Do dogs know it’s themselves in the mirror?

Feb 08,2024
3Min

Does the dog know it is itself in the mirror? The dog does not know that it is itself in the mirror.

1. Cats and dogs are animals with a well-developed sense of smell. They rely on their sense of smell to recognize themselves and their companions, but cannot recognize themselves through mirrors. Because their vision is not as good as their sense of smell, their cerebral cortex does not have a mirror function. So when a dog sees itself in the mirror, it will bark at itself in the mirror, thinking it is a strange dog and becoming hostile to it.

2. Dogs have amblyopia. Therefore, dogs' color discrimination is fuzzy. Dogs rely on their sense of smell and hearing to identify people and objects. As for how many colors dogs can distinguish, this is not the key to distinguishing objects. Dogs are still used to using their noses to identify objects, so they should be invisible or only have a little sense.

3. Dogs don’t know what they look like, and they don’t care what they look like in the mirror. So I don’t know if the person in the mirror is it.

The fact that dogs do not know that it is themselves in the mirror is the result of experimental verification:

In 1970, biological psychologist Gordon Gallup invented the mirror test, using Mirror test to assess self-awareness in animals. Specifically, it was to see if the animals could visually recognize themselves when they were in front of a mirror. Gallup hypothesizes that if an animal can recognize itself in a mirror, it has self-awareness. Animals that have passed the mirror test include dolphins, orcas, some elephants and some birds. There is no dog so the dog doesn't know it's him in the mirror.

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