A dog fights with his reflection in the mirror

Puppies are generally the only ones who seem to care about seeing themselves in a mirror. However, they don't actually recognize their reflection as an image of themselves. If you bring home a young puppy and they happen to walk or run past a mirror, they may catch a glimpse of their reflection. If they do, many puppies will stop in front of the mirror and begin to bark, growl, show their teeth, snarl, or even whimper at their reflection. This may seem like an odd reaction when seeing themselves, but this is mostly because they don't recognize that reflection as an image of who they are. Instead, your dog thinks there is another dog and will react as such. Some puppies will get a bit aggressive, while other puppies will take it as another puppy looking to play! Therefore, instead of growling or barking, they may play bow in front of their reflection, run back and forth in front of the mirror, bark in a playful tone, or try to play chase with the reflection. Older dogs will react in a completely different way. Although there may be times they catch their image in a mirror, generally, an older pup will simply ignore their own reflection and seem like they don't even see anything. They may stare off at something else, not make any eye contact, and avert their eyes.

Dogs do not have the ability to recognize their own reflection in a mirror the way humans and some other animals are able to. In fact, human babies are not even able to recognize their own reflection in a mirror as themselves until the ages of 18-24 months. Despite the fact babies might be fascinated by their reflection, they believe it is another baby and interact with them socially. Similarly, experiments confirmed the same sequence of events with chimps. Mirrors were placed in the chimps' home cages and at first, the chimps reacted as if they were seeing a reflection of another animal. However, just like humans, over time they began to recognize the reflection as themselves. They begin to touch parts of their face and bodies while carefully and intently looking at the movements in the mirror.