Well, I don't agree with the people who say dogs don't remember. It simply does not make intuitive sense to me.

You can teach a dog to sit, and it will remember for its entire life. Narcotic dogs remember the smell of a drug, out of millions of other smells. Your dog remembers you when you come back from a two week vacation. Your dog remember where it buried a bone last week. I board dogs that remember which kennel they were in the last time they were boarded, and go right to that door, without fail, every time - even if it was months ago.

Dogs also remember negative things. That is why bark collars, citronella collars, scat mats, electric fences continue to work, even if you take the batteries out. The dog remembers the negative experience associated with a behavior and doesn't repeat it. One of my dogs is terrified of brooms. Someone obviously hit him with a broom before I got him. But I've owned him for nine years, he has never forgotten.

When I come home, and there is chewed-up shoe in the hallway, I know instantly who did it. The dog looking guilty and groveling on her belly. The others don't look guilty, they didn't do it. No one is ever going to convince me that dogs can't remember, can't draw associations. To me, that is just plain silly.