Do dogs recognize their shadow?

My boy plays with his and will chase it back and forth on the side of the barn, he will scratch at it then get frustrated and bark at it. He also occupies himself by chasing his tail when nobody will pay attention to him or play with him. Pretty smart to entertain himself.

My take on that is perhaps some dogs might, especially if they are only young. Once they realise it's nothing to get excited about, they just ignore it. Rather like with dogs and mirrors and in some cases, dogs seeing other animals on TV. They might react at first, and then at some level, realise what's going on.

Some dogs have been known to try and chase their own shadow, but I doubt they recognise it as their own, and I doubt they give it much thought to it,as dogs act on instinct in the moment and do not sit and "think" or "reason" about things like humans do. If they did, they would be on a par with human intelligence.

ask adog not humans child

I think dogs have the intelligence of a 2 year old