Self-awareness is the ability to focus attention on yourself. Rather than being locked into a first-person perspective, you’re able to step back mentally and see your own place in the world. Additionally, you’re aware that you have different thoughts, wants, and needs from other beings. Without mind-reading abilities, it’s hard to know for sure if dogs are self-aware or have a sense of individualism. After all, humans have a habit of anthropomorphising our pets — we tend to project human traits, like embarrassment, onto animals that don’t have them. A dog that looks introspective could just be feeling gassy.
“I don’t think dogs are 100% fully self-aware, but I do think there’s some degree of awareness,” says Dr. Wailani Sung, veterinary behaviourist and director of behaviour and welfare programs at San Francisco SPCA. She says self-awareness involves shades of grey.
Below, we’ll discuss if we can prove that dogs are self-aware and what factors might affect that introspection.
Can We Prove Self-Awareness In Dogs?
There are currently three major tests to measure self-awareness in animals. However, dogs do better on some tests than others:
1. Visual mirror test
Created in 1970 by Gordon Gallup, the mirror test is the original and most popular way to measure self-awareness. In the original study, Gallup put red dye on chimpanzees’ ears and foreheads while they were asleep. When they woke up, they showed no reaction to the dye, since they couldn’t see, smell, or feel it. Then Gallup placed them in front of a mirror. Seeing the dye in their reflection, the chimpanzees began touching their ears and foreheads with great interest. They recognised that they were seeing themselves in the mirror rather than a random chimp.
Dogs, however, can’t recognise their reflections. When they see a mirror, they don’t react to the marks. Instead, they treat their reflection like another dog, barking or play-bowing at it. Then they may investigate the mirror itself until they get bored and walk away.
Lastly, research shows dogs don’t recognise their humans in the mirror either. Their eyesight isn’t nearly as detailed as ours, so they may have trouble understanding visual reflections.
2. Olfactory mirror test
While most humans navigate the world through sight, dogs rely heavily on their sense of smell. To reflect this difference between species, Alexandra Horowitz created a scent-based (olfactory) mirror test.
Horowitz presented dogs with a series of canisters and measured how long dogs spent sniffing each one. When presented with canisters of their urine versus another dog’s urine, dogs spent more time investigating the stranger’s scent. The idea is that dogs won’t bother investigating their own scent and will instead want to learn more about the stranger in their territory. This suggests dogs have some sense of ‘self’ and ‘other.’
Despite these findings, there is some debate on whether recognising one’s smell is the same as recognising one’s reflection. After all, a dog may interpret their scent more like a tag marking ownership than an extension of their body and selfhood.
3. Body as an obstacle test
The last test looks for bodily awareness, an important building block for full self-awareness. In a 2021 study, researchers had 32 dogs perform a series of body-as-an-obstacle tests. The dog would sit on a floor mat and get instructions to pick up a ball of knotted rope and carry it to their owner.
In the control condition, the ball was attached to the floor and impossible to move. In the test condition, the ball was secretly attached to the underside of the mat, and dogs could only move it once they got off the mat.
Dogs in the test condition were much more likely to leave the mat to complete their task. They could tell when the ball was stuck (control condition) versus when their weight was pinning the rope down (test condition). In other words, they recognised their body as a separate object from the world around them.
What Factors Affect Self-Awareness In Dogs?
Are some dogs closer to self-awareness than others? It’s hard to say for sure, although it could be possible.
Age
For dogs, age doesn’t give any advantage. “Puppies and adult dogs alike appear to react similarly when seeing a mirror for the first time,” says Dr. Tiffani Howell, dog behaviourist and senior research fellow at La Trobe University in Australia.
However, Dr. Sung suggests puppies can recognise their name at around eight weeks old. They understand when you are calling for them versus another dog. This ability implies that even young dogs know the difference between ‘self’ and ‘other.’
Size
A 2018 study found that when small dogs marked an object like a post, they hiked their leg way up so their urine could hit higher. That way, their urine was at the same level as that of larger dogs. This suggests smaller dogs intentionally exaggerated their height so they could impress other dogs who sniffed their marking. In other words, they changed their behaviour to affect how other dogs perceived them – a sign of self-awareness.
However, the tinier dogs could also have been “overmarking.” That’s when a dog pees on top of another dog’s urine to ‘steal’ the spot as their own.
Breed
“There is some research out there looking at breed differences in various aspects of dog cognition, but not self-awareness, per se,” Dr. Howell explains.
For example, a 2022 study found Border Collies have the highest scores on self-control tests. Meanwhile, Labrador Retrievers excel at interpreting human pointing gestures. No single breed scored the best on all mental tasks, though, so it’s impossible to pinpoint who is ‘closest’ to self-awareness.
Human interaction
Currently, it’s unclear whether the company of humans is helping dogs gain full self-awareness quickly. After all, wolves don’t spend much time with humans, but they’ve passed the olfactory mirror test the same as dogs. This would suggest companions of any species can support self-recognition.
iStock/damircudic
Does Self-Awareness Help Bonding?
Even if your dog wants to eat human food and sleep in a human bed, they do realise they are not human. They don’t think you’re a dog, either.
“Dogs interact and respond differently to people versus dogs,” says Dr. Sung. For example, dogs generally don’t stare each other in the eye unless they’re trying to assert dominance. However, they know humans often communicate with eye contact, so they’re more willing to return a loving gaze from a human.
Dogs also have a basic theory of mind — they understand humans may have thoughts or desires that don’t match their own. Additionally, they understand the difference between intention and accident.
In other words, dogs understand that you’re more than an obstacle to their quest for endless treats. You’re an individual with your own thoughts and feelings. That makes their love for you quite different from their love for their favourite bed or toy.
So whether or not your dog is fully self-aware of their emotions, they do genuinely love you as their favourite person.
