I have a capacitive touch button that my dogs press when they need/want to go outside that makes a noise and sends me an SMS. They used to have all hours access to it and when they expected me home at the end of the day, I would start receiving texts in rapid succession. Access was removed shortly thereafter. The novelty of getting drinks after work and receiving a "Where are you?" text from my dogs every three minut…
How did your dogs figure out that a button gets your attention? Did you have to train them in some way? Also, I am wondering how dogs know when to expect you back. Is their sense of time that accurate and they can easily realize that 9-ish hours passed?
I'm not exactly sure how they know when to expect me home, but they seem to have a decent sense of time or are sensitive enough to external triggers that condition them, like neighbors arriving home after work, rush hour traffic, etc.
They do exhibit certain behaviors when it's feeding time (hasn't been automated yet), which is the same every night and that is consistent through daylight savings changes and day lengths varying with seasons. So I assume they have some rudimentary sense of time.