It's confirmed, dogs have self awareness (they recognize their own scent)

in life •  7 years ago  (edited)

A new study indicates that dogs can recognize their own scent. This shows a level of self awareness which we once thought was only proven by the mirror test. The experiment was designed as a smell test for self recognition where the hypothesis was confirmed that dogs recognize their own scent when Jethro paid less attention to his own urine. While we don't know exactly how much self awareness it is that dogs have, it does confirm that they have some. Humans have the ability to see ourselves in a mirror but this may be due to differences in our sensory capabilities which may explain why dogs don't respond to the mirror test.

Be nice to dogs.

References

National Research Tomsk State University. (2017, September 5). The sniff test of self-recognition confirmed: Dogs have self-awareness: Alternative approach to the 'mirror test' confirms hypothesis of self-cognition in dogs. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 6, 2017 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170905111355.htm

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!
Sort Order:  

I think its too.

Wtf... I'm not sure that a disinterested dog proves anything... Also you're very unclear about what it would mean for a dog to be self aware... Clearly there are levels of self awareness that nobody would have ever called into question (i.e. a dog licking its anus very likely "knows" [whatever you take that to mean] that its his/her/its anus.

oh no, I always wondered about this!

That's interesting, it's also the reason why my pet dog always standing infront of the mirror, barking.

Good news for dog owner

Nice update

I always wondered about this, I'm glad to learn the "smell test" shows some interesting clues. When winter comes, maybe I will perform my own mini test. One time, I had a mirror on the ground, and my pup saw himself in the mirror and went into defensive stance and couldn't stop barking at himself. Talk about over-protective, that's why he's my best bud!

good tip for dog owner

I always like dogs and this article is so good and informative. Thank you for sharing. 😊

They definitely have self awareness and they have the capability to empathy :) always the best companion for human. There's even therapeutic pets which dogs are one of them. Love them.

Aye! Be nice too dogs. It's always funny how we humans think we are the only ones being aware of ourselves.

Although of what I've experienced there may be plants more aware about themselves than many people I met.

I am an animal lover and have more than one dog and more than one cat and anyone that loves animals can tell you yes dogs are self aware, shoot my dogs know how to spell certain words like Park and Ride

y era algo bastante obvio ! teniendo mucha mas capacidad de olfatear y mas desarrollado el sentido del osfalto que el humano !

Informative article. Thanks for sharing!

so that means, dog knows if they need to take a bath or not??????

this is a good post, I really like it. hopefully the next post is better than this. thank you already share. and thank you too, If you get the time, to see my post today about life and for the attention and love it I am very grateful.

Mmm interesante pero discutible

Some dogs are much more conscious than many people)

Dogs have a very highly developed sense of smell. Of course they are self aware regarding scent.
Just observing how they mark their territory and engage in sophisticated communication of scent.
I read a study a while back how dogs can detect disease in people with their sense of smell.

I suggest watching the documentary 'Animal Communicator' to learn how far behind 'science' is in understanding animals.

I always knew somehow! Part of me always told me that my dog is aware and that he understands a lot more than I think he does:).

  ·  7 years ago Reveal Comment