This study isn't treating dogs as if they were not conscious or intelligent. It's isolating a particular aspect of intelligence to determine if it exists in a

This study isn't treating dogs as if they were not conscious or intelligent. It's isolating a particular aspect of intelligence to determine if it exists in a particular fashion. In this case, the question of if and how dogs are aware of human agency. This is a very interesting question. The exact same falsifying process is used with studies about humans. Using these processes we've significantly changed our understanding of human cognition in the last century so it seems like it's working! No one's suggesting that dogs or people aren't intelligent. The question is exactly how this intelligence functions, because there are many ways to reach a particular conclusion.