Most dog owners have spent at least some time wondering what's going on in their pet's mind, sometimes out of curiosity, and sometimes because they've done something ridiculous! You may have also wondered what your pet thinks of you. Does he see you differently, or does he look at you the same way he looks at other dogs at the park? If you’ve ever wondered “does my dog think I’m a dog?”, read on!
So, the short answer to the question “does my dog think I’m a dog?” is no. This primarily boils down to your dog's senses, primarily smell.
Dogs have the same senses as humans, but their sense of smell is much stronger; humans have about six million olfactory receptors in the nose (the receptors that allow you to smell) while dogs have up to 300 million (depending on breed, mostly)—making their sense of smell anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 times better than an average human. Dogs also have a second olfactory system - the Jacobsen’s organ - that allows them to process much more information through smell than humans can—including what species they’re interacting with!
You know how your dog greets by sniffing other canine’s backsides? That’s not just a “dog’s way of saying hello.” What they’re actually doing is sniffing out information. There is a ton of information your dog can get just from another dog’s scent, including their age, gender, health, sexual readiness, and—you guessed it—whether or not they’re actually a dog! Your dog can tell instantly whether they’re interacting with another dog or a human by scent alone—so when your dog gets a whiff of you, they know they’re dealing with a human.
Not only can dogs identify other canines by scent, but it turns out, they likely can recognize them by sight—even though there are hundreds of dog breeds each with their own unique features.
In a 2013 study, researchers at The University of Paris tested the ability of nine dogs to visually differentiate between images of other dogs and images of non-dog animals (including cats, birds, and chickens). They found that all nine dogs were able to separate the images of dogs from other animals, even if the breed or overall appearance of the dogs changed from photo to photo—which implies that dogs can both differentiate dogs from other species and recognize other dogs from sight alone.
So, in other words, when your dog looks at another dog—even if it’s bigger, smaller, or looks completely different than they do—they see another canine. When they look at you? Not so much. There’s no way to know exactly what a dog is thinking or feeling—but when it comes to the question “does my dog think I’m a dog?” all evidence point to no. Humans and dogs smell different, look different, and behave differently—so when your dog is interacting with you, he’s clearly getting the signal that you’re a human, not a canine.
But again, just because your dog recognizes that you’re not a dog doesn’t mean he doesn’t identify with you or have a strong bond. A dog’s behavior with their owners clearly mimics children’s behavior with their parents (which we talk about in the next post)—so, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter to your pet if you’re walking around on two legs or four. What matters is that you’re the one feeding them, playing with them, and loving them every day!
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