Are dogs better than humans?

Now I'm an animal lover from way back. I'm here now to introduce you to Zali, my beloved 20 month old dog. We believe she's a Koolie x Kelpie, a great combination for me, a lover of work dogs. I had a thought this morning I'd like to share. If you've any conversation to add, please do so.

There's been study and lots of discussion over whether or not dogs are conscious living beings. That is, whether they realise their bodily presence and link it with their soul, so to speak. One fairly accurate way of I've heard of testing this idea is by getting a dog used to its reflection in a mirror, painting something on their face, an obvious blue mark or something, and returning them to the mirror to see if they try to remove it. Now I've a few queries with this experiment, such as 'my dogs choice of perfume is horse shit, why would they care if there's a mark on their face?' among others.

Either way, my question to you today is, if they are completely conscious of their presence in this world as a physical being with a soul (which I believe they are) does it make them more caring, compassionate, loyal beings than humans? Because they will always put you first (even in ball games, its been said they only return the ball to make you happy) and share your burdens. There's so much more that could be said on this subject...

What then is the basis for humanity? What are our main traits? I shudder to think.