Episode
This Dog Waited at a Train Station for Almost 10 Years
The true story of Hachiko, the Akita who kept returning to Shibuya Station, and what science says about why dogs wait for us.
Updated
Case Files · Episode 4 · 16:28. Long-form episode; the video player arrives at public launch.
What the episode is about
For almost ten years an Akita called Hachiko kept returning to Shibuya Station in Tokyo, long after his person, Professor Hidesaburo Ueno, had died. Juno does a tiny version of it every evening at the front door. We follow Hachiko from Odate in 1923 to the statue he lived to see, and look at what studies say about dogs, time apart and attachment.
Key facts
- Accounts of Hachiko's life differ on many details; the episode says where.
- Dogs greeted their owners more intensely after longer times alone in one study (Rehn & Keeling, 2011).
- A controlled test of the "psychic pet" idea did not find evidence that a dog knew when its owner set off home (Wiseman et al., 1998).
Why does my pet...?
Scenes are painted and dramatized from the sources below. Where accounts disagree, the episode says so.
More from Case Files
- The Bird That Flew 7,000 Miles Without Landing
- The Dog Who Walked 2,500 Miles Home
- She Was Banded in 1956. She's Still Coming Back.
Sources
- University of Tokyo. (2024). Hachiko and UTokyo (part 2): The interwoven story of a dog, the University and various people.
- University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences. (2011, March 2). 新たに判明した忠犬ハチ公の死因について [New findings on Hachikō's causes of death].
- National Diet Library. (1998). 子犬は汽車に乗って―ハチという名の犬― [A puppy takes the train: A dog named Hachi; exhibition guide].
- Ōdate City. (n.d.). Odate, the home of the faithful dog, Hachi.
- Shibuya City Library. (2014). ハチ公について知りたい [About Hachikō].
- Shibuya City. (2023, August 1). しぶや区ニュース, No. 1526, pp. 1–3 [Hachikō centenary feature].
- University of Tokyo. (n.d.). Statue of Professor Hidesaburo Ueno and his companion, Hachiko.
- National Museum of Nature and Science. (n.d.). 秋田犬（ハチ） [Akita dog (Hachi); permanent-exhibition record].
- Rehn, T., & Keeling, L. J. (2011). The effect of time left alone at home on dog welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 129(2–4), 129–135.
- Topál, J., Miklósi, Á., Csányi, V., & Dóka, A. (1998). Attachment behavior in dogs (Canis familiaris): A new application of Ainsworth's (1969) Strange Situation Test. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 112(3), 219–229.
- Nagasawa, M., et al. (2015). Oxytocin-gaze positive loop and the coevolution of human-dog bonds. Science, 348(6232), 333–336.
- Berns, G. S., Brooks, A. M., & Spivak, M. (2015). Scent of the familiar: An fMRI study of canine brain responses to familiar and unfamiliar human and dog odors. Behavioural Processes, 110, 37–46.
- Wiseman, R., Smith, M., & Milton, J. (1998). Can animals detect when their owners are returning home? An experimental test of the 'psychic pet' phenomenon. British Journal of Psychology, 89(3), 453–462.
- Vitale, K. R., Behnke, A. C., & Udell, M. A. R. (2019). Attachment bonds between domestic cats and humans. Current Biology, 29(18), R864–R865.
- Horowitz, A. (2017, November 3). From fire hydrants to rescue work, dogs perceive the world through smell [Fresh Air interview with Terry Gross; interview originally recorded in 2016]. NPR Illinois.
- Natural History Museum. (n.d.). How do other animals see the world?
- Strain, G. M. (n.d.). How well do dogs and other animals hear? Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine.
This is general information, not veterinary advice. If anything about your pet's behavior or health worries you, ask your vet.