If you record your dog talking to (barking at) you and play it back, the dog will think it’s another dog barking at them, and they will bark back. Tested with a Jack Russell terrier. They’re high strung by nature, but I imagine it’ll work with any breed prone to barking into a camera (not all of them will). Of course, the dog has no concept of self. It’s always another dog.

We do have a sense of self, and it’s often not how others see us. Consider that what you think of as you is only how you see yourself. It’s partly what you see in the mirror, but it’s also mixed with your ideals, who you want to be, and your shame, reflections of past mistakes. If you have a partner/lover, they see you differently. They tend to amplify your virtues and minimise your flaws. Same if you have a friend, but they still see a different side of you. Parents are stranger still; we tend to see our child for a few stand-out events in their lives. Not just parents, but anyone who’s raised a child from one age to another; as they develop, we latch onto one moment. I have two cousins I helped raise, and I always see the oldest one at 4-5 because that’s when we were closest. The younger one, I see at either 8 or 15 because those were her best years. They’re in their early to mid 30s now. Obviously I see them as women (and as mothers) but in my mind, they’re the children I helped raise. Ergo, I don’t use profanity around them. If I partook in vices like smoking and drinking, I would not do those things in their presence. (Plus, I was always the reliable adult when all the other adults were getting shitfaced, not that it was ever abusive AFAIK, but I was the sane voice in the room, so I wouldn’t want to jeopardise that.)

For a far simpler explanation, none of us actually sound how we think we sound. The camera does not lie, but we lie to ourselves.