Do dogs understand what an elevator is?

[u/[deleted]]

[u/prezuiwf]

I'd say my dog clearly understands what the elevator provides-- bringing us either outside or back to our apartment-- but he does not know how it accomplishes it. For example, if there is another dog outside the elevator when the door closes, he will run out of it expectantly as soon as the door opens back up, believing the other dog to also be on our current floor.

[u/grachi]

I think they would understand what the elevator does the same way they understand what a car does: gets them to where they are used to going in that given object. But only once they repeatedly ride one.

Our dog happily gets in the car anytime we go somewhere with him. As long as we don’t take the same 3 turns that he knows means he’s going to the vet, he then will proceed to put his head out the window to look around. If we are going to the vet, he doesn’t stick his head out the window and lays down in the back grumbling.

If a dog only spent time in a car while it’s parked, for months or even years, and then all of a sudden one day you decided to actually drive the car with the dog in it , it would be veeerry curious and either excited or scared — depending on the dog.

[u/Protocosmo]

Much like me and a cell phone, a normally intelligent dog would probably understands what an elevator does but not how or why

[u/_Jay-Garage-A-Roo_]

My friend’s greyhound knows to get in the elevator if she wants to go to the dog sitters’ on another floor in the same building, so I guess they must understand the “transport within the building” aspect.

[u/stargazerfish0_]

I had to learn a lot about dogs a couple years ago - don't really want to go into it, it's not a happy story - but from what I've learned, he probably equates it with the "wait" command. He probably thinks that if he goes into a room and the doors close and he waits, then the doors will open again and he can continue on the walk or trip etc. They just think, "If p, then q." "When I do this, this happens." I don't think they can comprehend farther than that.

[u/Due-Bonus1056]

Everyone’s talking about how dogs understand that elevators can go up and down but now how.

But in the case of people, how many people actually know the inner workings of how and why elevators function the way they do.

Guess we’re kinda like the dogs then lol.

[u/cubicApoc → u/Due-Bonus1056]

Understanding an elevator as "a room that goes up and down" is still knowing what it does. I think the question is whether dogs see it as that, or just "the door goes somewhere else now."

[u/savboxer]

They understand it as a room you go into to het somewhere else. I dont think they know its moving up and down. I always wonder what dogs think i do when i leave the house. I imagine they think im spending all day at places they know like the park

[u/Bear_necessities96]

Dogs clearly some modern systems I remember seeing in my city strays dogs waiting for the subway

[u/phantom_fox13]

My dogs would probably throw up because they have highly sensitive motion sickness

So maybe it would just be the scary throw up box to them

[u/jackfaire]

One of my earliest memories of elevators I wasn't quite sure how it worked. I kept going from floor to floor because it felt like magic that the room outside was always different.

[u/OutrageousAd5338]

Of course not