I've heard that Dogs, among other animals, have no 'sense' of time. Is this true? If it is true, do you think it has anything to do with intelligence? Could our ability to perceive time, to look into the future and see new things, look into the past and see mistakes we've made, could this be part of intelligence? Do chimpanzees have a sense of time? Do Dolphins?
What is meant by "a sense of time"? If I was to use that phrase I would say everything has a sense of time. I would say plants have a different sense of time than we do(ever seen time lapse footage of plants? They're quite active really) as do dragon flies who (compared to us) see the world in slow motion. But if you mean think of time as something(ie"we only have this long to get to the kelp forest" etc) then yeah, I doubt many other animals would do that. I wouldn't count them out though, its one of those things we can never really be sure of. I'm guessing you are talking about something else entirely, but I have no idea what it is, perhaps I don't have this "sense of time" you speak of.
What I think I mean is that they can't tell like one day from another. We can tell what has happened yesterday from what will happen tomorrow. It also seems like when I go on a vacation, my dog seems to act the same whether i've been gone overnight or for a month. He doesn't act the same when I just leave for a few hours, however.
well, my dog has a hugely different reaction from seeing me for the first time after one day than after a week. once I've been gone for a week, it about the same, though. She can only get *so* excited before she has a heart attack, so I'm betting she's just hitting that wall. My dog seems to be able to tell when we've been in the car for "too long". Most car trips with her are around 2 hours, so if we go somewhere farther, and we hit that 2 hour mark, she starts getting really whiney. and it's not a "I have to go" issue, as when she gets out, she just follows me around, like normal. :shrug:
maybe you could start to catorgarise animals by their ability to learn repeat behaviour in one specific part of the day! theres a thought for ya! groove on Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
No dogs definately know how long its been since you've seen them. But they do forget you exist once you've been gone for a few hours. When you come back after a few hours they'll see you think "hey I totally forgot about you! You rock!" but when you've been gone for a couple of weeks they're like "holy snapping duck shit! Where the hell ahave you been?! OMG OMG OMG etc" I have alot of experience with this because I've recently moved away from home and only get to see my dog every couple of weeks. He goes crazy. Dogs very much live in the moment though, they don't ponder on things for very long, I realise my dog isn't sitting at home with my mother thinking "where the hell is lou?Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!" I can be pretty sure he's thinking about food and the waterbed and maybe the sopranos(he loves tv) and thats it.
I would say that animals do have a sense of time, obviously not in the same way as humans but they do. Our dogs seem to know that it's lunch time or time for their walk. This is obviously based on habitual behaviour or training, but still, they know, or they expect it to happen, don't they? When I cook, or when I set out on an errand or whatever, my timing is usually pretty impeccable. As a musician, I also have a good sense or feel of rhythmical time. My dogs would never be able to play the drums, but then I wouldn't be able to smell shit (no pun) the same way they do.
I would say that animals do have a sense of time, obviously not in the same way as humans, but they do. Our dogs seem to know when it's lunch time or time for their walk. This is obviously based on habitual behaviour or training, but still, they know, or they expect it to happen, don't they? When I cook, or set out on an errand or whatever, my timing is usually pretty impeccable. As a musician, I also have a good sense or feel of rhythmical time. My dogs would never be able to play the drums, but then I wouldn't be able to smell shit (no pun) the same way they do. I think the main difference between us and them is that animals don't put so much emphasis on time as we do. Er, having said that I realise that it's not strictly true, in fact, the timing of certain events is probably more crucial to most animals than it is for humans. Here, I'm talking about procreation, collecting and storing food, flying to warmer climes etc etc. Things that are done instinctively naturally and usually according to the season, the temperature and daily light cycle but which are based on some sort of consciousness of 'time', much in the same way that humans were able to manipulate 'time' before clocks were invented.
best description of dog excitement EVAR Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! After my step dad died, my Dog was in a noticable depression for weeks. she would sleep on his side of the bed at night, then get up in the morning, and lay in the bathroom around the same time he used to take his morning shower. then she would sit by the front window all day, not moving. wouldn't eat or respond to anyone unless they were about 5'10", with a full beard (IOW, they looked like my step dad from a distance). Then she got really excited, would run up to them, sniff them for a second, drop her head and her tail, and go back to the window. It was very depressing to watch. She was the only one who saw him die; he collapsed in the shower, and she was the one who ran upstairs and got my Mom to see what was wrong. She never saw him after the ambulance took him away. It always seemed to me that she knew something had happened to him, but never figured out why he never came back. ever since she snapped out of her moping, she refuses to let me be in the bathroom by myself. she has to be in the bathroom with me. it never used to be much of an issue - in or out, no big deal.
NO. it's more of a built in mental function but i guess our higher state of cocious and cognitive ability contributes to that Whoa..i missed out on evolution then...when did we start doing this? That is long term memory.....just recorded stimuli.....even moron can do this. Your hippocampus is the main man for this...this part decides what is kept or discarded....your cerebreum has little to do with this.
Animals live in the present, the "now", and I'm sure they are more content becuase of it. You see humans, having language, can remind themselves of the past much easier. All it takes is a word of recognition and a whole world appears envolving each and every sense that is remembered by the recognisense. Jimmy you remember those cinnamin roles we had at the bakery the other day? and Jimmy's mouth suddenly starts to water and his vision of the bakery at the mall came to mind. I'm not saying it was a good example but it's true Animals constantly think whats next, whats next, whats next. They think of every second as it comes dog sees a fly, it trys to snatch at it, then suddenly a biscuit is shoved in front of his face, he goes to eat it, then suddenly his leg hurts, so he moves it to a more comfertable possition when can a dog "say" to himself, remember that cheeseburger i snaged from the counter the other day. Even if dog could have even the slightest memory of the good taist it put in is sensery glands it would only be for a split second. and then he would be off to the next thing that caught his attention in the "now" in the moment. It is language that has given us humans the capability to go in depth into our pasts. What is our pasts anyway? nothing but imagined. You can only imagine your past. It is language that has given us humans the capability to go in depth into our futures. What is our future anyway? nothing but imagined. You can only imagine your future.
