August 18 – Why “Found” Pets Don’t Recognize Us

After almost 20 years in the pet business I learned something this week that I found astonishing but at the same time it makes sense in some cases. Before I tell what that is, let’s remember that there are well over 100 different breeds of dogs. They all have some unique traits, so it stands to reason that the individual canine “super powers” don’t apply to every dog. We know that many dogs have a very elevated sense of smell compared to people. Others have the ability to hear much better than we do. Bloodhounds have an extremely sensitive range of smell along with the ability to follow the scent over long distances. Not all dogs do. It’s agreed, though, that dogs have a much different field of vision than people, especially when it comes to color. Generally dogs see a spectrum from a yellowy-gold that degrades to gray and then increases to shades of blue – from powdery blue to a deep blue. (For more info see the article on Dogs Are Color Blind Compared to People)

Even knowing all those important facts, I was surprised to learn that many dogs who get away from us and get “lost” don’t seem to recognize their own family once they’re found. It seems that some dogs don’t have the ability to recognize faces. They know us by our scent, our voice, their name, a word we use repeatedly with them (treat?) or a distinct sound we make – like a whistle or a clicker. Dogs that don’t recognize faces may refuse to approach their family members of approach fearfully or timidly until they get close enough to recognize our scent or hear our voice. (Some people suffer from this also according to neurologists and scientists. It’s called prosopagnosia, or face blindness.)

This seems very odd in view of studies that have concluded that dogs Do recognize our faces. In December 2010 Dr. Paolo Mongillo reported on a study he led at the University of Padua in Italy. In the journal, Animal Behavior, he wrote that dogs have difficulty recognizing their pet parent when the person had his or her face covered but easily recognized them when their face was in view.  We’ve all watched our dogs make eye contact with us, especially when we have food in our hands or are talking to them. In fact, dog trainers teach us to have our dogs focus on our eyes and hands. So how does this new information make sense?

Stress is one reason lost dogs don’t always recognize their family. The stress of being lost can result in the decrease of serotonin in a dog’s brain. Serotonin helps regulate short term memory in dogs. Or, our found dog might be down wind from our scent, he might be too excited or too confused to “listen” to our voice. We may be using a lower pitched voice than we normally do so our pet doesn’t recognize it. Our pet’s breed might not have outstanding sense of smell or hearing. All these things add up to reasons our lost dogs might not recognize us immediately. Be patient, be thoughtful, talk to your returned pet like you usually do and soon you’ll have a happy pet and happy family reunion. Mention this to your friends in case they have had a lost pet – ask them what their experience was.   Blogging for Kidoodlepets – Barbara Denzer