How good is a dogs memory?

I am curious to learn how good a dogs memory is??

It depends on what happened when they were doing any particular thing.

Louie does a twirl he knows a treat is coming. I go to the pantry door - there is a 50/50 chance it's dinner time or I'm getting them a snack. I put their collars on, there's a 50/50 chance they're going for a walk or in the car. I open the door - it means wee wees, I open the front door - it means someone is here or I'm going out. Louie counter surfs = something bad..(normally a harsh voice that he doesn't like)

Dogs memories are very good.

Depends what you mean. Rupert remembers every spot he's ever seen a cat and will check them out each time yet give him a command and chances are he'll forget what he's doing half way through doing it.

Ours do that too! They look in the hedge and over the wall at the same place everytime. yet we only do this route in the dark nights so its a a long time between it.

They remember the lake as well which we havent been to for a while, yet as soon as we turn this one corner they know where they are going and get VERY excited

Zac's memory is very good but selective. He knows when we are going to the beach. He barks every time we pass the house where the dog attacked him. He knows where the cats live.

He has memory failure when told to come or sit.

Lol Millie is like that ^^

She remembers her commands at home but seems to have short term memory loss when we go out o.0

In some ways their memories are amazing
mine do the cat/chicken/leaf was once here thing

Dont be eating when you read this one
When Ben was little he was a HORRIBLE poo eater
In the park he had found a nice (eww) poo I said leave it and we walked on
We went a 2 hour walk and came back to the part tru a different gate - as soon as he got in the gate he raced straight for the poo
Not only had he remembered it but he knew the location of it from another gate

Also
when he was very little I was trying to teach him the name of some of his toys. One of which was a squeeky newspaper which I called 'paper'
I didnt think he was getting it and gave up on naming toys, and the newspaper toy had been at the bottom of the toybox for about a year
Then i decided I wanted to teach him to put away rubbish (I have these daft ideas - for a dog that dosent mouth its an uphill battle)

I was trying to rev him up to the idea of screwed up paper by batting it about and saying 'wheres the paper, get the paper?'
He got a bit wound up, gave a couple of woofs and ran off to his toybox and brought me the newspaper toy!!!!!
and hes never done it again! so I know hes at it and just pretends to have forgotton stuff so he gets more treats!

I had an argument with my OH. He said he'd seen something on the TV that a dog's memory only spans three months. Rubbish I said, otherwise all the messed up rescue dogs would forget about being abused etc after three months!

Anyway I proved my point when I returned to Vietnam and two local dogs flew out barking at me, I bent down and used my call and they ran over and went mad licking me It had been two years since I'd seen them but I know they remembered me

Aww moons mum!! so cute

I forgot also that my two both go mental at the sound of a doorbell (i have never had one) and Mia hates hates hates people shouting - especially she gets very vocal if someone is yelling at another dog

Where on earth do they get rubbish like this from? What do they base it on?

I don't think dogs have memories like we do, like "I went to the park yesterday then came home and had liver for dinner" (although who knows? Maybe they do!) but saying their memory only spans 3 months is just ridiculous. Wolf certainly remembered me when I looked after him while my uncle was in hospital despite the fact he hadn't seen me for 4 years! He'd forgotten all about loose leash walking though