We love watching dogs look at themselves in the mirror. Whether you’ve watched one of the countless viral videos of puppies barking at the sight of their own reflection or you’ve seen your own dog staring at their partner through a magnifying glass, then you probably smiled at their adorable, silly, and hilarious reactions.
But you might also wonder what dogs are thinking when they see their reflection. Why is my dog staring in the mirror? Does my dog see their own reflection and recognize it? Do they think they see a completely different dog? Are the dogs self-aware enough to figure out what they’re looking at?
Naturally, we have a lot of questions about how our furry friends see the world and themselves. Thankfully, there is some scientific research that can give us some answers.
Does my dog think their mirror image is another dog?
One of the most common things that dog lovers believe when they see a dog react to a mirror is that they have to think they are seeing another dog. That is a reasonable assumption.
Dr. Tiffani Howell, Senior Research Fellow at La Trobe University in the Department of Psychology and Public Health, co-author of several studies on canine cognition and perception, and even research on whether dogs can use mirrors to solve problems. Her observations support the view that dogs, in fact, think they are seeing other dogs in the mirror image, at least at first.
“Most puppies react very similarly when they first see a mirror,” says Dr Howell. “First, they get very excited and start barking or playing bows and arrows at the ‘other dog’. They also try to go around to the side or behind the mirror to find the dog. Then they get confused when ‘the other dog’ doesn’t react the way they expect.”
Howell notes that after a few minutes, most puppies will lose interest in the mirror. While they may initially think they’re seeing another dog, they certainly can’t smell or hear another dog, so they’ll quickly stop paying attention. “Perhaps the lack of any olfactory or auditory cues from this other dog would confuse them as well,” says Dr.
Can dogs understand how mirrors work?
Even if dogs don’t recognize themselves in the mirror, they are still very intelligent animals. So you might be wondering if dogs can understand how mirrors work. For example, can they see the reflection of a hidden dish and find it anywhere in the room?
Howell and fellow researchers conducted two different studies to find out if dogs can use mirrors to solve problems. IN first study, they put the dogs in a room facing the mirror. Behind the dogs, they set up a window leading to another room. In the experiment, they let the dog owners poke their favorite toys in the windows while the dogs looked at them in the mirror. The goal was to see if the dogs would recognize their humans in the mirror, then turn around to face them.
Of the 40 dogs they tested, only two turned to face their humans. In those two cases, the researchers couldn’t tell for sure if the dogs really understood the reflection in the mirror.
However, in second experiment, the researchers took a different approach. Again they put the dogs in a room with a mirror. Half of the dogs were allowed to look in the mirror, and the other half, as the control group, were covered with a mirror so they couldn’t see anything. The researchers then hid the snacks in a room where half of the dogs could look in the mirror and the other half couldn’t.
Result? “Dogs that can see food in the mirror are more likely to find it within the three minutes they are allotted,” says Dr. Of the 22 dogs that could see food in the mirror, 17 found the food within three minutes. Of the 22 dogs in the control group, only 9 found the reward.
This experiment seems to indicate that many dogs do, in fact, have some understanding of how mirrors work and can use them to solve problems.
“And don’t worry,” says Dr. Howell. “All dogs were treated before they left the lab, so no one was disadvantaged just because they were in the control group.”
So are dogs self-aware?
You may have heard that an animal’s ability to recognize its own reflection in a mirror is closely related to their self-perception. So if dogs don’t see themselves in the mirror, does that mean they’re not aware of themselves?
Unnecessary. Dr Howell notes that this “mirror test” may not be appropriate for other animals. Humans are very concerned with how they look, but dogs often use senses other than sight, such as smell, to explore the world.
So, can dogs use an “olfactory mirror” that reflects scents instead of visual images to recognize themselves? Alexandra Horowitzauthor, professor and head of the Canine Cognition Laboratory at Barnard College, Columbia University, created an experiment to answer that very question.
Because this researchHorowitz and the researchers exposed dogs to three urine samples. The first samples were the dogs’ own urine, the second was from other dogs, and the third was the dogs’ own urine mixed with an additional scent. In the experiment, the dogs sniffed other dogs’ urine and their urine samples added a scent longer than they smelled their own urine.
The study authors argue that this shows dogs have a sense of self because they can tell when scents belong to them and when they don’t. They recognize their own smell in a similar way to how we perceive our own reflexes visually.
Should you let your dog look in the mirror?
Your dog can respond to the mirror by probing, barking, scratching, growling, or showing interest in any way he chooses. This might make you wonder if your dog is feeling stressed or if there are any downsides to keeping him near a mirror, assuming they still care about it after a few minutes.
Obviously, if there’s a chance your dog might spill or break the mirror, you should drive him away. But as for getting your dog stressed, there’s probably no reason to worry, especially when they realize that there really isn’t a dog on the other side.
Your dog probably won’t worry about a dog in the mirror for long, if at all. Howell notes that a dog will not be afraid of mirrors unless it is trained. “Of course, if they learn to associate the mirror with negative outcomes, they can become afraid of the mirror in the same way that they can learn to fear anything that way,” says Dr. Howell. .
If your dog happens to be showing signs of distress around the mirror, it’s best to keep him away. If not, let them enjoy their mirror image and shoot a fun, cute video to remember the good times.
