How Do You Think Dogs Recognise Certain People?

[Dame Aussie]

Each day when I walk from the station to my car I see a little Poody x on a balcony waiting for her owner to come home. She sits there quietly watching all the people walk past and when she sees her Dad she cries and gets all excited. It just got me thinking, how does she know it's him when he's still so far away?

How do our dogs recognise us? Is it all due to smell? Or can they differentiate between different features such as big/small noses, long/short hair etc?? The way we walk/move?

Do you think it is a combination of all these things?

[Bjelkier]

I think its all of the above but I suspect they would rely on scent the most

[cannibalgoldfish]

Ah! But here is a mystery for you all. I dont drive and catch a taxi when I do my grocery shopping. When the taxi pulls up outside my house my two start their welcome home scream. This is before I have gotten out of the car or even spoken (so they dont hear me) But, should a car pull up that I'm not in they dont care and make no noise at all. They know my friends cars so can tell the difference between them (and often greet them too) but a taxi is an unfamiliar car to them so how do they know? It isn't that they know I'm already home because sometimes I have managed to return without them knowing....

[Dame Aussie]

Ah! But here is a mystery for you all. I dont drive and catch a taxi when I do my grocery shopping. When the taxi pulls up outside my house my two start their welcome home scream. This is before I have gotten out of the car or even spoken (so they dont hear me) But, should a car pull up that I'm not in they dont care and make no noise at all. They know my friends cars so can tell the difference between them (and often greet them too) but a taxi is an unfamiliar car to them so how do they know? It isn't that they know I'm already home because sometimes I have managed to return without them knowing....

Freaky.....

[stormie]

There was a youtube series posted not long ago which talked about how dogs can determine emotions via our facial expressions, so I think if they are that in tune with our faces, they can differentiate faces. I've done things with Orbit where I've walked into a room with a bag or something over my head and he's barked at me, but as soon as I took the bag off he realised it was me. Try it!

I wholeheartedly believe dogs recognise different faces.

[raineth]

Ah! But here is a mystery for you all. I dont drive and catch a taxi when I do my grocery shopping. When the taxi pulls up outside my house my two start their welcome home scream. This is before I have gotten out of the car or even spoken (so they dont hear me) But, should a car pull up that I'm not in they dont care and make no noise at all. They know my friends cars so can tell the difference between them (and often greet them too) but a taxi is an unfamiliar car to them so how do they know? It isn't that they know I'm already home because sometimes I have managed to return without them knowing....

if you're not at home, how do you know they don't bark at other cars/taxis that pull up in front of your house?

[Sayly]

I agree with you stormie, Dad had a face mask on and one of those plastic suits you wear when doing work with insulation and things like that and the dogs went nuts when they saw him! Ruby freaked out and hid, Poppy, Holly and Gracie raced towards him barking their heads off. As soon as he took the face mask off they were fine. Tried it a couple of times with things over my face and the same thing happened.

[laeral]

When I cut my dreadlocks off, my dog freaked out. It was the first time she had seen me without them, and she was a little unsure. She had to sniff me all over and run her nose though my hair until she was satisfied. She deifintely noticed the difference as soon as she saw me.

I agree with Stormie. I think dogs do recognise faces.

I picked my mum up from the doctors recently. I was standing outside with my dog waiting. The exit was behind the building and she had to walk around the side of the building to get to us. Several people walked aorund the building and she just lay there, no reaction. We heard another set of footsteps coming and she suddenly lit up and started wagging her tail and looking intently to the side of the building. She new it was my mum before we saw her. I dont know if it was the footsteps or she caught her smell though.

[Dame Aussie]

Interesting! Thanks guys

[Asalei]

We were at the Toowoomba Royal today and there were people walking everywhere, one of my girls saw my OH coming and knew it was him. He was 100m's away. Surely she couldn't smell him from there? I'm pretty sure he had a shower this morning.

She would have had to of recognised him out of all those people? Surely.

I believe they can recognise their owners outline/face.

Edited April 15, 2010 by ~Erin~

[Souff]

Sight and smell, but not the sort of smells that we can smell. I believe it is all about pheromones.

Souff