Would your dog remember you if you were separated for five years?

[Pat and Traveler]

I recently saw a movie about the Akita dog named Hachiko who waited every day outside the train station for his owner to arrive home from work.  The dog continued to wait every day for over nine years after his owner died.

And there's Greyfriars Bobby, who spent every night for 14 years, regardless of weather, sleeping on his master's grave.

What if, after five years or so, the owners appeared?  Would the dogs really  remember them, or had the waiting simply become routine, a pattern that started out with meaning but morphed into nothing more than daily habit?

There are many stories about joyous reunions between owners and dogs that have been separated for a year or so, many having to do with military personnel who have been deployed overseas.  But what about those bigger chunks of time?  Would our dogs remember us for five years, or longer?  That's a very long time, in dog years.

According to the internet, most people believe that yes, if there's been a strong bond, the dog will remember.  But confirmation is hard to find. 

There's a video of a woman who'd been in prison for 3-1/2 years reuniting with her Shepherd type dog, and the dog is thrilled, obviously remembering her.

Another woman tells of finding her lost Schnauzer in a grooming salon, three years after the dog was lost, and the dog immediately responded to her name, Pepper, and to the lost owner.

There are a couple of videos of owners and long-lost, microchipped dogs being reunited where the dogs appear friendly enough, but not over-the-moon excited.  Of course, these are generally dogs that are getting pretty old. 

A few stories are intriguing.

December 3rd, 2009 by Pets Best

The ideas that go through a pet owner’s head when they find that their dog or cat has gone missing can be downright torturous. It’s often enough to drive the owner to the local Kinkos so he or she can wallpaper the town with flyers publishing the exact description of the animal and the hefty reward to its finder. However, when a dog goes missing for almost half a decade hopes of a reunion may fade, and 10 cent copies seem like an unnecessary expense.

Dog owner Tom Smith gave up searching for his lost dog after several weeks, but his reward came almost five years later.

Smith’s Patterdale terrier named Scrappy Doo was stolen from his garden in 2004. A devoted pet owner, Smith searched for his hound for weeks before losing hope in a reunion, the Sun reports.

But earlier this week, a more mature, seven-year-old Scrappy Doo was found abandoned in Bournemouth in the UK, just 15 miles from Smith’s house in Wareham.

"I thought I’d never see her again," the 60-year-old pet lover told the news source. "When they bought her back as soon as she saw me she went mad. After all that time you wouldn’t think she’d remember."

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from Yahoo answers about how long a dog remembers an owner:

When my wife and I divorced she refused to let me take the dog, but I learnt several years later that she had promptly given the dog away. Imagine my surprise, 5 years after my divorce, I was in another city, a German Shepherd came running up to me, tail wagging, and sat obediently at my side, just the way I had taught her. Yes it was Bo, my girl, still brings a tear to my eye twenty years later. How did she know it was me? god knows but she picked me out of crowd in a different city 5 years after we were last together. So I guess they remember the partnership (owner is to weak a word) all their lives.

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GARDNER, Kan.

-- A northeast Kansas woman who was looking online for a new pet was surprised to see pictures of a dog that looked just like one she lost track of four years ago.

Dana Klint of Gardner was even more surprised - and thrilled - when the dog turned out to be her Siberian husky, named Faith.

Klint was reunited with 15-year-old Faith on Sunday, thanks to the Pet Connection, a no-kill animal shelter in Mission. She left the dog with an ex-boyfriend four years ago and hadn't seen her in two years.

The Kansas City Star reports that Faith had apparently been living on the street for several months before she was taken to a Kansas City, Kan., shelter and then sent to Pet Connection.

Pet Connection director Melody Kelso says pictures and the way the dog acted when she saw Klint made workers confident the dog was Faith.

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from a Golden breeder:

I had bred Goldens for some 20 odd years. I had a woman who had bought a puppy and moved away...came back 13 yrs later with the puppy to visit me and look into purchasing another puppy. This old girl (the dog) was very stiff from plain old age and her "Mom" explained to me, she could barely make it into the back seat of the car without some help.
The day arrives and as I saw the car pull into the driveway and the door open, I called the dog. I always call my puppies the same way...same voice...this dog ears perked up and came flying out of the car!!!!!!!! She nearly knocked me over....Me....I start blubbering like a fool...as I felt so incredibly touched this dog remembered me (and my voice!) The dog literally crawled into my lap...all 50 lbs of her and stayed there! Licking and nudging....We laughed, Mom felt aa littleput out...and called the dog..She immediately went to Mom...but then turned to me again. I swear she was smiling!

[DJ & Chance]

Oh, it hurts to imagine losing my dog for that amount of time.  If he remembers me, does that mean he missed me or thought I abandoned him?  So hard to know what emotions would prevail.  But I know I would be overjoyed to find him again.  Period.

[Pat and Traveler]

Oh, that is so true, DJ!    It appears that the dogs who remember are just overjoyed--like their person had left the day before. 

[Lori, Quincy & Frankie]

sweet stories!  

[Pat and Traveler]

Lori, I agree--love the happy endings!

[Lynda Kamrath]

I gave my airedale to some friends when I went in the Peace Corps.  The kids had helped pick her out when she was a puppy and I knew it would be a good home for her.  After living in Brazil and Germany, I came back and went to their home and rang the doorbell.  She was barking ferociously inside but when they opened the door, she stopped, smelled me, and jumped right up onto my shoulders.  I think she must have remembered me.

[Pat and Traveler]

Yes, she remembered you, Lynda!  How long were you in the Peace Corps?

[Lynda Kamrath]

Two years.  While there I met an Italian who was walking across South America and we decided to meet up for a summer in Europe when he finished school and I finished with the Peace Corps.  So I went to Italy and we enjoyed the summer hiking in Austria and Italy and I got a job in Germany.  Then I was in Germany for three years and met my husband.  Got married in Germany and finally came home to California.  That is the long story made short.  Bought a house, raised a son, and started with doodles.

[Pat and Traveler]

An exciting and interesting life, Lynda!  Thanks for sharing these highlights!

[Kyoko]

How cool.... I want to take sabbaticals and  do the Peace Corps once my kids are out of school..... 

[DJ & Chance]

I left my dog--some unknown mix--with my dad when I served in the Peace Corps many years ago.  Up to that time, he had always insisted that dogs should live outdoors.  But when I returned, I found my dog and dad curled up together on a sofa sleeping!  The dog remembered me, but the bond with my dad was strong and so I allowed them to stay together.  As you might imagine, I visited often!

[Pat and Traveler]

Sweet story, DJ!  I took care of a dog for a daughter one time, for about two weeks.  The dog, an American Husky, really bonded with me.  It was embarrassing in the future--the dog would go crazy-happy whenever I visited, which caused my daughter some irritation, as she said the dog never welcomed her that way.

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

I think that's fairly normal, to have a close relative who is the dog's favorite person. It's true in our household. When my daughter visits, both doodles are ecstatic with joy, jumping and spinning and generally outdoing themselves (if my daughter's not in the house with us we can't even say her name, it winds the dogs up with false expectation.. even spelling her name has mixed consequences!). Although the doods greet us with happy enthusiasm, the 'joy meter' is topped out by my daughter's arrival. Luckily, we don't take offense. It brings us joy to see the doods happy.