Why Do Dogs Have Episodic Memory

You and your dog had many great and fun times together, like that time you brought him to the park, but does your furry friend remember your experiences? A recent study shows that dogs have better memories than you might’ve thought before. This was done to see if dogs have episodic memory, the memory of experiences, like humans do. This study is based off of the fact that certain animals, like birds, can remember where they stashed their food in order to survive. This is called episodic-like memory, which is similar to regular episodic memory. These animals only remembered what they needed to, and only for a certain amount of time. Scientists wondered if dogs’ memories worked like this, too. To test this, scientists got in touch with 17 dog owners. They asked them to teach their dog a trick called “do as I do,” which is when the owner tells the dog to repeat an action that she/he did. They began the experiment by telling the owners to demonstrate an action to their dogs. Next, they told the dog to “do it.” Scientists would wait for the dog to repeat the action, and the dogs did. …show more content…
If the owner touched an umbrella, the dog would follow through and do it too. The next experiment was to see if the dog could repeat the actions demonstrated by the owner if they waited an hour. First, the owner would demonstrate an action to the dog, just like the last experiment. However, this time, the scientists and owners would wait an hour. They asked the dog to “do it” after the hour was over. In most cases, the dogs were able to do it, but some couldn’t as well. This showed that the memories get fuzzier after