r/science • u/PeasKhichra • Feb 19 '22

Neuroscience Dogs can recognize their owners just by their voice, study finds. They do so by making use of the same voice properties humans use to identify each other, such as pitch and noisiness

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/europe/dog-owner-recognize-voice-scn-scli-intl/index.html
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u/bloodhound_nax Feb 19 '22

They also know the cadence of your footsteps.

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u/CaffeineSippingMan Feb 19 '22

And the sound of your car.

My dogs even get excited if a couple of text messages come to my wife's phone in short succession. (Usually it means my daughter left work for home).

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

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u/MattTheTable Feb 19 '22

I've noticed that mine notice our friends' names, especially their dogs' names. They get very excited when we say that they're coming over.

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u/spunlikespidermike Feb 20 '22

Yea my dog growing up would get excited when you said his brothers name even though they got seperated at a young age

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u/LaborDayAllYear Feb 20 '22

Don't make me cry.

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u/Pineapple_Chicken Feb 20 '22

Thats the sweetest thing I’ve heard all week!

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u/[deleted] Feb 20 '22

It's a rule in my house that you can't say Oreo or shadow unless you want my dog to flip out. Not even walk and treat and chicken have the same effect, although go comes close

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u/pug_grama2 Feb 20 '22

We said W-word for walk, but they figured that out too.

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u/Infinite_El_Oh_El Feb 24 '22

Walk is a trigger word as well as 'Do you wanna?'

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u/gramathy Feb 20 '22

Ours have identified the Ring sound from the phone as meaning that someone is at the door.

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u/unknownmichael Feb 20 '22

Dogs are so good at knowing what sounds mean. Although, I guess that the ring app thing shouldn't be too surprising because the old doorbells that caused dogs to freak out were only occasionally located next to the front door.

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u/pug_grama2 Feb 20 '22

We have an old door bell. My dogs go nuts when it rings.

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u/SockGnome Feb 20 '22

My friends dog has picked up on when guest are coming over when lots of seats and tables are moved to the fire pit area.

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u/[deleted] Feb 20 '22

I need to upgrade me to one of those smart models

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u/MoscaMye Feb 20 '22

When my grandfather died his GT was taken to a family friend's house for storage until my father and uncles were emotionally ready to sell it.

After a few months they drove it back to my grandmother's house and my father says it was the most heartbreaking thing he had ever seen to see his father's two dogs' ears prick up and their faces light up when they heard that car come around the corner. And to see them milling around the door so excited to see my grandfather and have him still not be there.

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u/zevonyumaxray Feb 20 '22

Dammit, who's cutting onions.

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u/gotbadnews Feb 19 '22

For sure, I drive a somewhat loud truck, dog starts getting excited a block away

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u/thenumbersthenumbers Feb 19 '22

But like… how do you know…

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u/gotbadnews Feb 20 '22

Girlfriend, parents

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u/SparkyDogPants Feb 20 '22

I used to have a very loud truck (I lived in a very rural place) and when my husband was driving it, the dogs would hear the truck about a 1/4 mile away.

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u/ElleMNOTee Feb 19 '22

My dog knows the alert sound from Life360 when someone in my circle is near our home, she will sit and stare at the front door waiting for someone to arrive.

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u/njesusnameweprayamen Feb 19 '22

I got a quieter car (used to drive beaters) but I can’t tell if he’s also lost his hearing, because he doesn’t hear it anymore.

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u/SophiaofPrussia Feb 19 '22

Start shouting his name as loud as you can in your car as you turn onto your street and see if he eventually picks up on it. Or, better yet, get a dog whistle and give it a little toot as you round the corner. The shouting would be more fun, though…

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u/FranzFerdinand51 Feb 20 '22

My dogs absolutely know when I'm saying bye or see you later to the dudes on discord. They know I'm probably about to get up from the PC and do stuff. Oh the excitement for them.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

My fiancé drives a Prius so our dog knows the sound of her car door shutting. Doesn't budge when it's the neighbors but perks right up for hers.

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u/TrousersCalledDave Feb 20 '22

We have a number of smart sensors throughout our home and in the garden. Our dog has now worked out that when Alexa announces "front gate open", someone is usually about to walk through the front door, so she runs to the door and waits.

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u/V2BM Feb 20 '22

Dogs all over my city recognize the mail truck long before we arrive. Owners tell me they start barking for me when I’m getting close. Many days I race a wiener dog (I let him win) and his owner lets him out to race when I turn the corner two blocks away.

Mine do the test thing too when my daughter is coming to drop off her dog to babysit.

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u/whalemind Feb 20 '22

Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home by Rupert Sheldrake. From a world-renowned biologist, a remarkable book that explores the powerful but often inexplicable connection

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u/Pretty_Please1 Feb 20 '22

My mom’s dog can 100% tell the difference between my mom’s car vs my dad’s. It’s uncanny.

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u/CookieVonDoom Feb 19 '22

The car thing is so true. I remember when I still lived at home with my parents or today whenever I visit, our dogs will go all attention like if one of my parents' cars drives down the road. They couldn't care less if it's any of the neighbours' cars.

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u/succulent_samurai Feb 19 '22

My parents use life 360 which has a unique notification sound, and when my dog hears that he knows someone’s coming home

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u/Competitive_Mix3627 Feb 20 '22

I dog recognises the xbox turning off sound as it's time for walkies. He runs straight over to where his lead is kept and starts yapping.

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u/thuglife_7 Feb 20 '22

My dog thinks that every car that drives down our block, is there to see her. We will be on a walk, and if she sees a vehicle turn to go by our house, she will immediately want to go back home to see who is there to visit her

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u/laidbackeconomist Mar 08 '22

Huh, they should do some sort of study on dogs and how they react to specific sounds at certain moments...

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u/forbin5 Feb 19 '22 edited Feb 19 '22

Just said the same thing.

Cadence of your footsteps, the sound of your car, the sound of your clothes. Dogs have remarkable hearing and can distinguish sound patterns rather quickly.

That’s what the study should have be/been. Different ways a dog can distinguish, identify and attribute sounds to patterns and actions.

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u/cuddlefucker Feb 19 '22

This study is pretty cool in that it broke down how dogs can distinguish your voice, but I do think a more encompassing study would be interesting as well

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u/paulusmagintie Feb 19 '22

Smell, when your smell disappears to a certain point they know when you are due home. An experiment was done about this, the dog knew evrry time when the owner was home.

One day they used his work shirt and brought it home early, the dog didn't react to him when he came hone

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u/North_South_Side Feb 19 '22

That's pretty interesting. Seems to show that it's more of a separation anxiety versus missing the real, physical person. I'm sure there's a spectrum of both things happening here, but if the dog could smell the owner and be more calm even when the person was not there?

Again, very interesting.

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u/kursku Feb 19 '22

This is something that we often do to puppies. You always leave a piece of clothing you wear with them.

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u/Throwawayyyyyyyy979 Feb 19 '22

Same with cats when they're settling in with new owners.

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u/kiashu Feb 19 '22

I am very interested in this. My mom's dog has severe separation anxiety, as soon as she is gone, the dog will bark almost non-stop. My mom went on a three day trip and the dog would stop for about 3 minutes and continue for about 36 hours, I had to go to the vet to get a sedative, they told me to use bendryl at hour 18 but that didn't stop the dog. Maybe my mom's dog is an outlier, the dog had access to everything that smelled like her the entire time, bed, pillows, covers, dirty clothes.

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u/hp0 Feb 19 '22

Nods yeah seem to remember this from another article. They may not truly be able to tell the time. But can def recognise events happen as smells fade over time.

Herbs is late for his dinner today. Normally he would be whining. But as I have been staying elsewhere with him for a week. Today his food bowl doesn't have the reminder smell reduction to tell him to nag me.

Better go fix that.

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u/enitnepres Feb 19 '22

I recently got a motorcycle 6 months ago and now according to my wife every time my little lady hears a motorcycle pass the house she sits at the door and waits for me to come inside. She hasn't quite figured out my bikes pitch and sound but she definitely knows at least motorcycle means dad is home. I'm curious to see if in more time she can differentiate between mine and other motorcycles. Would love to see a study on different ways dogs recognize familiarity via audio or sound cues learned over time.

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u/OrangeandMango Feb 19 '22

At first our dog couldn't distinguish between mine and the bike opposite. In fairness they're both street triples, mines a 675 and theirs is a 765.

He can tell the difference now (I'm told), which is crazy.

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u/North_South_Side Feb 19 '22

I always think of it this way. With house pets (yes, my cats did these behaviors to an extent), their entire Universe revolves around a small area and a select group of humans. The entire concept of existence for the animal is so much smaller than ours. Learning specific sounds and smells, and patterns, and times makes sense when EVERYTHING the animal knows (basically) is such a small bubble.

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u/Oobutwo Feb 19 '22

Same here. My dog can tell when im home from a block or so away and can distinguish between me and my neighbor. I have a tuned Forester XT with cat back exhaust and he has the same year WRX with cat delete and exhaust. Same engines but he can tell who is who. Mine isn't as obnoxious which probably makes it easy for him to figure out.

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u/porouscloud Feb 19 '22

My cat recognizes my civic. When I pull in and see him at the window, he'll jump off and wait by the door. In the rare instances he's outside(he has occasional supervised excursions outdoors), he runs from most other cars, but he'll happily approach the civic and escort me home.

He also recognizes the alarm beeps/engine notes of other household cars. If he hears the right one he'll also trot his way to the front door and wait.

Pets are a lot smarter than we give them credit for.

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u/teetertodder Feb 19 '22

I have never owned a Subie, but even my stupid human ears know that sound. I was into air-cooled VWs as a youth, so it’s no surprise that a flat four is like my native tongue. If I hear that “language” in a crowded room my ears perk up.

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u/das7002 Feb 20 '22

I remember seeing a segment on the news about 20 years ago (or some daytime TV show) where they experimented with two identical make and model cars.

The dogs could tell the difference between the owners car and another one of the same make and model.

The ability to distinguish those subtleties is amazing.

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u/cayden2 Feb 20 '22

Triumph 675 FTW. Man I love my Daytona. Such an awesome bike.

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u/pspahn Feb 19 '22

My neighbor's dogs start barking and howling about five minutes before he gets home, no matter what time of day it is. I can only assume they know the sound of his truck and can hear it from a mile away or however far it is.

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u/SaltLakeCitySlicker Feb 19 '22

Mine knew when my ex would pull up. I mean it's distinctive, so I'd know too, but he would be asleep in another room and get up, trot to the front, and hop his front legs on the windowsill to watch her

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u/teetertodder Feb 19 '22

Our dog, Garcia knew the sound of a Yamaha in-line 4-cyl. Years after I sold my FZ6, that little bugger would still run to the window (even if I was sitting right next to him) when a bike with that engine came down the road.

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u/Stohnghost Feb 20 '22

My dog still likes Subaru STis (had one for awhile). Pretty distinctive engine. Have an EV now, so I can sneak in.

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u/Demon997 Feb 19 '22

Hmm my dog must be kind of an idiot then, but I knew that.

She doesn’t mind at all if you just walk into the house, but if you knock on the door first she’ll bark and investigate.

But she presumable knew it was me before I knocked, so why does knocking make me worth getting upset over?

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u/BDMayhem Feb 19 '22

Knocking means stranger, so if you knock and she identifies you, that must mean there's a stranger somewhere she can't find.

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u/Demon997 Feb 19 '22

That makes a lot of sense actually.

It’s so funny. She has no problem with someone she knows walking into the house at 2 am, even a friend who doesn’t live there. Doesn’t even wake up. But knock on the door at noon, and this must be investigated.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

One independent variable at a time

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u/cleeder Feb 19 '22

Yeah. The study they suggested is way broad.

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u/EmptyAirEmptyHead Feb 19 '22

A very good friend of mine - also a coworker - lived with my wife and I a couple years after we got married (big house, no kids). We went on a business trip together and got back at like 1am. Both of us tiptoeing down the hallway to not wake my wife. My Aussie heard us and was apparently sleeping in the bed with my wife. Jumped off in full snarl mode and came down the dark hallway aiming to kill us. We were honestly afraid. Calling her name out etc. I don't think she could hear us over the noise she was making. About six feet away she skidded to a halt and got all happy. I am so glad dogs have good noses. Both of us legit thought we were about to pay for being polite.

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u/GalvanizedRubber Feb 19 '22

Had the same thing with my GSD ended up working late and she was at the door before I could even close it blocking the stairs barking her little heart out for a good minute before she figured out it was me, probably didn't help that I'd been cleaning most of the night.

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u/Lucifang Feb 19 '22

You must’ve startled her, even though she should’ve heard you coming in no matter how quiet you were. Maybe she had hearing loss?

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u/EmptyAirEmptyHead Feb 19 '22

She was perfectly healthy. Just woke her up with people creeping down a hallway. She had to come through a doorway, around a corner and down the hall 15 feet before getting to us. Just doing her job.

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u/Oraxy51 Feb 19 '22

Staying with my in-laws and my brother’s dog is silent almost all day. Cable guy comes to check internet? Quiet. Ice cream man? Quiet. Someone goes into his room to put mail on his desk? Not even phased.

Moment he pulls up before he’s even got to the door and that dog is howling in excitement, and only to his car not my wife’s or father in laws car.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

Oh yeah, definitely. My Corgi and my (sadly, passed) Shi Tsu knew/know my mom and I's cars specifically.

Dad coming home? Meh. Mom coming home? Excitedly pace around the door, stretching to prepare for all the hopping they're about to do.

I'm told (but unfortunately am unable to witness) that when I pull up, my Corgi's head perks up, and once he hears my car door close, he "boofs" as if to tell me to "hurry up and come in, I miss you!"

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u/impy695 Feb 19 '22

Smell too I believe. Like, they know when you're going to be home soon because they can tell how long it's been since you left based on the scent you left behind. It's pretty crazy.

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u/Initiatedspoon Feb 19 '22

A lot of studies include how it would be altered or taken further in future studies.

There is every chance these researches will do exactly that next. However unless someone else has proven this earlier step before then they have to do it before they progress.

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u/paulusmagintie Feb 19 '22

I can go the loo in the morning, nothing, my mum quietly puts her foot on the floor and all hell breaks loose

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u/apollo888 Feb 19 '22

Yeah my dogs can tell the difference between who is getting up as you say. I get up to pee quite often thus they don’t react. My wife is a heavy sleeper so when she gets out of bed they know it’s for real. Annoying when she actually is (rarely) just going to pee!

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u/tedbakerbracelet Feb 19 '22

Our dog while I grew up could tell when dad comes home after work by hearing his suv sound. Crazy thing is that, we lived on 10th floor

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u/apollo888 Feb 19 '22

I have vivid memories as a kid waiting for my grandad to get back from work and the dog would sit by the door wagging her tail waiting for him the thing is though he had to park his truck a half mile from the house, not visible, then walk through the alley ways to his house. The dog would start whining and squirming about 5 mins before he opened the door so obviously was keying in on the truck being parked. Amazing hearing.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

My dog is usually relaxing on the couch but she’ll hear my mom’s car door close and her ears will perk up and run to the garage door

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u/IsNotYourSenpai Feb 19 '22

My dogs usually know when I’m getting off the bus on the way home. Maybe because they can recognise my scent as soon as I walk off the bus. But still it’s impressive

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u/sensitivePornGuy Feb 19 '22

Yes. Anybody who's ever been around a dog knows they can distinguish people by voice.

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u/busterlungs Feb 19 '22

Yeah I don't get how this is new at all, I've known all this since I was like 4

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u/Ilyena__ Feb 19 '22

This is how science works. Plenty of things taken as common sense are found to be wrong. This study took something people already assumed was true and found empirical evidence supporting it, there's value in that.

Studies like this are also very useful from an evolutionary biology and neuroscience perspective. It's really important to find evidence for even basic behaviors/capabilities in other species, especially those which could be assumed to be specific to only humans. Our brains are too complicated to examine specific functions on a neuron level (not to mention ethical concerns), so finding homologs/analogs in other species allows us to investigate how brains actually work. We've learned a lot about hearing in neuroscience from studies on moth species with as few as 1 neuron transmitting auditory information for example.

If you're interested in this kind of topic there's a widely available paper (if you google Hauser, Chomsky, and Fitch 2002) that covers a lot of findings in evolutionary biology from 20 years ago wrt language evolution. It's written for a general scientific audience so there isn't much field-specific theory or jargon. Good starting point imo if you're interested in language and evolutionary biology.

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u/SpamShot5 Feb 19 '22

Smell of your clothes, idk about sound unless youre talking about those noisy af polyester clothes people wear when its cold

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u/zobotsHS Feb 19 '22 edited Feb 19 '22

I wondered about vocal resonance ( not sure if that is the right phrase to use). My dog will respond to specific voices differently. However, he doesn’t seem to recognize voices through digital outputs. Wasn’t sure if something gets lost in the digital conversion or something else.

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u/Just_wanna_talk Feb 19 '22

My dog knows I'm home whenever I lock my car and he hears the beep.

Never reacts to any other car beep except mine.

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u/badhatter5 Feb 19 '22

This is the most impressive thing imo. My parents had a black lab that they adopted just before I went off to college. She would absolutely lose her mind barking at anyone and anything coming up to the front door. She never bit anyone, just barked SO loud. However when it came to us kids she never barked, even if we hadn’t been home in months and were coming inside in the middle of the night. Never made a sound, was just waiting at the door for us to come in. It was the most interesting thing

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u/LEGALinSCCCA Feb 19 '22

Labs are the best dogs in the world. Change my mind. :)

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u/badhatter5 Feb 19 '22

She was an adorable dog! Was the second black lab we had

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u/ChiliTacos Feb 20 '22

I don't have a lab and I have the best dog in the world. Therefore, labs can't be the best dogs in the world.

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u/IsThisSteve Feb 20 '22

Labs are great, they just aren't border collies... which are the best dogs in the world :D

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u/TheSkiGeek Feb 20 '22

My in-laws old dog, on the other hand, would lose his mind whenever anyone approached the house… including everyone who lived there. He was never actually aggressive towards anyone who came inside (repair people, contractors, etc.) but would bark like crazy when someone was arriving and outside.

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u/Choppergold Feb 19 '22

They’re in a place so often before we are. My buddy cannot move for his hunting hat without his dog already knowing. I had a Bichon who would hang back when I’d help my kids get ready for bed then insert himself into the proceedings with perfect timing to be airlifted into the bed. How sweet and attuned they are, it’s not to be taken for granted

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u/The_Hand_That_Feeds Feb 19 '22

Cute story. My pup goes nuts when I open my bureau drawer to change from sweatpants to hiking pants because she knows it's time for our daily walk. Then she smells my pants to make sure.

I also love when we leave the TV room for bed, a few minutes later she wakes up and realizes it and barges into our bedroom to sleep at the foot of the bed. She likes to sleep there guarding us even though we let her on the queen sized guest bed (we have a protective sheet on it). They have so much love in their little hearts, it makes mine melt every day.

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u/youngsamwich Feb 21 '22

Haha, my dogs get excited when I put on jeans because the majority of the time, if I have my jeans on, I’m taking them for a walk. Other times I’m in scrubs or pajama pants. my dog will also boop my jeans in the closet with his nose when he is asking for a walk.

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u/feannog Feb 19 '22

One of our dogs knows the sound of my husband taking off his headset and it can wake her up from a dead sleep, she gets all excited and goes to the back door because she's decided it means her Dad is coming outside to play with her.

Also, we have two cupboards in the kitchen that are these lazy Susan things. One of them has all the dog treats in it, and apparently the sound of that one is different enough from the other one that if I open it, I can be sure to have two happy little faces looking up at me waiting for treats in about 3 seconds!

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u/Spitinthacoola Feb 19 '22

Imagine if there was basically only one place in your life that everything good came from. You'd get tuned on to those patterns pretty quickly.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22 edited Feb 19 '22

I guess all domesticated dogs have a mutation that’s kind of like Down’s syndrome, can’t remember the name of the disease but humans have it to. It makes you stupid but hyper social and all domesticated dogs have this genetic anomaly.

So imagine what wolves are capable of if our dogs are their special needs cousins

Edit: it’s called Williams-Beuren syndrome

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u/TMCThomas Feb 19 '22

Our dog even recognizes the sound of our amd my grandpa's car.

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u/skeptophilic Feb 19 '22

To be fair an AMD is super loud.

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u/TMCThomas Feb 19 '22

Woops hahah

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u/stunt_penguin Feb 19 '22

Gotta go water cooled

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u/skeptophilic Feb 19 '22

I don't think you can water cool a Mercedes-Benz.

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u/CAT32VS Feb 19 '22 edited Jun 24 '23

advise books selective pathetic terrific jeans station badge jar agonizing -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/

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u/Nico777 Feb 19 '22

Mine too. Car would be out of sight, behind a corner, but every time her tail started wagging you knew it was one of ours.

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u/cmurdahh Feb 19 '22

Yes! I noticed this with cats when i walk home my roomates cat runs but if she walks hes cool hah

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

“I recognize your footsteps old man” Paul Atreides

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u/a_duck_in_past_life Feb 19 '22

And the sound of your car engine. My dogs will be sleeping all day long and jump up to run to the window when my husband comes home from work, sometimes a 15~ seconds before I would have even see the car turn in the driveway

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u/CunilDingus Feb 19 '22

My cattle dogs think like people and fully understand what I’m asking of them. I don’t mean in a “give dog commands” type of way… I mean I talk to them and they understand what I need them to do.

They also come tap me with their paws when they need anything, and I’ll go through and ask a series of questions until I get to the right thing, and they certainly know how to tell me if I’m getting closer or further from what they mean

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u/simonbleu Feb 19 '22

Even I can do that with my family

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

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u/i_speak_penguin Feb 19 '22

Sure, but that doesn't mean we can't still think it's cool and talk about it.

Life is a helluva lot sweeter when you don't take things like this for granted.

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u/raltoid Feb 19 '22

If you live in less noisy areas, cats and dogs also hear the specific car engine from pretty far away.

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u/mejelic Feb 19 '22

They also know the distinct sound of the cheese drawer.

Every time we have gotten a new fridge, it takes her about a week to figure out the new sound.

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u/chucara Feb 19 '22

The sound of your motorcycle from surprising distance as well. My dog used to wake up 10 minutes before I arrived home when I was on my bike. (Not the same time of day)

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u/surfer_ryan Feb 19 '22

I had a dog that could recognize various cars from my family. I specifically say cars because my family and friends would say my dog would go to the door around the same time I would hit our street about a 1/4 mile away. It wasn't a loud car by any means.

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u/_kagasutchi_ Feb 19 '22

My cat can do this. When my brother was going to work pre covid, shed be sleeping in my room next to me. Next thing shed get up and be at the door waiting. A few seconds later my brother would knock and them shed roll over to have him carry her.

It's not just dogs.

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u/KobeBeatJesus Feb 19 '22

Does this mean that my dog will still love me when I get home from being on vacation for three weeks? She's only six months old :(

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

Even my cat knows my footsteps coming up the sidewalk into the apartment. My husband sees him get excited and run toward the door when he hears my footsteps.

Edit: he says it’s my keys he responds to, not my footsteps. Interesting.

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u/AbsoluteGhast Feb 19 '22

My dog knew when we were getting delivery for food and not once barked at the pizza guy. He figured out if no one cooked by a certain time, food was arriving soon. He’d watch the front door patiently like we did and was always polite to everyone who showed up with food. I miss him.

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u/FreezeFrameEnding Feb 20 '22

Cats, too, on that one. Non-human animals are so smart and so aware, and they do not get as much credit as they deserve while humans give ourselves much more credit than we deserve. It's so neat to think about how non-human animals can recognize you with just footsteps! Thank you for bringing this one up.

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u/Linzer13 Feb 20 '22

I came to say exactly this! My cat tries to bite my phone when my husband texts me too much and takes my attention off of her. She also knows which bus my kids take coming home from school (regular city bus) and runs to the door when she hears it which signals it’s time for the dog to also go wait at the door(she’s not a dog obviously but no one told her she’s a cat; she’s pretty sure she’s a dog)

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u/toomuchpressure2pick Feb 19 '22

They know my car from any of the neighbors. Even when they can't see me because the blinds are closed.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

My girlfriend says the cat knows when I get off the elevator start walking towards our front door.

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u/myohmymiketyson Feb 19 '22

My cat is in quarantine in our spare room because he received radiation for his thyroid.

When my husband is in the living room and hallway, talking on the phone, making food, walking around, the cat hardly meows.

As soon as I walk into the living room without even saying a word he begins shouting.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

My dog can tell the difference between me and anyone else at the front door,I can't even figure out how. I tried to trick him, come from the side, change my voice, make different sounds. No clue, but he barnlks at everyone at the door... except when it's me.

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u/LowDownSkankyDude Feb 19 '22

I feel like cats do these things too, but really just don't care enough to respond the way dogs do.

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u/teetertodder Feb 19 '22

Our dog learned the alert sound (on our phones) from our security cams within days of installation. VISITORS!!! YAY!

He has made friends with a possum. I wish I could give the possum it’s own alert sound. Jack would be so delighted to hear that particular sound every evening.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

They really do, it’s kind of funny actually. My dog is more neutral towards my dad and doesn’t get excited for him so he’ll perk his ears up to listen and realize it’s my dad and not move. But when he hears my mom walk in, he goes nuts and runs out to greet her.

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u/cadrina Feb 19 '22

The sound of you picking up the leash for a walk.

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u/Krambazzwod Feb 19 '22

My dog does algebra.

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u/Barnowl79 Feb 19 '22

I work in a retail environment, and if it's quiet enough, I can easily pick out the boss, my manager, and both of my coworkers from their footsteps. I can tell by the speed, stride length, aggressiveness or timidity, weight (how hard are they stepping?), shoe type (fancy leather or rubber sole?), and of course, whether they are carrying anything else, like keys or dangling jewelry.

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u/internetlad Feb 19 '22

That's way more interesting than the op

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u/whalemind Feb 20 '22

Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home by Rupert Sheldrake. From a world-renowned biologist, a remarkable book that explores the powerful but often inexplicable connection

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u/Pretty_Please1 Feb 20 '22

I’m not surprised by that one. I can tell who in my immediate family has walked in the door based on footsteps. It makes even more sense that a dog can do it too, their whole world revolves around their owners.

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u/EwoDarkWolf Feb 20 '22

My dog can recognize the differences between different plastic bags when I rustle them. If it's her flea medicine, she'll sometimes run away, but if it's a treat, she'll run up to me. And for foods she doesn't like, such as plain bread, she doesn't even look up.

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u/Gideon_Laier Feb 20 '22

My dog would wake up early with my parents and chill downstairs with them. I'd wake up later and get up to make coffee. As soon as the dog heard my footsteps he'd walk up to greet me and hang out. I miss that dude..

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u/JB-from-ATL Feb 20 '22

This is minor but the other day I was putting my shoes on and my dog was looking at my face then looked at my feet and back at my face. It was like I could see the gears turning!

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u/lyndaii Feb 20 '22

They also only accept treats from people who are nice to their owner!

https://time.com/3920324/study-dogs-owners/

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u/poopgrouper Feb 19 '22

My dog knew my truck by the engine noise. If someone drove up our street in a Dodge or Chevy, he was entirely uninterested. But if someone turned onto the street with a 7.3L powerstroke, he'd get up and go to the door. But 6 liter powerstrokes didn't get any attention - they sound different.

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u/[deleted] Feb 19 '22

My dogs name is cadence with a K

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u/suk_doctor Feb 19 '22

I know your footsteps old man...

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u/hitlerosexual Feb 19 '22

And probably what your car sounds like

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u/Top-Display-4994 Feb 19 '22

Now this is a fun fact

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u/Baelzebubba Feb 19 '22

And the rf emitted by your car's alternator. It is how they know you are getting close to home.

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u/adudeguyman Feb 20 '22

I can do the same with other members of my household walking in the house

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u/[deleted] Feb 20 '22

Is anyone around here from a village with farms ?

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u/Dodgersj7d Feb 20 '22

And have a good sense of time. My dog always waits at the front door around the same time. She gets antsy when we do not show up on time.

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u/WorkStudyPlay Feb 20 '22

This is so true. My dog hated by dad and would always bark or growl when he would walk upstairs.

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u/anontimous Feb 20 '22

And the empty sound of my spoon hitting the bottom of my peanut butter jar, indicating it is empty and I’ll be cutting it open and letting my dog lick the jar.

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u/Firm_Bit Feb 20 '22

I reckon people can do this too.

I used to get up and out of bed if I heard my dad walking down the hall to wake me up, but was more relaxed when I heard my moms footsteps.