How does our dog know that Rick is done working for the day? (See details)

Because he’s a smart dog, Duh!

They must have a built in alarm of some kind. When its time for one of us to come home, the dogs will stare at the door waiting.
My male starts barking when my moms two blocks away, he hears something in her car and just know. Its neat, wish I knew but they wont tell me.
Ask Cato! Ha

My dog always knew 10 min before I even made the first move that it was bath time and would be hiding somewhere which is out of character normally. Bath time was never any set time or day. They’re psychic.

Awe because dogs are so smart. I would like a picture please!

Well, to answer it seriously—as others above have said, There is some sound or action made before he comes downstairs for the final time. Dogs are sensitive to cues that we humans tune out because we think they aren’t relevant. Dogs go more by association than by thinking it through when someone is finished. If a certain sound or awareness of an activity is made which the dog associates with quitting time, and no more opportunities will be available after that, the dog knows.

Great question btw

Maybe there’s a subtle tell the dogs have detected, like an extra bounce in his step when Rick is free for the day.

Well Rick has his business laptop and his personal laptop. Cato must hear him close up his personal laptop because he always brings it down stairs.

I’ll try to remember to get you a pic tomorrow @SergeantQueen.

A lot of animals can detect and identify sounds we don’t even notice.

I knew a woman once with a cat who had a particular liking for cat treats called Temptations.

The cat could detect when those were in a grocery bag even as I came through the door. It was too soon to detect a smell. And the cat didn’t always react to any bag of groceries. There must have been something about the way the cat treats rattled.

Stupid dog woke me up by falling on my face this morning. Stupid dog.

Body language, most likely. You transmit much more with your body than you do with your mouth. Humans don’t pick up on it so well anymore, but for animals it’s still their primary means of communication.

He has to smell me from head to toe when ever I get back from being some place. I figure it’s like a postcard for him.

Maybe she can hear the laptop’s fan spin stop. Shey can probably also tell the fans of different models apart by their distinct frequencies.

My dog can tell what kind of pants i am wearing – sweat pants = staying home (good), jeans or slacks = going out (bad).

My dog is only mildly crazy when I come home, but he goes major apeshit whenever Rick comes home. I told Rick that unfortunately, he taught him to do that. He didn’t want to hear it, but he did. For a while, every time he’d see Cato he’d start “playing” by stomping his feet and lunging at him and play growling and stuff. He demonstrated bad behavior and Cato picked right up on it.