The journal Scientific Reports has found that dogs do, indeed, have a definite sense of self-awareness. But it’s not as strong as humans.
For sure, both research and anecdotal evidence show that dogs are aware of the size and shape of their bodies. They know if they can fit in a dog bed or on a car seat.
At Eotvos Lorand University, in Budapest, Hungary, scientists did the same study on dogs that they had done previously on human toddlers and great apes. It’s a test to see if an animal understands its body moving through space – and how to affect it – and they found the results to be roughly the same in all three species.
Using 32 dogs, from a variety of breeds and of varying sizes, did several experiments, including one in which a toy was attached to either a blanket or to the ground. In almost all cases, the dogs quickly discerned that, if the toy was attached to the blanket and not the ground, they had to move off the blanket to drag the toy to them. This showed they grasped the effect of their size or weight on the blanket and the toy.
