calliecritturs
Posted : 7/19/2013 3:18:58 PM
Once upon a time, long long ago when I was in college ... we had gotten a dog JUST before I graduated (I'm an only chld, I'd **always** wanted a dog and he and I were thicker than thieves!!). When I went away to school I missed NOTHING from home ... except Pip. And oh my gosh I missed him.
When I came home at Thanksgivng, my mother told me a story. He missed me as badly as I missed him ... and Mom told him that I would be home after he saw the turkey for Thanksgiving!! That he didn't need to sit and stare a hole thru the window ... when the turkey came, I'd be home soon after. (You gotta know how pragmatic my mother is -- you don't worry, if you KNOW what's going to happen!)
She says she gave it nearly no thot at all -- But she went to pick up the turkey two days before Thanksgivng ... and suddenly .... guess who was GLUED to the window. Yep ... Pip. Mom reinforced it and told him "Yep -- turkey's here ... Sissy will be home soon!"
Since then I have always tied "events" to "time" for my dogs. It works. They even learn to recognize "full moon" (big round ball of light??) and things like Firecracker Day and Christmas. I just "name" them before I need them ... but it teaches them to keep track of 'events' which are nothing more than "frames of reference" for them. It's just commands of another type.
heck when I send them to boarding, when I pack the cans of dogfood I'll say "We'll be home when the food is gone!!" (and I'll count as I pack them). They don't have to know "words" ... but they get the "concepts" or the events.
That dog ALMOST showed a painful amount of worry. But then ... I would have loved to have known if the guy talked to the dog via cell phone ... or if she showed the dog his letters (with his scent) -- they do NOT forget. But boy ... if you knew all that dog said, I'd betcha you would be drowned in guilt!! Because boy she laid it on!!!! She was a talker wasn't she??