Animal Awareness

Do you think pets and wild animals have an awareness of themselves? Or do you think they just have pure animal instincts with no awareness of themselves at all?

a reply to: bucsarg

Since this is a subjective question,

animals are more aware and have more feelings about life, love and loss than we do.

When I watch a bird flying in the air currents I wonder if they feel joy.
a reply to: intrptr

a reply to: bucsarg

So do I!

Especially when I see one do a big swoop, I imagine themg "woooooooooooooooooooohoooooooooooooooooo"

Like when you go down a big drop on a roller coaster!

a reply to: bucsarg

After watching my dogs and spending time with them, I'd have to say that they do. There are things that they do that make me laugh and they do them whenever I'm down. For instance, Molly, my older dog, stretches and then kicks her legs. It always makes me laugh. Now, she doesn't always do this. It's just when I'm feeling down and only when she knows I'm looking.

Double post

Had a cat named Charcoal. Had him since he was a kitten. I swear he thought he was human. He would look directly into my eyes and it felt like he had a soul. For the fun of it when I would walk by him he would take a swipe at me and meow. I think he was having fun. He did this often.
a reply to: nonspecific

I'm convinced from observing nature that animals have awareness. I have even seen a cat befriend a mouse, they ate out of the same dish the two cats. These outdoor cats ate mice, chipmunks, squirrels, and bunnies. The cats waited for the white footed mouse to eat before they went to eat when I fed them. I also saw them choose certain chipmunks as friends and even one squirrel.

Now the male cat knew when we were going to start a fire in the firepit to cook supper. It understood what we were saying from years of this practice. It would kill little animals and lay them along the path so I would clean and cook them. They were not there before we talked about barbecuing. He would go out hunting when he heard us. Of course, I didn't cook them for him, I just tossed the animals into the woods but he enjoyed BBqed food while I cooked. He just died this winter, we need to bury him soon, he is in the freezer. I really miss him, he was with us for seventeen years.

I know people who raise cows and others who raise chickens. They will tell you that these animals have personalities and that they are aware. Even though they eat the meat, they still know that these animals are conscious beings and treat them right while they are alive. The only reason we have denied that animals have consciousness is because people did not want to feel guilty when it came time to kill them for our food. It was a protective measure to make sure humans survived and also so animals survived. If we were all vegetarians, we would have to rid the earth of all animals that competed with us for the veggies. Now we manage our deer herds instead of killing them because they eat our gardens.

It would be nice if the deer didn't eat my garden, but they have rights too here. They also can understand me when I tell them not to eat in my garden. But the wandering deer do not listen, they never heard me tell them so the ones who live here and we feed are the ones that listen. But the little fawns, they can't understand us yet, they don't listen to their mothers. Just like our young.

originally posted by: bucsarg
Do you think pets and wild animals have an awareness of themselves? Or do you think they just have pure animal instincts with no awareness of themselves at all?

Watch a pet try to fight in his mind between what he wants to do, and what you are telling them they are allowed to do.. You can see/feel that stress.. It's called free will and it only comes after self awareness..

Watch a dog get embarrassed lol..

I don't know how this is even a question.

But in any case any animals who have free time.. They are the only ones who start acting out non automatic patterns of behavior. Most humans stay in this continuous state of perceptions and reactions so anyway.. They aren't acting of true free will either, but free will is a higher state of self awareness, and anything that tries to stay alive is exercising self awareness..

having animals notice you are sad and try to make you laugh...
My cat knows what tomorrow means, what later means, what sentences mean with names in the sentences... "Lucy will take you out after we eat dinner." The cat then finds lucy after dinner and when we seem free, then asks to go out.. He won't ask unless hes been promised already. So I mean seriously.. Promise him he can go out tomorrow, in the morning.. You'll find him trying to resist waking you up but kind of jumping around you on the bed.. Tell him at night, he will wait till it's dark out.


Talk to your animals like you would talk to small kids or babies.. They don't understand anything about your voice at first, but it helps them to be addressed to have more need of self awareness.. At some point they know what you are saying. And because they don't have great vocal chords or tongue control, I do most of the talking.. They sort of have consciousness like a 3 year old or so.. but they can put enough whine and tones in their voice for different versions of yes and no, and a few other words. They can hear way more words than they can say.. WAY more..

I placed bird feeders in my back yard near the woods. I wanted to feed them as well as enjoy watching them. Ended up having a deer problem. I watched the deer use their nose to cause the bird feeder to lean in such a way the bird seed would fall to the ground. The deer would eat the bird seed on the ground until it was gone. Then it would do it all over again until the bird feeder was empty. Sometimes more than one deer would show up and they would take turns tilting the bird feeder. I was surprised how smart they were.
a reply to: rickymouse

Years ago, I had another dog. It was cold and I put a tee shirt on her so she wouldn't freeze when she went outside. She looked silly and she knew it. She let me put it on her but she gave me the most awful looks.

a reply to: KnightLight

I see most people acting in automatic patterns when they get older. Just our automatic patterns are a little harder to figure out. This starts at about fifteen years old usually, after we are conditioned. What we believe or have learned actually sets these patterns and I do not think it is much different in animals. Most people have limited insight, I see this all over the place. Their rationality is based on what they have been taught. They cannot seem to think on their own and choose the easy way out.

I even have this problem and I am trying to break free of it. I have been conditioned most of my life, what do you expect. But now, that I am retired, I have more time to investigate this conditioning spreading through society and look for patterns. No wonder the people running this thing want the younger people to believe the older people have dementia or Alzheimer disease. These people have time to evaluate what they have experienced. Sure some people have these diseases but look at the commercials, they want people to think any old person who forgets something because their mind is preoccupied in thought is experiencing cognitive decline. They are teaching us to ignore people who actually have time to think about what is happening.

I am sure that this also happens in other places in the animal kingdom. The animals choose behaviors because they have learned that they are safe and it makes their life much easier and stress free. Humans on the other hand get themselves into hot water a lot, they do not learn the first time. By trying again they seem to have created a learning pattern and this stubbornness is what made us get this advanced. You watch a crow, he learns by his mistakes but is also stubborn. The trouble with us humans is we think just because others in the past have made a mistake, we have gotten smarter and won't make it. But all we have got from this is better at making up excuses and more comfortable at pointing fingers at others to shed the blame.

Maybe the animals are smarter than us.

originally posted by: KnightLight
Watch a pet try to fight in his mind between what he wants to do, and what you are telling them they are allowed to do.. You can see/feel that stress..

For a long time, I would feed my dogs by having them sit and wait, putting the bowls down and then saying. "OK". I realized they were staring at the food when I said, "OK" and decided it would be better if they were looking at ME when I released them. So, I taught them that.

Now, after I put the bowls down, Jaia stares at the food for a second, then looks at Cara's food, then at Cara, THEN he remembers he's supposed to be looking at me and he whips his head around to make solid eye contact with me, and locks his eyes onto mine. LOL! It's so cute, but in that moment when he's trying to remember how to make the word come, I see him panic just a little and look at several different things before he remembers...

To answer the OP, a resounding YES! After living with and closely observing a pack of dogs for more than 12 years, they absolutely do have an awareness of themselves. They communicate at least as well as we do. We just have to learn their language.

Dogs and Self Awareness Blog

originally posted by: bucsarg
When I watch a bird flying in the air currents I wonder if they feel joy.
a reply to: intrptr

Don't know about joy, do you feel joy when you walk down the street?

originally posted by: Skid Mark
Years ago, I had another dog. It was cold and I put a tee shirt on her so she wouldn't freeze when she went outside. She looked silly and she knew it. She let me put it on her but she gave me the most awful looks.

A mate of mine used to have a standard poodle, Huge great thing he was. At one point he was a guard dog at a rough Sheffield pub.

He never had a "poodle" cut but got sheared when needed.

A mix up with a new girl at the groomers meant he got a proper poodle cut with little fluffy balls and even one on his tail.

We all thought it was funny but I swear you could see in that dogs eyes that he knew he looked like a twat and was not happy until it grew out.

originally posted by: intrptr

originally posted by: bucsarg
When I watch a bird flying in the air currents I wonder if they feel joy.
a reply to: intrptr

Don't know about joy, do you feel joy when you walk down the street?

I Iamgine it depends on your destination?

Pub yes, court nope.

a reply to: bucsarg
My pets express what I feel is an awareness, for example if my mom is gone I'll see my dog get up and look out the window 2-3 times an hour to see when she's back, which to me feels like he has an idea that a someone close to him has left and he wants to know where they are and hen they're coming back.

As well my teacher has said before that if he looks at animals like cows being kept in poor confined conditions vs animals that he see's running out in the wild he can see just a noticeable difference in their expression, especially in the eyes (he's said he cant properly explain it)

originally posted by: nonspecific

A mate of mine used to have a standard poodle, Huge great thing he was. At one point he was a guard dog at a rough Sheffield pub.

He never had a "poodle" cut but got sheared when needed.

A mix up with a new girl at the groomers meant he got a proper poodle cut with little fluffy balls and even one on his tail.

We all thought it was funny but I swear you could see in that dogs eyes that he knew he looked like a twat and was not happy until it grew out.

That poor dog.

a reply to: bucsarg



Some of these dogs you see more on auto instinct, like a child who hides his face to hide his body.. Some of these dogs can't even stand to be in their own skin..

Last doggy wants to cry.

And this one Here is just another 3 minutes or so..

By the way My cat doesn't like their tones of voice.. I don't like making my cat feel that bad for "messing" up.. I remember how I used to feel when my parents did the same stuff after they got home, and we had gotten into lipstick or paint or some sort of crazy mess..
That one woman who comes home and the Dog is already showing a guilty face.. You can tell the animal feels embrased with no cues from an owner.. That's mostly how I found out my dogs did something bad.. They wouldn't be able to make eye contact.. Same as I never could when I felt that guilty.


Guilt is pretty complex.. It implies consciousness of self and others.. Expectations of good and bad.. bad behavior.. and regret.. A desire to please.. ie. Dogs LOVE you. haha.

originally posted by: bucsarg
Do you think pets and wild animals have an awareness of themselves? Or do you think they just have pure animal instincts with no awareness of themselves at all?

i studied some basic cognitive neuroscience so i venture to guess yes. human have this more advanced neuro-circuitry called "neo -cortex" that lay over a more basic circuitry. lesser mammals like cats/dogs have only basic part.