Our German Shepherd Kali likes to carry stuffed animals around in her mouth. When retrieving them, she shakes them vigorously when first picking them up (a “killing prey” behavior).
So, we began calling these toys her babies, and paired the command, “shake the baby” with the shaking behavior.
Now, when friends bring their kids over to visit, we tell Kali to “shake the baby” and she does. Really freaks out new moms. 
It’s hard to tell from the angle, but they look like Border Collies, one of the smartest breeds there is.
“For I am a jealous dog and thou shalt have none before me.”
Actually, it’s the great apes which seem to recognize their reflections in a mirror. For some reason, only gorillas which have been habitualized to humans seem to pass the mirror test as well.
Lesser primates, such as baboons, Rhesus monkeys, and macaques, seem to display no sense of awareness of their own reflections.
Also, Eurasian magpies have passed the mirror test. And only one elephant is reported to have passed the test. Other elephants are reported to have been tested, but failed, but have reportedly demonstrated self-awareness in other ways.
Dogs appear to understand names. They understand their own names and what is not their name, the names of other dogs, other animals, people and things. How that correlates to a sense of self would be difficult to resolve, but clearly dogs do not think of names as simply commands. They use name as identifiers.
Five cats in your household? … I’ll bet a dog biscuit you don’t have a proper ground wire attached to your tin foil helmet …
Dogs do not understand English … however they can distinguish pitch, tone and sequences that emit from a human’s food hole …
I trained my dog using a “command voice” … a bit lower pitched than my normal voice … he also would always look at me first, and if I was looking at him he’d promptly execute the command … if I used my normal voice and was looking elsewhere, he’d obey only if it suited his fancy … I doubt this is normal, rather it’s how I specifically trained the beast …
Cats don’t need to understand English … they place these thoughts into your mind with malice aforethought … you may think they respond to their names, but in fact it is you who are being the obedient domesticated animal … aluminum makes a poor substitute for tin …
I remember seeing this. FTR, they are all aussies (australian shepherds) and border collies (or all aussies?), who are exquisitely bred for distinctly responding to human commands.
Actually, dogs do seem to understand some aspects of human language. In a study conducted last year, dogs’ brains were analyzed as they listened to their trainers’ voices.
I tend to agree. My dog Grady is a greedy SOB. But if we have him lined up with his cousin and sister, all three dogs can get their treats if we specify who each treat is for. This is for Gwenny, this is for Morgan, this is for Grady. If we don’t specify, Grady just grabs for the treat and it’s gone.
We’ve done this several times before.
My standard tale: When we had multiple cats, if you yelled at one of them by name the others would turn to see what the guilty party was up to.
They knew their names and the names of the others.
I have no idea if they can or not, but I used to be able to ask my old dog “Where is so and so”, and if that person was in the room, she would point to them. We could do that with all four members of my family in a room and she would point to every individual person correctly.
Of course, the mirror test only means anything if the animal is visually-oriented to begin with.
I’ve often wondered about this from the other side: when our cats make specific calls to get our attention, are they using names for us and we dumb ol’ humans just can’t distinguish between meows? (Probably not, but it’s interesting to think about).
I think they’re responding to something house. I don’t know what to say about your horses. I called my horses with a two-note melody, kind of like the Avon ring. I could shout out any two syllables and they would come. “Doo-fus!” “Stu-pid!” “Ding-dong!”
But then, I didn’t have very smart horses, to begin with.
OTOH my dog, a border collie mix, did kind of pass the mirror test. I think he would actually have known, if someone put a piece of tape or a mark on him, without looking in the mirror. But if he sees something in a mirror, like someone coming into a room, he looks to where the person actually is. And he no longer growls at the dog in the mirror–any mirror.
Our dog can be half asleep and if I say to him let’s go wake up my daughter, he’s up like a flash.
Our family cat had a similar trick that we discovered by accident. My Mum asked "Where’s John? and the cat looked up in the direction of John’s bedroom, where he in fact was. We soon learned that this worked with any family member 
The cat was very attuned to my mum. One time she glanced out of the window and said “What’s that strange cat doing in the garden?” and he dashed to the window to glare at the intruder. It did seem that he knew what “cat” meant and reacted to that and the annoyance/scorn in mum’s voice.
My pets certainly know their names.
I as a pet lover I believe that pet does know their names. But scientifically they only distinguish thru sound waves.
Before I click the link I’m guessing “Ginger.”
ETA: Yep. Perfect link for the thread.
my two dogs understand their names, expecially if in the same sentence as “cookie” 
I would guess they do not. They don’t seem to have language, and, without language, I can’t see how the concept of a name makes sense. There was this deaf man without language who suddenly had insight and picked it up. And it seemed like he’d never considered the idea that things could have names.
Note, not having language doesn’t mean they can’t communicate. Language is taking symbolic representation of concepts and arranging them to create meaning. You can still convey concepts, like “I want to go out” or “I’m so happy you’re home” and such, but you have to be able to put them together in some way to have language.
If dogs do have any sort of language, it’s not one we’ve been able to decipher, so I doubt they’d be able to decipher ours.
