My Shih Tzu knows when I come home! Every time I arrive home, my Shih Tzu is waiting at the door! Even before my wife arrives, my dog is already there, waiting for her! So, is this a myth or reality? By the end, you will see that the tip I provided is old, but it relates to the research in this text.
I’m not here to say what is right or wrong, but the fact is that they can associate moments (like the evening, for example), with their hearing (hearing the sound of the car arriving home), but according to a test shown on the TV show Globo Repórter, the main sense of a dog that can let them know when their owner will arrive is smell!
We already know that a dog’s sense of smell is much more refined than ours, and according to this research, they found that a dog who always waited for their owner to arrive at a certain time was influenced by the “amount” of their owner’s smell in the environment.
What does this mean?
According to this research, after the owner leaves the house, their smell gradually dissipates from the environment… and when it reaches a certain level, the dog realizes that when it reaches that “smell level,” their owner is about to return.
Of course, in the studied case, the owner had a consistently similar routine. So, to confirm this issue of the amount of the owner’s smell, the man’s wife went out and met with the owner, taking the shirt he was wearing back home.
She spread the shirt with the owner’s scent throughout the house, and do you know what happened? For the first time, the dog didn’t wait for the owner to arrive, as it always did. Interesting, isn’t it?
How can Shih Tzus do this?
It all comes down to a nose that is nothing like ours; each nostril can be controlled independently, allowing dogs to accurately detect the direction from which a particular smell is coming.
What goes on inside is even more impressive. Dogs split the airflow into two separate streams – one for breathing and the other for smells. That’s why they can do both things at the same time. This means that a dog’s mind comprehends the world in a completely different way from ours.
Now, this research reinforces a technique that has been used for a long time… when you’re going to be away for a while and leaving your dog alone, leave a shirt you’ve just worn with them. Preferably near their bed.
Of course, you run the risk of finding your shirt torn when you return… but in that case, use an old shirt. This will help your dog become less anxious because your scent will be in the air for a longer time!