No one else has seen this movie. No one has heard of the actors. Well, it exists in our minds. No, in fact, memory research shows us clearly that each time a memory is recalled, it is altered. Sooner or later, the movie becomes a shadow of itself in our minds.
Whole scenes are lost, detail is altered by recall, and so forth.
Now the animal is strange to us. Most would object to reducing the awareness of a human mind to that of a dog. The principle argument would no doubt have something to do with the difference in cognition. The human being is self-aware. This is a circular argument.