Internal Clock and Homing Instinct

I try to read Stanley Coren's books whenever I have the time. Currently I am drifting between two of his books: "The Modern Dog" and "Born To Bark".

I was reading "Modern Dog" this morning, Chapter 13's "Dogs That Wait and Dogs That Come Home". This chapter talks about some true stories of faithful dogs that keeps a vigil wait for their loved masters / mistresses who could not return because they have passed away; and on the opposite scenario are dogs that have a special sense that allows them to find their way home to their loved ones from wherever they have been left or lost.

Upon seeing words like Internal Clock and Homing Instinct, I recall one stray dog which had formed part of my relationships with dogs over the years. Before proceeding, Stanley mentioned that many dogs have an Internal Clock. They seem to have a knack of knowing the time which a routine event happens. Homing Instinct is a term still debated among many scientist and animal behaviourist. Do dogs naturally have a special sense that allows them to find their way to their loved ones, or that it is a myth that started from the movie Lassie.

Anyway, these two terms reminded me of a female stray which wandered into my home in 1983. My family always leave the main gate open to enable easy entrance and exit of the car. At that time, robbery, house break-in, kidnapping were words rarely heard of. I named this dog Phoebe, after an actress by the name of Phoebe Cates. I was fond of her at that time.

I was not allowed by my parents to keep Phoebe, but always welcomed her coming into the house compound. One particular "skill" she had was that she never failed to visit us seconds before 8pm. That was when the TV3 signature tune "TV Tiga...." rang out before the news came on. We found it really amazing that she has a sense of time (Internal Clock). Also at that time, my mom will always go to take her bath. And she will reprimand me for feeding her with feeding her human food ie powdered milk and biscuits when she sees me doing so. To make life easier for all of us, I always waited for her to begin her bath before preparing the milk and biscuits for er.Phoebe.

As for her sense of direction (Homing Instinct), I discovered her ability when on one particular day Phoebe followed me when I cycled out to buy groceries for my mom. The shop was about 2km away. Phoebe was adamant on following me in spite of me shooing her away. I was afraid she would get lost, and that the journey to the destination had heavy traffic. Phoebe followed and upon returning, she did not manage to follow close enough to me, and was left behind. When I got home, I was worried about her managing to come back. To my relief, she was at my doorstep one hour later. Perhaps she did have a homing instinct, or that she has been to that area many times for her to be familiar with the route.