Pets and looking glasses

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How do your pets (dogs and cats) react to images in looking glasses, TV, printed images? I have experienced at a little dog barking at TV images, at images of her cospecifics printed or mirrored in the looking glass, having fear etc.

My dog barked when a doorbell went of on the TV or radio.... and we never had a doorbell.

It would piss me off late at night. I would leave on the radio all the time, it makes me feel less lonely.

My dog has done that before.

Tim

Have you tried putting your dog on a mirror? I read somewhere, it was in Vonnegut's book if I'm not wrong that if you do so, the animal will leap out very quickly because it will perceive this mirror as if there was no ground under, as if there was only empty space under its legs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirror_test

My cat doesn't react to TV images, reflections, photos, etc, at all, beyond a cursory glance to see what's moving.

I think it's funny when kittens try to play with the glass cat in the mirror.

My old cat used to like watching snooker, the moving coloured balls. The cat I have now likes wildlife programmes but I think it's the sounds rather than the images that attract him. He pricks up his ears when he hears birds singing on the TV.

I don't think this interpretation is right. The dog doesn't see himself in the looking glass. After all he doesn't know how he/she looks like. To know that what he/she sees is himself would require a conceptual apparatus he/she doesn't possess. What he/she sees in the looking glass is another dog and he leaps away because is scared.
Observe my political correctness with this he/she business and also I am against using it.

My dog barks at nothing, meaning barking at anything that is not there.
Even the sound of an underfoot leaf gets my dog barking.

We, Polish people don't have this problem because each noun has a gender For example "pies" - our name for a dog is masculine.

I've only had one dog that - once - reacted to something visual on the TV. They were showing something like a Pong game on TV and the white ball moving caught my dog's attention.

My cat sometimes is very interested in the fish on my screensaver... and at other times could care less.

My dog once walked through a glass floor, and when she realised she could see through the floor, leaped off. It has nothing to do with reflections, since in her case there wasn't one, but I think she really though there was no floor under her, judging but her reaction.

If you call a dog, especially a generic one, it, you're not undermining it. You could also call a baby it in some occassions with no problems.

Two of my cats, Peter and Paul, were interested in T.V. Prince and Samantha were more interested in other things, such as music, birds, and the dogs.