the distance that we can, and they can pinpoint very accurately where the sound is coming from. Plus of course they can hear much higher frequencies than we can.

So yes, they soon get to recognise the sound of your car and can hear it approaching long before a human can. They also get to recognise the sound of your footsteps believe it or not, and can hear you approaching long before you arrive.

And pretty much exactly the same goes for cats too. They have superior hearing to humans and can recognise cars and footsteps.

My dog even recognises when I'm talking to one particular person (who always spoils her) on the phone and gets very excited.

Telepathy? I wouldn't rule it out but it's something we'll probably never know the answer to. No way of proving it one way or the other.

Can dogs tell the time? They get to learn about events which happen regularly at certain times of day like their owner returning home, or being fed. And they undergo chemical changes in their brain at these times, and changes to their body temperature, which alert them to the time of day when these events usually occur. There's a name for it which escapes me.

Dogs just look out the window hoping their owners return, at some point they do.
How about the times the dogs tail wagged and the owner wasn't returning?

Dogs know EXACTLY when their owner is due home. That is WHY their tail is wagging. It's not a sign of greeting, it is a metronome. THAT is how he knows what time it is. Our clock pendulums do one wag per second but doggy ones do various multiple of that. This leads to greater accuracy!

When I was a youngster we had a dog that did exactly the same.

It would sit in the window - waiting - and when my my mother got off the bus - the bus stop being a quarter of a mile away, around a blind corner, and down a hill - it would start jumping onto the windowsill with it's front paws, and wagging it's tail, and yelping.

Sure enough - two minutes later, my mother would turn the corner into our road.... Every time!

Dog just makes a ruff guess

You don't think it being a bus on a route with a timetable to stick to had anything to do with it then?

since its generally the adults that feed the dogs on a regular basis and knowing the routine the dog knew that feeding time was approaching due to how hungry it was and based on experience

no mention of the footers licking their own 4rses or chasing their own tails

My mother did NOT catch the SAME bus, at the SAME time, EVERY day -

She would often be returning from random shopping trips in town -
- Her return bus time/journey could vary enormously.

So - dustybin - that pouts your pedantic proposition 'in the bin'.

there would have been some pattern, and the dog had little else to focus on other than squeaky chew bone

same here. people wouldnt return home at the same time.
sure the dog would be waiting at the window roughly at the time expected, but sometimes people would get home hours late. you knew someone was nearly home cos hed go into crazy mode and start wagging his tail and running between the window in the front room and the front door in the hallway.

sometimes his owner, my stepdad wouldnt appear for 10 few minutes and id be thinking the dogs gone fecking mad. but then hed appear round the corner with fish and chips!

and then walked into the kitchen and broke his neck sliding through the 5hit it had laid in anticipation

never sh1t in the house once. well he did once as a puppy but i threw him out the backdoor to sit in a thunderstorm for 2 hours. he never did it again. harsh but fair.

tough love!

"never sh1t in the house once. well he did once as a puppy but i threw him out the backdoor to sit in a thunderstorm for 2 hours. he never did it again."

I hope you're joking

it was the 80s. puppies had it tough back then. before the unions got involved to give them better rights. none of this namby pamby treatments they get these days. all my puppy got for christmas was an orange.

Roy. I don't think my dog could do any worse than my last placepot comp position!

My dog can tell the time, and that's no bull shih tzu.

Dogs are not stupid.  When I am talking to my brother and his dogs are there we have to spell out "walk", "lead", "treat" or they go wild.

Dogs are far smarter than we'll ever give them credit for , if they could speak they'd be bloody dangerous

I used to take my dog a walk each evening and often a mate of mine who lived about half a mile away would call round with his dog and we would go out together. He would call for me any time between 7-30 to 10pm with no pattern at all but about 10 minutes before he arrived my dog would get up and wait by the front door. There was no way we could see how he knew the other dog was on his way.

its all turned a bit brokeback mountain

s.kenbo
01 Jun 14 08:29   
My dog is exactly the same. Although i believe she can tell the time.

RoyClaytonsTash
01 Jun 14 08:42   
If shes that sharp can she pick your placepot selection?

This is Rupert Sheldrake's territory:  http://www.sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/dogs-that-know-when-their...