My first border terrier was a dog called MacDogald, and he now lives with my parents. However, he has come back for a week as my parents are overseas. Mac is dog aggressive, and one of the reasons he moved to my parents house is because I didn’t feel it was fair on him to have foster dogs through the house.

Mac has met Winona, the 14 week puppy, numerous times. Mac is good with puppies – he seems to understand that they’re ‘special’.  When he met Winona at my house, that was fine. He tells her off when she gets annoying, and that is quite okay in my household.

Mac met Mr Chip through the fence, and Mac did not like Mr Chip on first sight. Mr Chip was quite happy to make friends despite the growling (Mr Chip is not very clever).

The interesting case was Mac meeting Clover.  Clover grew up with Mac, but Mac moved out when she was about 2 years old.  She has visited Mac at his house several times, but due to pregnancy and puppies, Clover hasn’t seen Mac for 5 months. Clover hasn’t seen Mac at our house for about a year.

Mac and Clover were very good friends when they were here. There is only one serious tiff I can remember of there 2.5 years or so that they lived together.  They played well together.  Mac has separation anxiety, and Clover was a comfort to him when he was otherwise home alone.

A young Clover cuddling Mac.

That being said, since Mac has gone, a lot has changed. Clover has grown up, matured, had her first litter of puppies… And otherwise, become a bitch.

So I introduced the two of them with caution. I first allowed them to meet through the fence.

Clover’s reaction was phenomenal. It cannot be described as anything but ‘remembering’.

Clover meets the fosters with this kind of false gusto, and she almost ignores Mr Chip and Winona. But with Mac, we got neither. But at the same time, I can’t quite put my finger on what exactly Clover did that showed that she was relaxed and that she recognised Mac.  Because I, at that moment, cried out, “She remembers him!”

Now, 5 months is a long time. I am very surprised that Clover has any recollection of the ‘original border’ that she shared the house with.  Recently, Patricia McConnell had a conversation on her blog, “Do dogs ‘know’ how long we’ve been gone?” This post considered the exuberant greetings dogs may give you after a ‘long time’ vs a ‘short time’.  Now, the greeting Mac and Clover shared was a greeting like Clover had gone for a walk in the park and come back. It was not over the top, or excitable, but it was definitely not the greeting that either Clover or Mac would’ve given the other if they did not remember.

Not only have these two greeted each other like they saw each other two seconds ago, they have been very comfortable. They’ve been on the same couch, they’ve pushed through doorways, they’ve had food dropped in between them, and neither of them has got narky at the other one. They are just like they were the year ago.

Now, dogs remember stuff.  I am pretty sure that dogs remember people. I have heard dog breeders talk about puppies they have bred, years later, showing enthusiasm at meeting them.  And my dogs also remember old tricks I have taught them, despite me not asking for them to perform that behaviour for several months, they seem to remember at the very least ‘bits’ of that behaviour. And how many dogs have undertaken one trial learning to be scared of dogs of certain characteristics, or scared of trucks, or plastic bags?

So I’m not sure if I should’ve been so surprised at Clover remembering Mac. Have your dogs surprised you by remembering something at any point?