Woman Records Dog’s Ability to Recognize Patterns — Only Greets Planned Parenthood Volunteers

We Rate Dogs, the pup-themed X (formerly Twitter) social media account posted a video of a happy white-furred canine who enthusiastically greets volunteers at a Planned Parenthood location. The clip begins with the dog trotting along on a sidewalk, baying to folks standing outside wearing pink vests.

She approaches one woman at the front door. "She can't wait to say hi," someone recording the video says off-camera as the Planned Parenthood volunteer bends over to pet the pup.

"Every morning she has to say hi," the dog's owner says again as the volunteer pets the pup and exclaims how "cute" and "soft" she is.

"You're so sweet," the volunteer says as the dog begins walking to someone else standing outside of the facility.

The other three women standing there aren't wearing vests and appear to be anti-abortion protestors. They look into the camera as the dog owner laughs remarking that the pup knows who is a volunteer for the facility and who isn't.

"Nope, she does not say hi," the owner remarks as the pup ignores the protestors. However, the pup does indeed spot another volunteer rocking the vest. Immediately she walks up to the other woman and begins to offer up an opportunity for pets.

"Dogs know, they know — oh see!" the owner says, acknowledging the distinction her dog was able to make between volunteers and non-volunteers.

"See? And then she's like, 'No I say hi to this one.'"

The pup gets a few head scratches as she barks happily, gives a little sniff, and then goes to walk away.

Dogs are highly intelligent creatures capable of recognizing and reacting to various patterns. Dog behavior expert David Reinecker published a post on his website discussing this very topic.

Reinecker attributes canine's high intelligence to the fact that they are "problem-solving creatures." Dogs train themselves with certain patterns, tied to cause and effect outcomes bonded with personal experiences.

Just like human begins, repetition in dogs helps to enforce these patterns. Reinecker writes: "It takes a number of repetitions for a dog to learn a pattern. Simple tasks take fewer repetitions, and for more complicated skills, they take many repetitions. This is why working dogs like service dogs practice their learned skills every day so that the task remains fresh in the dog’s brain.

Redditors also discussed the pattern recognition capabilities of dogs in this r/NoStupidQuestions post. In the blog, OP asked if dogs are able to recognize routines to the point where they're able to determine if it's a weekend or a weekday based on the activities their owner engages in.

Two dog owners wrote that this seems like the case with their pups. One person remarked that their "dog will act a little funny if I'm home for whatever reason when [they're] usually at work." Adding that their pet is a "bit uneasy" during this circumstance.

However, they added that when they stay home on a weekend, their dog acts like their usual happy self.

Another Reddit user chimed in, stating that their dog tends to be "depressed" whenever their father isn't home on the weekends like he normally is. This, again, seems to suggest that dogs have a good sense of daily routines and can even differentiate between days.

The comments section of WeRateDogs's tweet did dive into commentaries on abortion. However, as one user in response to the video remarked, the spirit of the video wasn't one of political ideologies but rather, one of a dog providing comfort to other humans. "That makes me sad. It seems to me that we all should be kind to everyone, no matter their stance on any issue," they wrote.