When Your Dog Discovers the Mirrori

HellsKitchenmanNYC

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People had always told me that animals can't either see themselves in mirrors or when they look at one they don't have the depth perception to recognize that what they are seeing is actually right behind them or next to them. I used to try to get my last pooch to look into a mirror and he was so not into it and when he kinda did he was indifferent so I bought into that idea. Friends told me they tried to get their cats to look into mirrors and the cats could care less.
I was in the kitchen one day and I heard my dog going crazy and thot he was as usual futzing around w/the comforter because Italain Greyhounds LOVE to be under covers. I went into the room and noticed smudges on the mirror and couldn't remember that happening. Very Amityville Horror! I left the room and heard him ruffhousing again and came back and caught this on tape tho I missed the best part when he was testing himself in the mirror by turning one ear up and then one down...it was priceless but this it what remains of the incident:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ehjPQPi0vc
 
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Calboner

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That's pretty funny, especially when he tears around in a circle and always finds that the other dog is still there. It reminds me of a bit in this famous scene from Duck Soup. Watch what happens at 1:44.

My parents used to have a great Dane that reacted to animals on television. Anytime there was an animal -- any animal -- on the screen, she would start barking at it. Once, my mother could not figure out why the dog was barking at It's a Wonderful Life. I pointed out that she was reacting to the crow that appears in the scenes at the bank.
 

molotovmuffin

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Hahaha....you telling him to get that dog was pretty good too....



My cat stares at herself all the time. She thinks she's purrrrty :wink:
 

HellsKitchenmanNYC

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Do you mean the dog is smarter than average because he can recognize a dog in the mirror or dumber than average because he can't figure out that he's looking at himself?


Well I gues that's what we;re trying to figure out. I didn't get the original shots of him raising and lowering his ears in patterns as if to test himself right before I turned the camera on. That made me believe he was trying to see if it was him or not.
 

Calboner

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Well I gues that's what we;re trying to figure out. I didn't get the original shots of him raising and lowering his ears in patterns as if to test himself right before I turned the camera on. That made me believe he was trying to see if it was him or not.
Another point of resemblance to the scene from Duck Soup -- except that the Marx brothers moved their arms and legs rather than their ears.
 

helgaleena

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I have ferrets, and some of them know it's themselves and some don't. It helps if I am holding them at the time, as seeing two me's clues them in.

But my birds? No room in their tiny skulls for this. They will fly smack into the mirror. And unlike parrots they don't use mirrors in their cages when i supply one. Doves have more instinct than thought.
 

AquaEyes11010

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I have a double yellow head amazon parrot named Sammy. I haven't tested him in the way scientists have tested primates for self-recognition (painting a dot on his head and checking to see if he notices it in his reflection and then making contact with it on his own head), but I do see a difference in his reaction to his reflection in the mirror and his reaction to pictures or videos of other amazon parrots. When he sees his reflection, he seems "non-chalant"; when he sees pictures or videos of other amazons, he tries to interact (either by vocalizing or "attacking"). Similarly, he doesn't react much to recordings of his own voice, but will react when hearing recordings of other amazons.

Another interesting thing I've noticed over the years with him is that he's come to know what "wanna come in the shower?" means, and is capable of expressing his "yes" or "no" answer. Before I bring him into the shower with me, I ask if he wants to come. Sometimes he steps up willingly, other times he'll refuse, usually going back into his cage and not stepping onto my hand on his own. When he "enjoys" the shower, he'll open his wings and "actively bathe." When he "doesn't enjoy" the shower, he'll just sit there sulking while the water falls on him. Sometimes I want him to have a shower regardless of "his choice" (like on a hot day, or if he got food all over his face from being a messy eater) and I'll grab him anyway after his "refusal." On every one of those occasions, he'll "sulk" in the shower and not "actively bathe." He'll only "actively bathe" when he steps onto my hand willingly after I ask "wanna come in the shower?"
 

mephistopheles

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Last night I went to my brother's friends house to get a puppy for my friend Laurance. She's a tiny dapple dachshund.

We got her in front of a mirror before we took her to Laurance and she was so funny... Probably because she was so tiny.

She barked in her tiny bark and acted like she was the cream of the crop.

:biggrin1:
 

thetramp

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The funny thing is we all go through that, we just don't remember but as little children we are not able to identify ourselves in the mirror, or on a photo or video.
Even more funny is, that we are able to identify other persons we know in the mirror, there is the so called rouge test. You put a point of rouge on the nose of your child and your own nose, and look into the mirror with it, it will noticed the point on your nose, and realize that you and the mirror image are identical, but not notice the point on the own nose and identify its mirror image. We just learn that at about age two.