chimp looking at reflection in a mirror

This post doesn’t have anything to do with creativity or analogy.  However, it does concern a question about something I have a deep interest in and that is the issue of consciousness – human or animal.

One of the students in my module of the Animal Assisted Therapy Certification program asked me the following question:

“Cynthia, I know you’re busy now, but whenever you have the time I’d love to hear a psychologist’s take on this: I’ve heard and seen a lot of anecdotal evidence that dogs prefer the company of their own breeds. For instance, a vet I knew had dachshunds that would only play a certain chase game with other dachshunds who were visiting. Doggy visitors of other breeds had to settle for other games. Cesar Millan said that when he is jogging with his dog pack and stops for a rest, the rottweilers all find a spot in the shade together, the pit bulls will all segregate in a different area and so on. At a breeder’s golden retriever reunion in a park, there was one odd-man-out amongst all the goldens, an Australian shepherd mix that the breeder’s mother had brought. I watched as the goldens formed into interchangeable, small packs as they romped across fields and swam in a pond. The Aussie mix was excluded from these packs and tended to mill about on the edges of the group, ignored.

Is this evidence that dogs have self-awareness since they know when a dog is, or is not, of the same breed as them? So, how do they know if another dog is of the same breed? Is it because the other dog resembles their mothers? Or is this something more primitive, like a school of fish swimming together in the ocean?”

Cool question right?

This was my response.

“That is a very interesting question, Student X.

In general, self-awareness has been demonstrated in only a few of the most intelligent animals such as elephants, dolphins, and the great apes.  Magpies are the only non-mammal to have passed the test so far. However, I believe that the self awareness to which you are referring is different from that discussed by cognitive psychologists.  The cognitive psychology definition of self awareness depends upon how an animal performs on the “Mirror Test.”  In the test, the animal is marked in some way while it is asleep or sedated (i.e., lipstick on the cheek of an ape).  When the animal awakens, it is presented with a mirror. The animal is said to be self-aware if it then directs grooming behaviors to the new mark.  Such behavior demonstrates that it recognizes itself in the mirror and can use that information.

The obvious problem with such a test is that it is entirely visual.  I don’t think dogs could respond appropriately to such a test even if they were self aware. As an interesting side note, human children fail the mirror test until they become toddlers.

I know that dogs have concepts and categories and can visually classify each other because when we are driving in the car, my dogs will essentially ignore humans walking on the sidewalk but if a dog is walking with the human, they get very interested and stare at the dog until we drive out of sight.  It is not olfactory because this happens when the windows are up and at a distance.

I realize that basing a claim on my observations as I drive in the car is not at all scientific but I am a trained observer of behavior so it counts for me

The behavior you are talking about with breeds of dogs grouping together could be explained by breed-specific patterns of behavior. (I am just guessing on this so interpret the following accordingly.) Goldens orient the world in a certain fashion than do Australian Shepherds. Play behavior of animals is often closely tied to the behavior an animal engages in that is important to its survival. Play is a training mechanism. Though there are species general ways of interacting with others of its species (the “Play bow”), it could be that certain breeds of dogs play in a specific fashion. For example, Goldens are retrievers and Shepherds are herders.  Perhaps this difference manifests itself in the way the animals play making it easier for a Golden to play and interact with other Goldens and difficult for an Australian Shepherd to interact with Goldens. This would explain the birds-of-a-feather-flock-together behavior you are asking about.”

It sounds plausible doesn’t it?  But then, I think that is mainly what an advanced degree trains you to do – make intelligent guesses by extrapolating from the knowledge you already have.

When looking for images related to this post, I found a blog post that discussed the work demonstrating that elephants can pass the mirror test. I pulled the following image and the video showing the elephant passing the mirror test from this blog.

Click on image to watch video of an elephant passing the mirror test