Can dogs tell time?

[helios666]

This thread cracks me up! My dogs ALWAYS know the time...and never hesitate to remind me, especially when it's time for them to eat! I have a pretty steady schedule, but sometimes I'll take a night out, which means my dogs may eat about an hour later (at night). When I know this, I feed them an hour later that morning. Which is HELL, because the drive me up the wall for that one hour!

Another cute, and related story: I had this one cat, years ago, and I had someone living with me and he said that within literally only a couple minutes before I'd come home (and my "coming home" time would vary within an half hour to an hour cos I worked in a restaurant), the cat would go and sit, and wait by the door. He said the cat never got it wrong! Of course I'd have never known that had I not had another person there to tell me, and it's neat to know these kinds of things. Animals *do* have a special sense for such peculiarities and sensations that humans often do not feel.

[jasper12]

I don't think that dogs can tell "time" but they know routines, and what is supposed to happen, especially if it happens at the same time every day. Cats know the time as well. And they recognize certian words.

Sam used to come wake me up every day at five am, the problem is that he did not know the difference between the weekdays, and the weekend....

[stan4]

Yeah, but in order to know routines, you have to have a sense of time. We (my wife and I) almost never do the same thing every day, so it's not a set routine (in that there are no preceding events they can count on to signal that it's time to eat)...I can just be sitting and watching tv and they (mostly the older dog) will stroll on in and commence to stare at me...at 4pm.

I think most of the 'waiting at the door' is the whole thing about them being able to hear your car/bus/motorcycle miles away and knowing you're getting home soon.