I resolve animal consciousness in two ways, both of which are more for their entertainment value than anything else. One is to say that consciousness comes before matter, as different personae of the same logos, so the animal is the vessel of the divine experience. The other is to relegate that idea to only humans, and explain animals as egregors - psychic constructs that maintain themselves independently of conscious direction. Like I said, it's more for entertainment value than serious thinking. I like how you can build whole structures of explanation for the physical present as plausible alternatives to the usual explanations of empirically observed phenomena.