Canine behavior studies have made many advances in recent times, including a recent study that suggests that, just like humans, your dog understands the impact of his actions and obvious body awareness.
Self-representation is an abstract concept that revolves around the idea that a person has a particular image in his or her own mind.
At a much simpler level, body awareness or recognition of the relationship between a human body and the environment appears to be a common concept both in humans and a dog, according to researchers.
Canine self-awareness
In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports on February 18, researchers suggest that a person’s best friend can recognize their relationship to their environment and differentiate the impact of their actions. Dogs may have displayed the simplest way of self-awareness.
With such close proximity to dogs by humans, researchers studied the notion of self-awareness and body image in a man’s best friend.
Peter Pongracz, co-author and researcher from Eotvoz lorand University, Hungary, tells Inverse, “The field’s self-awareness is poorly studied in dog experience.”
Researchers saw dogs placed in a small rug to see if dogs can sense body awareness. According to Pongracz, bodily consciousness is a person ‘s mental ability to organize action by contemplating being in one’ s own body.
He says, “Our test put dogs in a position where they could solve an action but if they remove them from a mat, otherwise by standing on the mat; they would not be able to toy which was attached to lifting the rug. “
Out of 54 adult dog participants, 32 passed the first screening.
Researchers suggest that dogs in the study may have identified their bodies as an obstacle in recovering the object attached to the mat. Canines quickly removed the rug and delivered the products to their owners on order.
The findings conclude that the dog’s behavior, especially during the initial tests, demonstrates the dog’s bodily sensory capacity.
WHO CAN: Why do dogs love to lure us?
What does canine self-awareness mean to us?
The research team explained that if dogs have the level of self-awareness displayed at the time of the tests, they would have the mental ability to recognize their actions and outcomes, separating external stimuli.
Whether each animal exhibits self-awareness is a hot topic for debate due to small researchers and very few species being tested, Pongracz has a hypothesis.
He explains, “Based on our theory we consider individual models of self-representation as a kind of modification of some ecologically relevant problems. I would like to predict that any species should with a complex nervous system and a relatively large body mass moving in a complex environment the mental capacity for body awareness. “
Researchers believe that their findings establish best practices for future scientific studies around body self-expression or awareness of other animals.
Overall, researchers are proposing innovative ways to determine the extent to which animals perceive their relationship with others and their surroundings.
LOVE STORY: Dogs are always great: A study finds an owner’s personality confirms the success of canine training
Check out more Dogs on Science Times news and information.