A very common phrase among those who have a Shih Tzu at home is: “He knows exactly when I’m coming home from work. He waits at the door for me.” As exaggerated as these words may sound, the idea that a Shih Tzu knows when the owner is coming is true.
It’s not about any premonition or crystal ball, but about typically canine characteristics that differentiate them from other beings, such as well-developed senses like smell and hearing, and the conditioning of the Shih Tzu. According to experts, a dog’s sense of smell is much more refined than that of a human.
While we have, on average, five million olfactory (odor-receiving) cells, some breeds, like scent hounds, can have 220 million. Additionally, the area in a dog’s brain dedicated to perceiving smells is about 40 times larger than ours, proportionally.
Dogs’ hearing is also significantly superior to that of humans. It is believed to be ten times more sensitive than ours, capable of picking up sounds four times farther away and pinpointing the source of a sound in just six hundredths of a second.
In addition to anatomy, another factor contributing to a dog knowing when its owner or anyone else is coming is animal conditioning. In other words, if a person usually arrives home at the same time every day, it’s natural for the dog to recognize this behavior and start waiting for them.
This also tends to happen at meal times. It doesn’t matter if it’s a holiday or Sunday, the little dog will always be there, waiting for you right on time.