My dog is becoming self aware

[Manjushri]

Recently he's spent time pushing a bean bag chair into just the right position to stare in the mirror while he does various things. He will do this for a very long time if left interrupted. If I break his attention he puts his head down and seems ashamed.

[outerheaven]

That's so interesting! What do you think he's pondering, Manjushri?

I was a young child when my Mom held our cat up to the mirror and pointed out to me that he would avert his eyes away, not wanting to look at himself. Her theory was that the cat didn't appreciate the reminder that he was 'different' from humans. Sad theory

[AnthroHeart]

That's so interesting! What do you think he's pondering, Manjushri?

I was a young child when my Mom held our cat up to the mirror and pointed out to me that he would avert his eyes away, not wanting to look at himself. Her theory was that the cat didn't appreciate the reminder that he was 'different' from humans. Sad theory

That reminds me of I think it was a baboon that tried to attack when it saw itself in a mirror.

[Manjushri]

That's so interesting! What do you think he's pondering, Manjushri?

I was a young child when my Mom held our cat up to the mirror and pointed out to me that he would avert his eyes away, not wanting to look at himself. Her theory was that the cat didn't appreciate the reminder that he was 'different' from humans. Sad theory

Another sad theory - the cat thought of himself as ugly? Lol

This dog is the most unusual I have ever lived with. Another behavior of his I am reminded of is that he will sit on the couch and bite his nails and chew and eat them. He has the same shameful reaction if I call him out on it - even in a happy and encouraging way. Like a child caught picking his nose. So I don't call him out on it anymore.

I wonder myself what he is pondering. But the mirror and bean bag chair have only been within this reach and in this configuration for a few months. So I suspect he is pondering the new discovery that he is the dog in the mirror.

My other dog has no interest in the mirror. Just now, they were playing together in front of it and the big boy would stop and stare and then continue to stare at himself while continuing to play with his brother.

[Jade]

When my husband drives us camping and Judy is in the back seat, she makes eye contact with him almost the whole time through the rearview mirror. It always trips him out - mostly though because her blue eyes are so freaky sometimes!!! We don't have a full length mirror anywhere for her to play with, but she might enjoy it since she engages with the one so readily.

It's been interesting watching her "shift" upwards in these past months. When she came to us, she was starved and had been hunting small rodents for food. She was even standoffish towards my little dog because he leans towards the "rodent" category more than "wolf". As we've discouraged her desire to chase the small animals, she now has a very different reaction to them - intense curiosity. It's like she realizes now that they have lives and social groups of their own that they are interacting with. She's fascinated to just sit back and watch. Our last camping trip she was offleash the whole time (something we thought she might never be able to do due to her prey drive) and we had a giant bunny and a whole troupe of prairie dogs come IN to our campsite, as well as barn swallows constantly swooping by our heads, and she just let them be and sniffed the area they were in after they left.