My dog loves the elevator, definitely cant tell the difference since both floors are the same, keeps going to our downstairs neighbors door like its our own before smelling it and realising her mistake.
I mean… I also went into my neibours apartment a couple times by mistake.
Looking at my dog, I think he understands elevators. Maybe not that why it goes, but probably does that it goes. Sometimes I think animals have better spatial awaerness then humans.
Some do, many don’t. Humans are actually really graceful compared to most animals and intuitively do very complex things in space. Tossing a paper ball into a garbage can from ten feet away is an almost uniquely human ability. You ever see a dog try to fit a long stick through a narrow door? Their ability to judge relative sizes and distance is terrible, comparatively.
I have seen too many videos of small monkeys and big apes throwing their dong to agree with your paper ball theory. Also frogs don’t throw balls but are great at catching insects, a lot of other animals have great spatial awareness when it comes to hunting prey. But tbh, I doubt wether they could grasp the concept of a box going up and down like humans do.
Have seen too many videos of dogs trying to take long sticks through narrow doors to disagree with you there though. Personally I think dogs are just not that smart after all that (in)breeding we did. I’m not calling dogs stupid, don’t want the world to dislike me.