Does my dog understand the concept of death? He's never

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Does my dog understand the concept of death? He's never seen anything die in front of him. We had another dog that died, but she was put down at the vet's office so he never got to see her die, she just disappeared from his life. I tried to "play dead" by stopping breathing and moving, and he just acted like nothing was different. Does he know that death is inevitable and he will die someday?

I guess you could argue that all animals try to avoid death, but I think they're really just trying to avoid pain, since they can understand pain hurts. I don't know if they are capable of making the connection that some pain could lead to death.