You’ve probably tried it: making your dog look in the mirror. Many times, it seems like they are only looking at a wall. Others seem reluctant to see themselves and look away in all directions. And on many occasions, they get angry with themselves…
But are they aware that they are the ones on the other side of the mirror?
The mirror test has been performed on dozens of species. This is a test to check how far the animal’s consciousness reaches, and it consists of smearing a little paint on the animal’s face to see if, when looking in the mirror, it tries to remove it, which would indicate that it is aware that it is seeing its reflection.
Human babies know how to recognize themselves in a mirror at approximately 18 months of age. Precisely, they touch each other and try to remove things that they recognize are external to them. This behavior has also been seen in bonobos and orangutans (primates), as well as dolphins, killer whales, elephants, magpies and pigeons.
But dogs haven’t passed the mirror test.
The fact that there are animals that do recognize themselves in the mirror makes experts believe that there are self-aware species. But then, what are our dogs? some kind of automata?
This is something that many scientists, including Stephen Hawking, have questioned. From studies on the functioning of neural networks, it has been concluded that consciousness is not only in certain areas of the brain, but in those circuits that all species share. And this does not necessarily imply that an animal recognizes itself in a mirror, but rather that it has certain behaviors that go beyond that.
So we would rather have to ask ourselves if it is not necessary to remodel our concepts of “consciousness” and “intelligence” a little. Because it is also known that like forests they function in a complex way: their roots are like neurons, and the earth is like the network that connects the circuits. And as for consciousness, it is a concept as old as ourselves. But in the West, it is more involved with the “I” of psychology than with the community of nature.
What if some animals, like dogs, don’t recognize themselves in the mirror because they don’t think in individual terms?
Few animals are as loyal as dogs. And in general, canid species depend on living in packs in which intense bonds are generated, as in the case of wolves, whose way of caring for each other is truly moving.
So it would be feasible to think that dogs are not thinking about themselves: they expect to find someone else in the mirror, and that is why they always believe that what they see is another dog. This is the case of elephants, which only pass the mirror test half of the time they are put in that situation; and yet, they are beings whose sensitivity borders on the poetic. This would make animals like dogs beings closer to that of many of us, since they do not have a “self” notion as deeply rooted as ours, nor do they seem to care as much about their body – that is, the material –.
Of course: some tests – very interesting – have shown that dogs are more interested in their own urine than in that of other dogs. These tests have sought to find signs that dogs do have notions of identity, but these could have more to do with other senses, such as smell, which are much more developed in them than in us.
What would happen if dogs gave us smell tests? Perhaps they would think “That human lacks consciousness” when they saw that we cannot detect anything that is not a few meters away. Because perhaps the canine concept of consciousness is in the sense of smell or in some unsuspected place where we do not search due to lack of imagination, but above all, due to lack of empathy.
But then, what does a dog see in the mirror?
It is believed that there are two possibilities. One is that they see something that moves but since it has no smell, they do not identify it as something alive. Another is that they believe they are facing another dog, but it is the lack of smell that makes them behave more aggressive. So far, those are the two that are managed. What do you think?