You may think that your dog is unable to recognize himself. However, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, dogs know where their legs end and where the world begins. Or what is the same, they have body consciousness. Thus, our furry companions (like humans) recognize themselves as an entity other than the environment.
This ability, known as body awareness, is one of the most basic manifestations of self-awareness. People develop body awareness very early. In fact, five-month-old babies can already distinguish their own moving legs from a video recording of the same action.
The mirror test
Previous research has shown that other species have body consciousness and that they can, for example, recognize themselves in front of a mirror. Apes, elephants, dolphins and some birds are capable of passing the mirror test, as says Péter Pongrácz, professor of ethology at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest (Hungary). However, dogs are not able to recognize themselves in the mirror.
However, in this new study the scientists investigated whether dogs had a lower level of self-awareness, since they are intelligent animals and, in theory, they need to have body awareness in order to overcome obstacles.
The body as an obstacle
To test the pets’ body awareness, the researchers selected 32 dogs and carried out the ‘body as an obstacle’ test. That is, the dogs had to pick up an object and hand it over to its owner while sitting on a rug. However, the object was glued to the mat, so the animal had to get up off the mat in order to lift the object. In other words, his body was an obstacle to carrying out the task.
The researchers concluded that the dogs got up more frequently when the object was glued to the carpet than when it was glued to the floor. This served the scientists as an object of comparison, as it is the first evidence that dogs are able to understand the difference between their own body and the environment.
Likewise, according to this study, dogs are able to recognize their own scent, are aware of body size and have memories of specific moments.
