The post Penny Ignores Her Reflection: Is She Weird, or Is This Normal? by Savanna Stanfield appeared first on Dogster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren’t considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.
Hi, Iâm Savanna! Read my introduction to learn more about me and my spunky Chihuahua mix, Penny.
âMirror, mirror on the wall, whoâs the cutest poochie of them all?â I say as I desperately hold Penny up to a mirror and try to get her to interact with her reflection. I see videos of cats and dogs all the time that interact with their reflection in crazy ways, or at least interact in some way, so I want to see how Penny interacts also. But I canât get her to even look at herself in the mirror, let alone respond to it in some way.
Iâve tried holding her up to mirrors on the wall, putting her in front of mirrors on the floor; she just wonât look for more than a second. She does the same thing when you hold a camera up to take a selfie of her. I had my suspicions about why that was, but this whole situation led me to research dogs and their reflection in mirrors to see if my suspicions might check out. Hereâs what I learned.
Dogs Can See Their Reflection
Obviously, dogs can see their reflection. We know this because most dogs (except for Penny, apparently) interact with their reflection in some way when they see it. Some are quite curious, tilting their heads this way and that, trying to figure out who that dog is that theyâre looking at. Other dogs may respond immediately with aggression, baring their teeth at the âintruderâ dog in their home.
But most dogs will at least look at their reflection, and I canât get Penny to even look at hers. I assume she knows itâs there and sees it briefly, but she quickly turns her head away in less than a second as soon as I hold her up in front of the mirror, seemingly looking all around the room anywhere but in the mirror.
No selfies, please.
Do Dogs See Their Reflection as Themselves?
This is another question I had when I was trying to figure out why Penny wonât look in a mirror. What I found out was that most dogs donât see their reflection as being themselves, since dogs donât understand the purpose of mirrors and donât have a sense of self in the way that we humans do.
They do have some sense of self-awareness, but itâs more that they recognize their own scent versus the smell of another dog, and they can recall memories of themselves. But most dogs probably arenât going to look in a mirror and recognize their ears, paws, tail, or body as belonging to them, since they canât pick up on the smell, even if the dog in their reflection is making the same movements they are.
So, some dogs may see their reflection as another dog, but one that they canât smell. Now itâs starting to make senseâŚ
Hereâs Why I Think Penny Wonât Look at Her Reflection
Since dogs use smell as a key way of communication, it may make some dogs really uneasy to see themselves in the mirror because they canât get a good sense of the other dog.
I think Penny wonât look at her reflection because sheâs not the confrontational type. She doesnât really have a super ânervousâ or aggressive personality, but rather sheâs passive and shy around people and other animals she doesnât know. You might even call her âsocially awkwardâ in todayâs lingo.
Donât make eye contact!
When she sees another dog, she doesnât react aggressively. She just simply turns away from them and tries to pretend they arenât there instead. Itâs almost like sheâs trying really hard to make herself invisible. She does the same thing to two of our cats. Donât get me wrong, sheâs definitely curious about other dogs, cats, and people, but as soon as they start trying to interact with her, she doesnât want anything to do with them.
It makes sense to me now why she wonât look at her reflection. I think she sees it as another dog and not as herself, so she would rather just avoid contact with it at all costs. I may be totally off-base with this, but itâs what makes the most sense to me.
It almost makes me wonder that if dogs could smell their reflection, would Penny recognize it as being herself and interact with it? But I guess this is something weâll never know, since reflections donât have a smell.
So, Penny Isnât Just Weird After All
Success!
Now I know that Penny isnât just weird. A lot of dogs wonât interact with their reflection because they may see it as another dog they canât smell and it freaks them out. As much as I wish I could get a funny video of how Penny interacts with her reflection, I donât think that will be happening any time in the foreseeable future. The good news is that at least I finally did get her to look at her reflection long enough to take a selfie with me, but she still had no response to it whatsoever, and she only looked for half a second. Oh well, I guess thatâs better than nothing!
The post Penny Ignores Her Reflection: Is She Weird, or Is This Normal? by Savanna Stanfield appeared first on Dogster. Copying over entire articles infringes on copyright laws. You may not be aware of it, but all of these articles were assigned, contracted and paid for, so they aren’t considered public domain. However, we appreciate that you like the article and would love it if you continued sharing just the first paragraph of an article, then linking out to the rest of the piece on Dogster.com.
