Well my cat managed to get out while I was cleaning my refrigerator.out
😳🙄
@Darkenyght1701 How does that work? Is your refrigerator the gateway to an alternate universe? LOL
Hope you find the cat. My dog comes when calls. I don't know any cats that come when called, only to the sound of a can opener.
@Darkenyght1701 Insofar as I know, animal psychologists will tell you that your cat and my dog don't understand guilt or misbehavior.
When McKinley gets out I always make it worth her time to come back. I'm all "Look what I have for you!" At her age, this doesn't happen much anymore as she's about 85 in human years.
@J_Windrow I 've read that, but....when I sat down in a lawn chair outside after finding her, and putting her in my lap, she hung her head for a moment as though she knew she had done the wrong thing.
Once I scratched it, she knew everything was ok in her world.
She's 13 going on overgrown kitten 😂
@Darkenyght1701 They're all about survival. Hanging her head isn't necessarily what you think as a human. We anthropomorphize a lot.
Dogs and cats are more dependent on smell than sight. They don't have the same vision we do. Cats see primarily in gray with some blue and yellow. Dogs are also colorblind and have about 20/50 vision in human terms.
I worked at a training kennel. We work with the reflexes of the animal and then train the human to give the right clue.
@J_Windrow this is Piper..... claiming her spot on the brand new love seat 😂😹
@Darkenyght1701 My little gal is 17, which is quite old for a dog. But she could live to 20 or 21. Some small breeds live a long time.
Our pets are a bundle of reflexes (think laser on the wall for your cat) and we often misinterpret them because we consider them human.
Mine figured out I can't hear well so she's made herself the guardian of the door, the walkway, and also tells me when I forget the microwave is beeping. It's a survival thing - I survive, she survives.
@J_Windrow My cat is a Russian Blue, which is generally considered one of the more intelligent breeds.
She has a " vocabulary". I know she doesn't grasp the words themselves, but she's learned to associate the sounds with certain actions I perform.
@Darkenyght1701 The brightest dogs know about 250 words. They're herding breeds.
Kinley knows the standard including "drop it." Usually I communicate with her using large body movements, but she's starting to lose her vision.
I prefer to train using voice and hand commands so if the dog is off the leash I can still control the behavior.
She knows "ride" but it's always associated with a behavior that includes a leash and her car vest/seatbelt and a large motion. Probably a package deal.
@J_Windrow I can say " out" or " want to go out" ...and Piper will run for my front door
" treats".....and she comes running 😹. same thing with " food" .
They may not be " people"...but they are definitely family 🙂
Our companion animals certainly are family. They experience love and fear and so many of the emotions we do. And most of them learn to interpret at least some of of our signals. Just as we learn go interpret some of theirs.
A friend was over yesterday. He used to say: "I don't like dogs much." But my girl has done therapy work when she was young. Now he says, "I'm going to miss her so much when it's her time."
@J_Windrow heh... If I scold her, in a calm voice, she lays her ears back and gives me that wide eyed look as if she's trying to say " sorry"
@J_Windrow I finally tracked the little PITA down.
She wouldn't come to me, because she knew she was in the wrong for sneaking out the door. 🙀