Dogs That Know:de la Cuadra Dogs

From OpenSourceScience

Clemente and Terry live near Sevilla, Spain. They are very well connected with the city. Clemente works for the aerospace sector as a designer. Terry has degrees on Spanish and English philology, and teaches English and Spanish. They live with their four dogs, Canela, Pistacha, Sona, and Kinder.

Clemente works mornings, and Terry works afternoons, so they aren't able to see each other most of the day. When Clemente gets home Terry is at work, but when Terry returns Clemente is home, usually answering mail or designing at the computer. So Clemente can study the dogs' behaviour when Terry is coming home, but not vice-versa.

Clemente and Terry are actively doing thier own informal experiments at home. To eliminate the possibility of the dogs simply reacting to an accurate inner clock, or hearing Terry's car (their cars are very distinctive), Clemente and Terry will change slightly Terry's arrival time each time, and she'll park far away and walk home.

Below, you can read about their progress in their own words.

Experiment 1

We had our first try on June 11, 2007. Terry left the car two blocks away and walked home. Some observations :

• Canela & Pistacha (the younger ones) were keeping guard. Sona & Kinder stayed at their beds upstairs until Terry actually got home.

• Canela & Pistacha started their watch a good time before, say half an hour.

• They detected "something" five to ten minutes before.

• When Terry opened the front yard's fence, Canela turned on the door lights (I barely managed to catch it, she's fast), then went upstairs to rouse the others. She does that all the time, and it is done on purpose.

Terry noted the time she started home, and I took the time the dogs started waiting. The dogs started a bit soon, say four-five minutes. It turned out that Terry noted the time she got in the car, there was a delay walking from her work to there. It is also a bit imprecise; the dogs don't shout "Hey! Now I'm waiting". They just jump on their sofa. This time she left the car a bit far and walked home; she managed to surprise the dogs. It wasn't until she got to our yard's fence door that they moved.

Today Terry took the time she left work, and it matches to approximately one minute with mine. Good enough.

Next week we will change times randomly, to insure against the dogs just knowing the time through internal clocks.

Monday: Terry came back one hour earlier, and the dogs nailed her all the same. I wasn't expecting that. I still do not believe it. So Tuesday she just stayed in Seville overnight. Them dogs did not even start their watch. I'd swear they know somethings afoot, though.

I'm very, very tired. Hope next week is softer.

Well, to us at least, it seems them dogs KNOW. How do they do it? Can we prove it conclusively to others?. I do not know, and no, I can't.

Experiment 2

Place the description of your next experiment here.