Step 1: Take a treat and let your dog see you hide it somewhere in a room (e.g. under a chair).
Step 2: Take your dog out of the room and hide a further 3 treats in other places.
Step 3: Let your dog back in the room and ask it to find the treat. How does your dog react?
Results:
A - Dog finds the first treat you hid immediately
B - Dog finds the first treat you hid eventually but before the other treats
C - Dog doesn't find the treat at all or finds the first treat you hid after another treat
If option A - Your dog has performed well. It has used two types of memory to perform this task. It used its spatial memory to remember the layout of the space, and it used its episodic memory to remember the action of you placing the treat in the hiding place.
If option B - Your dog had to think about this, but it appears to have remembered the hiding place of the treat. To do this it used its spatial memory to remember the layout of the space, and they used its episodic memory to remember the action of you placing the treat in the hiding place. There is also a chance that your dog discovered the hidden treat accidentally before it discovered the others.
If option C - Your dog has forgotten where you hid the treat. This is less dim than it may seem. To succeed your dog has to use two types of memory, a spatial memory to remember the layout of the space, and an episodic memory to remember the action of you placing the treat in the hiding place. So it's quite a complex task.
That is the end of the tests for this pet.
Tune in to Test Your Pet on Saturday 1 May, 6pm, BBC One, to discover the results of Britain's largest ever pet survey.
If you would like to view another pet's tests go here.
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