Those Are the Same Dogs You Just Met Ten Minutes Ago!!!

Do you notice this?

Oban I were going south on the trail. Ella and Molly were down the trail coming north toward us. All the dogs stopped as if to assess if the one(s) approaching might be friendly. Then a few more steps, another stop, then a run to greet. "Oh, it's you, how are you, haven't seen you for a while." Bounce, jump, play a bit. :) And the owner and I had a chat.

We continued south, then turned and went back north. Molly and Elly had done the same were now heading at us again as they went back south. And all three goofballs stopped and did the same sort of assessing they did the first time, only about ten minutes previous. Ella and Molly's owner said they do that all the time, the second meeting is like they don't remember it's the same dog they just met. Oban does it all the time too.

Dogs are supposed to be able to see about as well as we humans, smell and use body language much better. How come they don't recognize each other so soon after the first meeting? Do your pups go through this silliness too?

They just like being silly and making their humans wonder.

Maybe they know a lot can happen in 10 min so they have to reassess to see if the other dogs are still in same frame of mind, or to see what the other dog had been doing, where had they been etc....?

It seems to depend on the dogs. Sometimes I find they'll go out and say hi again like it was new, but other times they look and are like "oh yes, i've already said hello to you". I think it probably depends on how social both sets of dogs are.

Um ... my two littermates will act like that with each other, so we kind of wonder about them sometimes, LOL