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Animal Consciousness

Consciousness is a sense of one's personal or collective identity, including the attitudes, beliefs, and sensitivities held by or considered characteristic of an individual or group. Consciousness is what most believe makes life worth living. I believe that animals, like humans, are conscious of their daily lives. They are able to express emotions like we do. They are able to be trained to perform skilled tasks on command. As babies they are raised by their mothers and at times seek comfort amongst others of its kind, which is also behavior very similar to that of a human. Plus, their conscious minds grow weary over time and require certain periods of sleep to recover. With all these human-like characteristics some animals, like dogs and cats possess, it is reasonable to believe that animals do in fact contain some type of consciousness.
Most animals, like dogs and cats, display emotions that reflect their innermost feelings of joy or grief. A dog, for example, may whine in sorrow for hours on end when it owner leaves, but once it is in the company of it owner again it may rapidly wag its tail and lick it owner's ankles in excitement. Why would the dog care to display such emotions if it were not aware, or conscious, of the departure or arrival of its owner? One could still question the consciousness of the animal by saying that the animal may have been happy to see its owner return because it knew that its needs such as water and food were going to be replenished or that since dogs are pack animals it may have felt insecure without another being in its company. However, suppose that all needs of the dog were met and there was another dog there to keep it company. Then once the owner leaves there should be no reason for the dog o show any signs of anxiety or depression because that would mean that the dog is conscious of itself and the surrounding environment. Yet, suppose the dog still whines in sadness when its owner leaves and rapidly wags its tail in joy when...