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Comment by lelanthran | Hacker News Reader

In other news, water is wet?

Seriously, dog owners know all this already. They know that me puting my hat on means I'm going outside, if I grab my keys they know I'm leaving the yard, when I pick up a ball to throw, they know to look at my face (facial cues) to determine which direction I am going to throw it in.

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I think I’m ok with studies determining that things we think are obviously true are true.

1. Sometimes they turn out not to be true so it is good to do the study

2. It would be bad to do the study looking for a surprise, find no surprise, and then not publish the results. Probably some university PR department is trying to come up with something to say.

Also. Somethings are obvious but they are difficult to test. These experiments help us make progress on how to design experiments.

One thing that strikes me about my dog's awareness is he picks up on landmarks really easily. Once we get within a mile of the vet his demeanor changes and he becomes sulky. On the contrary, once we're in a mile or so from my mother's house he perks up and gets extremely excited. It'd be interesting to read research on how good a dog's spacial awareness is and how they manage to find themselves home while being miles away.

Their ability to smell is hundreds of thousands of times better than ours. We think outside smells like outside. They think every sidewalk tile smells a little different. They know that landmark because that smell reminds them of the vet.

But people who don't own dogs might not. This research might be interesting for everyone else

A scientist has even found that dogs know when their owner is coming home [1]

Rupert Sheldrake had a Google Talk about this in 2008 [2]

[1] https://www.sheldrake.org/books-by-rupert-sheldrake/dogs-tha...

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hic18Xyk9is

As a child my dog was always at the top of the drive when I came home from school.

I suspect all domesticated animals, and many non-domesticated animals that live in close human contact, also display such behaviors. My horses respond to hearing the door of the house close early in the morning, knowing that grain is soon on the way. My cattle hear the tractor start and start moving in their slow fashion to the hay feeder. If I holler in a particular way that often presages grain, they'll stampede to the location.

Yep they have minds, and they use them.

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