Dogs connect visual, verbal or environmental cues with event sequences rather than precise times. For example, leash = walk.
Linking Cues
Consistent daily schedules enable dogs to predict certain event order - wake up, potty break, meal times even without clocks.
Anticipating Routine
While unable to know 6pm exactly, dogs understand owner behaviors signalling dinner or bedtime based on ritual changes.
Hours vs Patterns
Chemical rhythms for sleep/wake and other cycles exist like humans. But lighting cues adjust these more than clocks.
Biological Clocks
Dogs readily adjust their activity expectations when routine schedules shift, unlike time-dependent people.
Adaptability
Dogs seem to understand extensive absences as missing you terribly, but short errands not as strongly time based.
Missing You
Waiting by the door for your return suggests dogs feel some sense of passage before despairing.
Patient...To a Point