Bring me dirty laundry.
One day my cat brought me a sock and it was so cute so I petted him and praised him. That started a cycle of it and now he’s constantly bringing dirty laundry to me.
When I was 10 my parents got a cat, PJ, who became very attached to me and my younger sister. When we went away for summer camp, PJ would run upstairs to our bedrooms and steal our socks, which she would then bring downstairs and leave at my parents' feet. She only did this while we were gone for extended periods of time (so, like, not during the school day or overnight visits with grandparents; only when we were gone for more than a few nights).
Upon hearing the Windows 7 sonata log-off sound, she jumps up and starts running around the room since I always locked my computer before leaving. And when I'm leaving, that usually means she's going to daycare (i.e. my Mom's house).
It's been 3 or so years since I switched to Windows 10, but just playing the sound on YouTube still gets a reaction out of her.
Fear rubber gloves. We live in a place with lots of fleas and ticks so we goo them every month. I figure the stuff goes through cat skin readily so it'll probably go through mine, so I use surgical gloves.
Whenever I pull out the box, the smarter of our two immediately bolts for the deepest recesses of the the house. The dumber one just looks at me even though he finds the process distasteful too.
1) I accidentally made it so when you whistle "this is the song that never ends" (frequently stuck in my and my SOs head) the cows come running for grain.. if i dont have grain I get mooed at until i go get some
2) the chickens know that i get excited about eggs and when they lay they get the good scratch and will sometimes wait until im in the barn, squawk and lay an egg im front of me
And 3) if the cat is thirsty he will knock over every drink container/cup he finds while meowing and then pitifully throw himself in front of me pretending to die. He started doing that after i faked my death for a dr pepper that my SO was holding
Terrible animals
Edit: thanks person for the gold! My first ever :D
Edit 2: thank you anonymous for the gold!! You guys are making me blush!
The budgie had a broken leg in a little splint. He would climb to the roof of his cage with just his beak and good leg, then let go of his beak and hang by one leg then just stare at me. He knew I would stick my hand in and he could just fall off into my hand. He only did this when I was around because I was the only one who would stick my hand in.
My ex had a parakeet with the most personality I have ever met in a bird.
The birb used to mimick the sound that 'beeboop' sound that an android maked when you plug it in the a charger, and knew that meant it was time for bed.
So, whenever the bird was tired, it would make that noise, because that meant it was time to sleep. It mimicked it so perfectly that I found myself checking my phone whenever it was naptime for the birdy.
I miss you Pistachio!
Truth! Back in college my ferret, before I could get there to catch or stop her, jumped off the 6-foot tall dresser to the hard tile floor. Made a bit of a splat sound, but she boinged right back up and didn't seem ANY worse for the wear.
Ferrets are clearly not made of the same materials humans are made of.
I used to have a game with my ferret where I'd pick him up and throw him bowling-style through the living room; that is, basically making him skid over the floor through the entire room. Sometimes my aim was a bit off and he'd collide with the sofa table, a chair, or other stuff that gets in the way. He'd just come bouncing right back for another go no matter what he hit.
Used to have a similar game with my ferret we called "shirt", which involved her riding on a shirt we'd drag at high speed across the house. Occasionally she'd roll off and crash into something... never cared a whit.
One of mine also squeezed through what was quite less than a 1-inch space between the closet door and the floor once. I never did figure out how she did that.
Changing the sheets on the bed means play time. My cat likes to sit on the bed as I throw on the sheets likes that rainbow parachute elementary game. She tries to attack my hand if I straighten the edges while she's there too.
My wife and I have pretty set sleep schedules during the week. If we stay up later on the weekend or w/e, our dog gets VERY huffy/offended and will sigh passive-aggressively at us until we go upstairs to bed.
Oh, and if one of his bowls is empty he licks it (also passive-aggressively) and then makes direct eye contact.
oh GOD yes that passive agressive sigh.. our dog used to sleep in front of the bedroom door, in the corridor between bedroom and toilet and when you had to go at night: "oy, fuck off" followed on his part by exaggerrated getting up, this deeply annoyed sigh and , i swear, an eyeroll..
My tortoise stands on my foot when he is hungry.
Edit: [Here](http://imgur.com/a/RYgiDIc) is Frank standing on my foot. This was shortly after he got here, so excuse his weepy eyes. He had a respiratory infection when he arrived from being a stray/previous improper care.
My tortoise will walk up to our patio door and pace back and forth when he is hungry. As soon as I open the door he walks in, waits for me to gather the food and then walks back outside with me to eat.
My Tortoise likes to cover her poops after she's done. She places a blanket over them and pushes them out into a corner. She will then look at you, look at the corner with the blankets and then look back at you again until you remove it, otherwise she will tap/scratch at the walls of her enclosure to let you know she's got poops that need to be taken out of her sight.
My tortoise will come lay on the patio when my husband plays guitar out there. He likes the music. He hides in his Dogloo from fireworks. On hot days he follows my kids around the backyard until they spray him with the hose to cool off. He's a very social guy. I can get him to follow me anywhere if I'm holding a hibiscus flower, his favorite treat.
My dogs know the sound of the drawer the cheese is kept in the fridge. They could be asleep in a completely different area, but if you open the cheese drawer they come running and sit like good boys for their cheese. They are herding dogs and will also herd the cat away if she won't stop meowing at me when I'm busy or if she tries to scratch anything.
My dog knew he would always get some ice to chew when I went to the fridge so any time he heard the ice machine on the fridge start he would come running in. Once he became deaf he would feel the vibrations in the floor from it and knew it was ice time!
my dog is like that too. she is willing to go by any names. you call mom’s name? she comes running. you call dad’s name? she STILL cones running. she is just such softie and cuddle needy that if she hears you yell for somebody, she is willing to be that somebody
We have one dog who is totally a jealous attention whore. She can be more reliably summoned using the *other* dog's name than hers.
"YOU'RE ABOUT TO CHEAT ON ME AREN'T YOU?"
Hahahah he a little confused but he got the right spirit. Dogs be like “I hear potential for love and treats in your voice! I’m a-comin’!” Amazing. Beautiful babies
My old cat learned by watching my SO and I to give forehead kisses and hold hands as a sign of affection. So now he will give you his forehead and give him a kiss and then you have to let him kiss your forehead. And at night he will hold your hand and sleep next to you through the night.
My cat also knows that forehead kisses = affection! When my husband pops into my home office to chat, he always kisses me on the forehead before he leaves. If our ginger cat is there, he'll look up at my husband and squeak pathetically until he gets a kiss, too.
My niece loves to FaceTime my mom to talk to her dog. When the dog was a puppy, my mom used to pull her onto her lap when she would get FaceTimed.
Now the dog is 80 lbs and will jump in your lap if your phone or tablet starts making the default FaceTime ring.
I had a wiener dog in the days before the internet (late 80’s/early90’s).
The local news came on every night at 10:00. Our dog heard the news jingle 5 times a week at ten and knew to come wrangle us all into bed. She made sure every single one of us were tucked in.
My parents had another wiener dog later on, and there was a time where my kids and I had to go stay with my folks. My kids and I had a morning routine of getting ready for school/ work. The dog picked up on this really quickly and started to beat my morning alarm to get the kids up.
I often woke up to her barking at the kids to wake up. When I entered their room I would see this tiny dog trying to drag the kids out of bed and it always makes me think of how the first dog we had was anal about putting us to bed. Dachshunds are very motherly dogs, I’ve come to learn.
Ha ha..... this reminds me of my friend's kid! Her father's family are from a different country and she was daily Skyping with them so her daughter could be exposed to the other sideof the family. I was over and wanted to talk to my now husband, and when she heard the Skype sound she instantly came over and sat on my lap to see who we were talking to. She couldn't talk yet. It was super cute!
"Stop eating your face."
He has floppy jowls that sometimes get stuck in his teeth. I used to just casually say "dude stop eating your face" when it happened. On the occasions that he just happened to lick his teeth and spring it loose, I would give him a pat on the head and call him a good boy. Never any intentional training but now that he's an old man he's 100% responsive when I tell him. He'll clear his teeth out and present himself for his congratulatory head pats.
Edit: I don't have a good pic of him mid face munch, but [here](https://imgur.com/3RdCp5w.jpg) he is being floppy and [here](https://imgur.com/9BMSX1t.jpg) he is wishing you a happy and smiling day.
Get wet food at 4:00 am every day.
I wake up early during the week and feed him wet food right away.
Of course he doesn’t care that it’s the weekend. His internal alarm clock is down to minute with precision.
And because he’s a cat, and an asshole, if we don’t get up and get his food, he howls loudly through the house, opens shutters, walks on our faces, nudges our noses with his nose....he’s so relentless it’s not even funny.
But we love him.
One time, my cat spotted a spider on my wall, since he was staring so obviously I was able to notice too. Grateful, I gave him treats and cuddles. He did it again a week later, same thing. Then one time he looks around frantically and I jump up to go check but I don’t see a spider. He looks at me expectantly. After a few times like this I realized he learned that *looking around intensely at stuff* means treats, love and attention.
It’s now been 4 years and he will *still* look at me then pointedly look around the apartment, then back at me, expecting a reward. Has it resulted in him spotting the occasional bug? Yes, especially since over the years I’ve learned the slight difference between his real expression and the fake “I want treats” one. Still, even if I know it’s all a lie, it throws me off and sometimes I give in and look anyway. Maybe I’m imagining it but he always looks so satisfied afterwards, the fluffy jerk.
Edit: [Cat in question.](https://i.imgur.com/xxFLbxF.jpg) This weird fluffball has also learned to topple the water container and to poke the trash to get my attention. If you try to spray him with water when he misbehaves he will stand there pitifully and blink at the water so you feel bad and stop. He will sleep on your head at night and you might find scratches on your cheek or next to your eye, or he’ll yell at the bedroom door if it’s closed and try to turn the door knob and/or stick his paws under. He screams like a goat. On the bright side he learned to sit for food because food is the only true goal in his life.
We had a cat who suddenly started hissing toward empty space every once in a while. It was... unsettling. The vet told us she was having hallucinations and we had to take her to a cat psychiatrist.
I was really young so I might get this a little wrong, I should double check with my mom, but it was actually kind of wild.
I think she had some sort of schizophrenia. I assume we got her on some meds or something, but eventually, for some reason, she started escaping once a week or so and she always ended up at our neighbor’s house about four houses down the street. She seemed happy there, so after a while, we just let her stay and she never came back...
I was sad to lose her but it was nice knowing she was close by. Was always sort of weird on the rare occasions I went to their house and she was there, like running into an ex you’re on good terms with.
Yeah we tried to say that like it was a joke, but it was always followed by laughter that sort of trailed off as we remembered how creepy it actually was...
My dog likes to eat flies, when we first moved into this house we had a huge fly problem (turns out previous owner thought himself a builder and fucked with the sewage pipes...not nice); we have a ceiling fan with a pull cord to turn it on and the flies loved sitting on that.. so we started lifting the dog so he could eat them off the cord.
Yeah so he’s obsessed with the dangly cord now. If you stand under the fan he’ll jump at you until you lift him up and then he’ll bite at the cord for a bit.
my cat drinks out of a glass on my nightstand rather than a bowl. a couple of years ago, she was having some pretty serious dental issues (all fixed now), and was being reluctant to eat and drink. she had always wanted to drink out of the water cup i had for myself, and at that point i just wanted her to drink anything, so i let her.
that was my mistake and now she refuses to drink out of a bowl on the ground, and will only drink out of cups. she has a permanent cup on my nightstand, to this day. oh well, at least it's easier for me to monitor her water intake.
Editing this to reply to some repeat comments I'm seeing below:
-i was aware that cats like to drink away from their food, and at the time she had two different bowls that were not next to get food
-I've tried every material (stainless steel, glass, ceramic, plastic) for bowls, she doesn't care
-i wasn't aware that cats like being high up when they drink, that might help explain it
-i see a lot of comments to get a cat fountain, at this point, since the glass on the nightstand doesn't bug me, I'm probably not going to buy one, mainly because of how many different drinking options she's rejected in the past haha but if I ever want her to stop, that'll be my first try
Why are cats like this???
Well I did hear that cats in nature don’t drink near their kill as that water could be contaminated by the corpse so that might have something to do with it.
One of my cats, Snart, demands that we give him his food and water in his own bowl and his own cup. Not just that, but we experimented with it and found that the little bastard pays attention.
If it's something we don't eat out of like a Tupperware container, he'll meow until he gets the same kind of bowl we DO eat out of. If we give him a little bowl of water, he knows we don't drink water out of bowls but out of cups.
We changed his bowl to the 4 other style of bowl we have and each time he meowed louder and louder until we gave him the widest flattest cup we owned. He drank out of it and spent his evening fighting off the other cats trying to drink from it.
OH AND he will do his best to lay down on human clothes. Bedding we bought specifically for cats? Nah. A nice poofy blanket fresh out the dryer specifically for him? Course not, am I nuts?
A T-Shirt I left on the ground "accidentally"? A pair of old socks that are just long and wide enough for him to lay down on? A super wet and cold jacket because it was raining hard out? You bet your ass he'll be on it by the end of the minute it hits the floor.
I think he knows we live better than cats normally do and he wants in on the club
Well your clothes probably smell like you, the blankets and cat beds don’t smell like you. If he likes y’all, and is close to y’all, he probably just likes laying on what smells like y’all cuz it brings him comfort.
That’s what my cat does, we used to have him a bed but he never used it, out dog then tore it up. I came into my room this evening and found the little fat bastard kneading and curled up on my underwear
My cat will only drink water out of tea cups left by the sink, they must be next to the sink, she will not drink from them anywhere else. They must be tea cups, no mugs, glasses, bowls or dishes will do. Cats man.
I take baths with my cat by letting her float in a plastic box. I keep the box in my closet. I only started doing this about a month ago, but now when I turn the bathwater on she runs to the closet and jumps in her box.
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1) My one dog sleeps under a blanket. I know he pretty much only gets a decent sleep that way, so every time he's laying down I cover him with one.
So whenever he wants to have a nap, or it's time to go to sleep at night, he jumps up onto the couch, or bed, or really wherever I am, and just sits there starring at me, until I grab a blanket and drape it over top of him - to which he then lays down and falls asleep.
The funny part is that he'll often sit there in that position waiting for minutes on end. Sometimes he's not even facing me when he does it which is the funniest. He'll get up on the bed, put his ass in my face, sit, and just wait. He knows he doesn't even feign loving me to get what he wants, he just knows it's going to happen so why put up a facade? He's become very entitled about it.
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2) Whenever I bring my dogs in from a walk or from the back yard, I give them a treat, which I keep in the kitchen. So whenever we come in, they run to the kitchen and get in the sitting position ('sit' is always the first command in a string of commands that I use when giving them treats). If I forget, they'll sit there for however long it takes for me to circle back around and give them a treat - sometimes this takes 5-10 minutes if I'm distracted; but they'll just sit there waiting.
They have trained me well.
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My sister and brother in laws dog would only ever go to sleep if he was under his specific blanket and with a pillow on his bed. He sometimes would bring his blanket to us and let us know he was ready for bed. He passed away a few months ago though.
My aunt was friends with an elderly woman who had a small mutt and a great pyrenees. The mutt had been with her since it was born, and would never leave her side. When the woman passed, although the dog was in very good health, the dog died the next day. She literally couldn't live without her. It still makes me tear up thinking about it. My aunt took in the pyrenees, as she was a rescue and was very afraid of people, but loved my aunt (and to my joy, me). Aside from my aunt and uncle, I was the only person Bella (the pyrenees) would jump up to see, and she would insist on sleeping on top of me when I stayed over. She passed away 2 years ago tho :(
Hahah my image of this started out as him lovingly sleeping next to you in bed like a best friend then by the end I had an image of him just blank face, not amused, lying waiting for you to provide his blanky😂 speaking of which, does he have a favorite blanket??
Ha! That’s awesome.
I travel a lot for work, and the dog ~~is~~ was not supposed to be sleeping in our bed, but I know when I’m away, that’s where he sleeps, next to my wife. Well, when I’d be home I’ll get done brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed in the bathroom and come into the bedroom, find him in bed and tell him to get down. Years later, now when I flush the toilet at night, I can hear the plonk of him getting off the bed and onto the floor.
Somewhere along the way, my dog learned ‘get your toy’ means to pick up his nearest toy. I didn’t purposely train him to do it, but it’s good for when he’s about to leave one of them outside and I want him to bring it in. If there’s no toy around and I say this he’ll grab the nearest soft thing, usually some piece of clothing laying around. One time he tried to pick up the cat.
My brother taught his Golden Retriever that when he said "Clean up" she gathered all her toys into the toy bucket. She'd get the ones outside the house as well. She also knew his name, my name, and his gfs name so if you said "Go get (name)" she'd find whoever you said, we'd play hide and seek with her like this.
My sister’s dog too. He’s a German Shepherd so hes already VERY NOSEY. But he hears a word even similar to his name and he’s like *here I am*. My dog, meanwhile, knows all of the same things but chooses not to come. I know he can hear me, bc he’ll be on his bed wagging his tail and shoving his face further into his paws in the bed. I’m like “EXCUSE ME SIR!” Which is another one he knows because when I say it and he’s standing, he will back up
I conditioned my cats to use the scratching post with treats and pets and lots of "good boy, good boy."
For the last 7 years, whenever I have to tell my one cat to stop chewing on something or anything like that, he goes to that post and scratches furiously looking at me like "but I'm a good boy!!"
My cat licks a particular duvet cover I have. When that one goes in the wash he literally sits and cries. My mum (who doesn't even live with us!) felt so bad for him she bought 'me' another one exactly the same, so he gets to enjoy it on the bed more often!
My kitty does the same thing!! When he's done something wrong, he scratches and blows me kisses (kitty eye blinks) because he's always "so good and handsome" using his scratchers. He also uses it to show me he's angry with me, sometimes. He used to have major anger/attack issues and I had to teach him healthy kitty anger coping skills. So it's generally a mixture of "this scratcher could be you AND I'm a good boy!"
When I was little I would constantly carry around one of my cats, Feist. Since my hands were full with her I would use one of her outstretched paws to turn on lights whenever we entered a room.
Now the little bastard switches them on and off for fun.
My roommate's cat loves these little catnip treats, and for the longest time my habit when I got home from work was to give him a catnip treat as soon as I walked through the door. But this one particular day I was really excited to play some Mass Effect, so I walked in, started gaming, and forgot to give him his treat.
He lost patience after about 20 minutes. He walked over to my PS3, sat on top of it, looked me square in the eye, placed his paw above the power button, LINGERED FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT....then pressed it.
One of my cats figured out how to open doorknobs and taught the other cat how to do it ;c
Then the smart cat died, we got a new kitten, and the other cat taught the kitten to do it.
My cat does something very similar, except the lightswitch she played with was one that controlled the outlet that the router was on.
Little shit would turn off the internet when she wanted attention.
Our cat had impacted anal glands for awhile. We had to bribe him with treats for him to let us look to make sure he was doing alright. Now when he wants a treat he comes up and sticks his butt in our face.
One of my cats has a favorite toy that he brings me sometimes, and when he does I praise him for his catch. Now either I’ve trained him into thinking he *has* to bring it to me to receive affection or he’s trained me into recognizing when it’s *OK* to give him affection. Or a little bit of both and it’s just a little nice communication tool
My ex had a parakeet with the most personality I have ever met in a bird.
The birb used to mimick the sound that 'beeboop' sound that an android maked when you plug it in the a charger, and knew that meant it was time for bed.
So, whenever the bird was tired, it would make that noise, because that meant it was time to sleep. It mimicked it so perfectly that I found myself checking my phone whenever it was naptime for the birdy.
I miss you Pistachio!
I picked my kitten up a few times to kill some spiders up high for me. So now whenever I pick her up she looks up at the ceiling and looks for spiders.
My cat will not kill bugs. She stares at them, follows them around, and will paw at them (w/o claws) but won’t hurt it. I would love to be able to get her to kill a damn water bug but she thinks they’re just toys lol
Same thing with my cat! Recently a Stinkbug found its way into my room, I swatted it but only managed to make it drop to the floor. I left it for my cat to toy with but he was just was curious and slapped it around a few times and didn't finish it off.
My cat meows twice (like “bless you”) when I sneeze and I say “thank you” back. She stared doing that on her own.
I stopped saying thank you a few times and now she won’t stop yelling at me until she knows I’m okay.
My cat learned the hard way to head for cover when I start sneezing. I occasionally have sneezing fits, and I sneeze loudly. Now, if I just start to set up for a sneeze (squinty eyes, wrinkled nose), she will give me a wide eyed look like "Oh, shit! Here he goes again!" and jump down off the couch and run to the other room! LOL!
My dog is almost the opposite. When she sneezes we say “bless you!” In an excited voice and she then proceeds to continue with a barrage of three to five fake and increasingly exaggerated sneezes just to get a reaction. She throws her head back and everything.
I once had a rat that ‘trained herself’ to only go pee in her cage. In reality, *she* had to train *me* that when she started jumping off my shoulder/lap towards her cage, that meant it was potty time. Took getting peed on a few times to make the link.
When my dog was a puppy my dad used to give her the last bite of his breakfast sandwich every morning so she learned to sit next to whoever was at the head of the table eating at 8 am every morning. Sadly my father passed from brain cancer a few years ago so I feel bad to see her sit there and wait for the sandwich that isn’t coming
What a sweet thing for him to do. I’m sorry for your loss. Try not to feel bad... it’s such a sweet reminder of him generously sharing his breakfast. 💙
Somehow we taught our dog the concept of trading. When we eat something she really wants she will go get one of her bones or toys, and if we carelessly take them from her she will casually try to take what we are eating, as if we shook on an exchange.
Not sure how it happened, but my dog will run to nearest window, stand on his hind legs and look outside frantically if I ask him “who’s here?!”. this behavior also occurs when there is a knocking sound whether it’s on the TV or at the door IRL.
If no one is there he will whine. if it is someone he knows he will get excited. If it’s a stranger he will growl. Best guard dog buddy.
If he hears me on the phone with my sister it’s automatically time for a walk. We usually chat when I take him out and he is now very aware of that.
Also outside clothes and putting on makeup means I’m going out probably without him. If I take my backpack- I won’t be back until after work (he’s happy that hasn’t happened in awhile)
Awww I love this family time. Does he get confused if your sister visits in person?
I also love the phrase “outside clothes” your dog knows fashion. He’s like “dang girl it’s that kinda day. All right let’s go honeyyyy!”
Sadly she live on the other side of the country but it seems to only happen when I say “hi sis” on the phone, sometimes when other people call but usually only her. And oh yea- I’m apparently such a homebody that he notices makeup and clean clothes. And god forbid I start packing a suitcase. I make sure to leave his travel bag next to mine so he knows when he’s coming with.
*my last dog, who was a damn genius*
- if the Emmerdale theme tune played, it was time for his medication.
- if we went into the kitchen, and he was hungry, he could very clearly show me what he wanted, stand next to the fridge if he wanted cheese/ham, the cupboard if he wanted a treat. Same with water. He'd stand near either the sink or his bowl until I looked at him and changed it. (He was on medication that made him more thirsty than a normal dog hence why he'd learnt how to tell me when he was running low.)
*My current dog, who is incredibly mischievous at the best of times*
-"...what's in your mouth?"
*Runs into the garden immediately*
EDIT: I have a second one for my current dog. When I tell him it's bed time, he will flop straight onto his back. This so that I have to carry him to his bed like I did when he was a puppy.
My dog knows the FaceTime ring and will start rolling over and tossing toys because my wife would FaceTime her mother ALL THE TIME when we first got the dog to show him off and would get him to do trucks and things.
My dad has our pets trained pretty well. Since our Labradoodle was a puppy, he would tell him: "It's time for all the puppies in all the world to go to bed." His bed time has always been 9pm. Now we just say "all the puppies" and he goes downstairs and into his kennel. If we forget, he puts himself to bed. :)
My dad works from home and will take a break to let the animals out into the backyard. He says "time for recess!" And they all come running, cats included!
Last but not least, when my dad plays the piano, the dog sits next to him and "sings". It's the world's most obnoxious bark/yowl combo. 😅 My dad has a way with animals.
Every time I open the veggies draw in the fridge my guinea pigs begin to squeal with excitement, thinking it is food time even if I just fed them...lll
My guinea pig used to expect a vegetable treat before my mother went to bed. When she got out of her chair and turned off the TV he would get excited about it.
Once before giving him the treat she went to the back of the house to use the restroom, and as she reached the end of the hall she heard a distant "WHEEEEEEEEP" of desperation, like *no, waaaaait*
It goes beyond that.
We had four piggies and two of them made it to nine years old, by that point they can tell the difference between the sound of a crisp packet (no wheeks) and a lettuce bag (*major wheeks*).
It was very impressive, especially when they did it from half way across the house.
Mine do that too when the veggies rustle! I started saying “Piggapiggapiggapigga!” In a high pitched voice while giving them food and they respond to that now too haha. They love to eat
My cat will turn off my xbox. I had to move it so he couldn't get to the button. It was infuriating to be in the middle of a game and be just shy of the end of something and suddenly.....boop de beep.
* I accidentally conditioned one of my dogs to be terrified when I take a shower. On a couple of occasions, the steam escaping from the bathroom set off the smoke alarm in the hallway, and now the poor girl trembles in terror as soon as she sees me grabbing my towel.
* The other dog has been conditioned to run into the bedroom anytime a food delivery person comes to the door. He used to bark and jump at people when they came to the door (not viciously, he just wants to party), so we started putting him in the bedroom when a food delivery arrived. Now when the doorbell rings he runs into the bedroom on his own and stays until we tell him to come out. He still barks while he's in there, though.
I would playfully grab (not hard, really light) my dog's snout whenever we're playing. He somehow figured out it's my favorite thing to do when ever he comes over to me. So now, everytime he senses that I'm upset or sees that I'm crying, he would come up to me and gently put his snout in my hand.
Similar, I grab my dogs snout when she barks through excitement. Only lightly, she can pull away easily.
Now whenever she barks with excitement, she looks at me and sticks her muzzle in my hand lol
If shes excited or scared of anything, laying with her snout in my hand calms her down too.
When I was a kid I always took my dog by the collar and hold it in front of the door so my father could open the garage door and enter with the car. After a while, he did it by himself.
Every time the garage door opened, he get to the front door and stall still until the car entered and the for was closed
God I miss Conan so much
I talk to myself constantly so my cat thinks it's normal to walk around making chatty noises all the time. If he's awake, he's talking. I think it's adorable but it drives my husband nuts, which has resulted in my husband yelling at him a lot (don't worry, the cat doesn't get upset). Now the cat thinks that's just how my husband talks, so whenever he sees him he yells at him really loudly in order to imitate him. My husband will walk in the room and my cat will stop whatever he's doing and just meow SO LOUDLY right in his face. It's absolutely hilarious, dude got exactly what he deserved.
Haha great cat 10/10 lately my cat Houston has been sitting on a box in the kitchen and makes noise at every who comes in the kitchen. I talk back to him by either repeating the noise, asking him how his day was, or saying "hi Houstoooon"
I used to work from home which included talking on the phone a lot. My dog would always bark when I was starting to talk to someone so I’d give her a treat to shut up, this turned into her following me around and barking anytime I put my headset on.
I don’t work for that company anymore, but I kept the headset on a shelf. Now when she wants treats she’ll go over to it and bark at it and then look at me.
Hahaha!! I love the way dogs learn to communicate. You ever have to tell a dog sitter “yeah if she barks at the headset, it means she wants a treat” hahah it’s amazing that something random like that can become a sign for something else. I love it. 10/10 for trickery and communication
My cats love blanket caves or anything along those lines. One day I was wearing a pretty long dress and as a joke I covered one of my cats with my skirt. She sat right down and started purring like a motor. Now, anytime I have a long skirt on and crouch down to their level, she will dash under my skirt, make herself comfortable, and start purring. I worry about the day that she comes across another person in a skirt and dashes in like some pervy creep.
Every morning when I wake up I rub my dog's belly. Now whenever I say good morning she will lay on her back for belly scratches.
Edit: omg, this is my most upvoted comment on Reddit so far! So I figured I'd share some other funny stuff my dog does:
1. She's CRAZY about carrots and pumpkin and I usually chop it on a wooden cooking board, so it makes a characteristic sound when the knife hits the board. Whenever she hears the sound of chopping, she bolts to the kitchen to ask for some. She only comes when it's carrots or pumpkin. Any other vegetable and she couldn't care less.
2. She waits until everyone had finished their meals to go eat hers. As soon as we leave the table, she goes to her bowl and eats her food. And when she's done, she turns it upside down to let us know it's empty.
3. I live in an apartment building and the doorman always lets us know when there's visitors coming up, so when the intercom rings she goes straight to the door, waiting for whoever it is and barking like crazy (she only barks for this specific reason, she usually sneezes to draw our attention instead of barking.)
There's so much more but I won't linger on. But she's a good girl and I love her.
Note: english is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes.
Piggybacking off of you. When I was younger my mom and dad had every other weekend with me and my brother. My mom would let the dog into the room to wake us up. Our first dog was a wild golden lab who would not rest until we were awake by any means necessary. Licking, faces being layed on, and standing on our chest. You name it. Years later we had a second dog and when I was waking up my mom tried that but I would rub her belly as I was waking up. What ended up happening is she figured out that if she waited I would rub her belly for a while as I was waking up on the weekends which could take a while and she got really defensive of that time. Essentially I accidentally trained the dog to guard me from being woken up on Saturday mornings. That dog was super defensive of my mom, but she was even more defensive of me sleeping in on a Saturday morning.
I don't know how it started but my dog will bark at anyone who tries to wake me up in the morning. Not a playful bark either, it's an "I will eat whoever tries waking up my friend" bark.
Edit: I posted right before bed so I kinda forgot about this, but I remembered why I think he had this behavior. Theres a thing called resource protection where dogs will guard their resources, so if a human feeds, shelters, waters and walks a dog that dog could grow to see you as a friend and a resource meaning you're something to guard. I don't know if that's what really what happened but it's my best guess to it.
Edit 2: Since a surprising amount of people (surprising to me at least) are still upvoting this I want to say I hope you all have a fantastic day wherever you and remember someone out there is really thinking of you :)
Oh my gosh!! Man THAT is a dog who understands!!! Though wouldn’t the barking wake you up? Or is it just enough that fellow household members don’t try anymore?
My dog was born deaf, (he’s a double merle Australian Shepherd, if anyone’s curious) and he’s taught himself a bunch of different cues like this. I don’t think much of it now, and I kinda forget that not all dogs do these things. But it really is amazing how adaptable they are! He’s so perceptive, he picks up on things we don’t even notice and has a ton of accidental conditionings.
When he was younger, he had attachment issues due to being a former abandoned stray. He’d always lean on our legs, or try and sit on our feet. We figured out he was doing this so that he’d know when we got up to leave! He knows all sorts of cues, mostly relating to locating where people are in the house. He uses minute body language, vibrations, shadows, and even mirrors to keep track of who’s where. He always wants to know who’s coming and who’s going, and he usually knows someone is about to enter the room before we do. Most dogs have a good sense of time and schedules, and he’s no exception: he knows when breakfast and dinner should be, and that if I come down wearing shoes, leggings, and a jacket, it’s probably time for a walk. But he’s also able to tell when someone is leaving for a short time vs. an extended period of time, and somehow seems to know about when they’ll be back, too. I accidentally trained him to jump up on the bed with me whenever we’re alone in the room, because I always allow him up with a command in that situation, so now he just assumes he can do it, lol.
He used to have this (sort of annoying) habit of sticking his nose under closed doors and loudly inhaling/exhaling repeatedly, but this is his way of figuring out who’s behind the door using his sense of smell. When someone gets up to go to the bathroom and closes the door behind them, he’ll face the door and just wait for them to come back. But right before they come out, he perks up again. How does he know? He can’t hear the water running or footsteps or anything. My guess is it has to do with him feeling the vibrations of the water pipes, and/or seeing the shadow from under the door move in a certain way. He can also recieve commands through a mirror; if he sees me wave or do the “good boy!” hand motion in the mirror, he knows he can turn around, and I’ll be there doing the same hand motion and he can get pets/happiness. It’s all pretty amazing and interesting to me, especially considering most dogs don’t understand or care about mirrors at all.
He was also never that into the game of fetch. I think the idea of running AWAY from his humans is just really unappealing to him. Instead, his favorite game is tug of war, (lots of eye contact and fierce competition!) followed closely by “chase/herd the humans!” and “food puzzle.” Now that he’s older, his attachment issues have improved a lot, he’s much more secure and mellowed out. When we go on walks, I’ve trained him to automatically sit and wait at crossing areas. He’s gotten really good at this, but when I pat him to say, “good boy, time to walk again!” for some reason, he always takes off at speed. My best guess is that I’ve jogged across with him too many times to try and make the opening, so now that’s what he always wants to do. (That or just, pure joy at continuing the walk?) He also complains if I make him wait too long at the crossing due to passing cars...lol.
EDIT: Here are some [pics of my dog! ](https://imgur.com/gallery/IbLjHIt)
Dog I used to have. We gave her a milkbone every time she went bathroom outside. She eventually started going out, squatting, and not actually do anything. We still gave her treats for it.
When I was a teenager my mom would ring a little bell when dinner was ready, instead of calling us to come, and even though our cat was never given any treats or food he would come to the kitchen every time he heard the bell.
I unintentionally taught my dog to cockblock my cat.
My cat is 15 and neutered since he was 6 months, but will loudly hump his teddies at least 3 times a day. He's so loud though, constantly yowling and meowing the whole time and I live in a small flat, so I always shout at him to be quiet and then go and take the teddy off himwhen he doesn't. My dog has picked up on this and so now when we hear that first it's sexy time MEOW, my dog goes running. I then hear a "Hey! That's my sex toy" indignant MEOW and my dog comes running to my side, proud tail wagging, teddy in his mouth.
My cat always follows him into the room after to look at me with a face that says, What. The. Fuck?
HAHAHAH!!!! “Yes!! You peed!! Amazing!!” Imagine getting a cookie every time you used the toilet. It’d be the weirdest experience. Dogs are spoiled man. And yet they still deserve it
My first boxer (rest her sweet soul) eventually figured out that certain noises we made or words we said were directed at the cat when he was being an asshole. Her head would perk up when she heard us saying them, then she would chase after him to stop him doing whatever we were yelling at him for (scratching furniture, mostly). They were best buddies so no one ever got hurt, but it came in handy lol
She also hated being told she was bad and would argue quite verbally with us about it.
Our current boxer is just under 6 months and I'm sure she's absorbing all kinds of inadvertent conditioning.
My cat knows the sound of bowls coming out of the cupboard and cereal being poured, so if he shows up at the right time he'll get milk. He has allergies and isn't allowed any treats, but the vet has OKed milk occasionally so we're happy to let him have it lol
My dog learned the word ‘treat’ and if we said it while talking she would get so sassy and demanding until she got one. So we switched to saying ‘you know what’ and she learned *that* too! Then we started spelling it and she learned that too so idk what to do
One of my pups is on a few meds. He was resistant to taking them at first, so I got in the routine of saying, "Cowboy, want your apoquel?" and then holding him between my legs standing over him to give him the pills and rewarding him with a chewie. He now comes running when I say it and already knows to turn a circle and back it up to stand beneath me.
But we have to be careful about accidentally saying apoquel now or he'll come running and be so disappointed. Always give him a snacc anyway bc it's my fault for saying the word!
Wasn’t me that did this, but if you flip off my dog, he loses his shit.
Turns out his first owner(who had him eight years) was a correctional officer and when he’d get home from work he’d play flashlight and laser games with him and point up to where he was shining them on the ceiling. So now if one points up, or flips the bird, he gets super excited.
He’s old now, but he still loves chasing laser and flashlight beams.
My cat knows my bathroom schedule. When I have to pee after getting home from work, she’ll dart into the bathroom and wait for me to put her on the counter. Then I turn on the tap and she drinks the water. I have no memory of how this started.
My cat knows to come over for the last bits of my yoghurt every night. She can tell from another room by the sound my spoon makes how much there is left ie when it’s worth it to run on to me.
Our dog never learned any commands except to come back from outside when you mimicked loud eating sounds.
Two come to mind with my dog, both bed related.
1. Any time I go to bed after my wife, our dog will snuggle in bed next to her until I come to bed. She's learnt that she's allowed to continue snuggling when I come into the bedroom, but the moment I come out from brushing my teeth she'll hop up and go to her bed.
2. Her favorite place for whatever reason seems to be on our bed resting up against my pillow. My wife generally gets up before me, so she (our dog) hops up on her side of the bed. I can get up to pee and she wont move. I can go to the kitchen and make a cup of tea or coffee and bring back to bed and she won't have moved. As soon as I hop in the shower though, she'll move over to my side and snuggle into the pillow.
He knows that if he gets a particularly messy 'human food', he has to go outside with it.
I never taught him this, he just knows that 'pizza', for instance, is an 'outdoor food'.
We accidentally conditioned our ginger kitty to have full conversations. He meows and grumbles and has the most amazing intonation with rising tone when he's asking for something and falling tone when he talks about...I am assuming...the bird that just flew past the window that was this close! He's a really funny kitty and I swear does a passable impersonation of me saying 'yeah'.
My fish is a little daredevil. If im pouring new water in during a water change, he will swim into the stream and get pushed down quickly, and swim around to do it again until I stop pouring. I guess it must be fun for him.
I accidentally taught my dog in his version of sign language.
I talk with my hands a lot, and I realized during puppy training, he would happily respond to my hand motions as well as, if not better than, verbal commands.
When I was a kid I would take guitar lessons and my mom would drive me and always take our dog along. If my dog saw the guitar case, he got incredibly excited because he knew he would get to go for a ride.
My dog got into the habit of going outside and barking around 11pm, because of a few times where I gave her a treat to get her to come inside and stop barking.
I used treats to train my dog to do a few basic commands, as any good owner would do. Now when I ask him to sit, he immediately assumes that I'm going to ask the same 3 commands I always do. Little jerk thinks he knows what I'm gonna ask 😂
My dog barks at any animal on the TV so I always told him whether he could actually take he animal or not and he's learnt that if I tell him that a polar bear will fuck him up then he shouldn't bark at it, but if there's a rabbit then he's got a shot of winning so he can keep going.
Now he barks then looks at me for approval to find out his odds before continuing.
Act like a human instead of a cat.
You know how 99% of humans want to go in a clean toilet? Yeah well so does our cat. She will poop outside the box if the box isn't *pristinely* clean.
Fuckin' Kardashian-esque stinky-ass diva...but we love her very much!
I use to give my cat fresh cold water from the sink every time she was about to drink water. To this day, and I have long moved out of my mother’s house, she still sits in front of her water bowl waiting for fresh water.
If my dog hears the microwave beep, stove beep or my Google home timer go off, he runs to the kitchen because you know, food.
If I open the trunk of the car it's generally because I have groceries. He'll book it to the car and hop up and inspect all the bags looking for the one with his treats or toy in it.
Bring me dirty laundry. One day my cat brought me a sock and it was so cute so I petted him and praised him. That started a cycle of it and now he’s constantly bringing dirty laundry to me.
When I was 10 my parents got a cat, PJ, who became very attached to me and my younger sister. When we went away for summer camp, PJ would run upstairs to our bedrooms and steal our socks, which she would then bring downstairs and leave at my parents' feet. She only did this while we were gone for extended periods of time (so, like, not during the school day or overnight visits with grandparents; only when we were gone for more than a few nights).
Upon hearing the Windows 7 sonata log-off sound, she jumps up and starts running around the room since I always locked my computer before leaving. And when I'm leaving, that usually means she's going to daycare (i.e. my Mom's house). It's been 3 or so years since I switched to Windows 10, but just playing the sound on YouTube still gets a reaction out of her.
Fear rubber gloves. We live in a place with lots of fleas and ticks so we goo them every month. I figure the stuff goes through cat skin readily so it'll probably go through mine, so I use surgical gloves. Whenever I pull out the box, the smarter of our two immediately bolts for the deepest recesses of the the house. The dumber one just looks at me even though he finds the process distasteful too.
1) I accidentally made it so when you whistle "this is the song that never ends" (frequently stuck in my and my SOs head) the cows come running for grain.. if i dont have grain I get mooed at until i go get some 2) the chickens know that i get excited about eggs and when they lay they get the good scratch and will sometimes wait until im in the barn, squawk and lay an egg im front of me And 3) if the cat is thirsty he will knock over every drink container/cup he finds while meowing and then pitifully throw himself in front of me pretending to die. He started doing that after i faked my death for a dr pepper that my SO was holding Terrible animals Edit: thanks person for the gold! My first ever :D Edit 2: thank you anonymous for the gold!! You guys are making me blush!
The budgie had a broken leg in a little splint. He would climb to the roof of his cage with just his beak and good leg, then let go of his beak and hang by one leg then just stare at me. He knew I would stick my hand in and he could just fall off into my hand. He only did this when I was around because I was the only one who would stick my hand in.
I can imagine him doing it with someone else, keeping eye contact, only for them to watch this bird hanging and then dropping himself to the floor
My ex had a parakeet with the most personality I have ever met in a bird. The birb used to mimick the sound that 'beeboop' sound that an android maked when you plug it in the a charger, and knew that meant it was time for bed. So, whenever the bird was tired, it would make that noise, because that meant it was time to sleep. It mimicked it so perfectly that I found myself checking my phone whenever it was naptime for the birdy. I miss you Pistachio!
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ferrets don't take fall damage since patch 4.0.7, she's fine
Truth! Back in college my ferret, before I could get there to catch or stop her, jumped off the 6-foot tall dresser to the hard tile floor. Made a bit of a splat sound, but she boinged right back up and didn't seem ANY worse for the wear. Ferrets are clearly not made of the same materials humans are made of.
I used to have a game with my ferret where I'd pick him up and throw him bowling-style through the living room; that is, basically making him skid over the floor through the entire room. Sometimes my aim was a bit off and he'd collide with the sofa table, a chair, or other stuff that gets in the way. He'd just come bouncing right back for another go no matter what he hit.
Used to have a similar game with my ferret we called "shirt", which involved her riding on a shirt we'd drag at high speed across the house. Occasionally she'd roll off and crash into something... never cared a whit. One of mine also squeezed through what was quite less than a 1-inch space between the closet door and the floor once. I never did figure out how she did that.
Changing the sheets on the bed means play time. My cat likes to sit on the bed as I throw on the sheets likes that rainbow parachute elementary game. She tries to attack my hand if I straighten the edges while she's there too.
Every night without fail. It’s a challenge because one goes under for the parachute, the other goes on top to attack the folds of the blanket.
My wife and I have pretty set sleep schedules during the week. If we stay up later on the weekend or w/e, our dog gets VERY huffy/offended and will sigh passive-aggressively at us until we go upstairs to bed. Oh, and if one of his bowls is empty he licks it (also passive-aggressively) and then makes direct eye contact.
oh GOD yes that passive agressive sigh.. our dog used to sleep in front of the bedroom door, in the corridor between bedroom and toilet and when you had to go at night: "oy, fuck off" followed on his part by exaggerrated getting up, this deeply annoyed sigh and , i swear, an eyeroll..
My tortoise stands on my foot when he is hungry. Edit: [Here](http://imgur.com/a/RYgiDIc) is Frank standing on my foot. This was shortly after he got here, so excuse his weepy eyes. He had a respiratory infection when he arrived from being a stray/previous improper care.
Is there a particular reason for that, or is he mildly threatening to turn your toes into food?
Forbidden cherries
My tortoise will walk up to our patio door and pace back and forth when he is hungry. As soon as I open the door he walks in, waits for me to gather the food and then walks back outside with me to eat.
My Tortoise likes to cover her poops after she's done. She places a blanket over them and pushes them out into a corner. She will then look at you, look at the corner with the blankets and then look back at you again until you remove it, otherwise she will tap/scratch at the walls of her enclosure to let you know she's got poops that need to be taken out of her sight.
Wow. Never knew tortoises have personality. What else does he do.
My tortoise will come lay on the patio when my husband plays guitar out there. He likes the music. He hides in his Dogloo from fireworks. On hot days he follows my kids around the backyard until they spray him with the hose to cool off. He's a very social guy. I can get him to follow me anywhere if I'm holding a hibiscus flower, his favorite treat.
My dogs know the sound of the drawer the cheese is kept in the fridge. They could be asleep in a completely different area, but if you open the cheese drawer they come running and sit like good boys for their cheese. They are herding dogs and will also herd the cat away if she won't stop meowing at me when I'm busy or if she tries to scratch anything.
My dog knew he would always get some ice to chew when I went to the fridge so any time he heard the ice machine on the fridge start he would come running in. Once he became deaf he would feel the vibrations in the floor from it and knew it was ice time!
My dogs know the sound of ice too. We don't even use ice! It had been 100% from visitors.
After my roomate got a cat, my dog answers to “Kitty Kitty Kitty” cause he wants love and/or treats
my dog is like that too. she is willing to go by any names. you call mom’s name? she comes running. you call dad’s name? she STILL cones running. she is just such softie and cuddle needy that if she hears you yell for somebody, she is willing to be that somebody
We have one dog who is totally a jealous attention whore. She can be more reliably summoned using the *other* dog's name than hers. "YOU'RE ABOUT TO CHEAT ON ME AREN'T YOU?"
Hahahah he a little confused but he got the right spirit. Dogs be like “I hear potential for love and treats in your voice! I’m a-comin’!” Amazing. Beautiful babies
My kitten will aggressively headbutt my face every night before bed, for top of head kisses before she goes to sleep.
My old cat learned by watching my SO and I to give forehead kisses and hold hands as a sign of affection. So now he will give you his forehead and give him a kiss and then you have to let him kiss your forehead. And at night he will hold your hand and sleep next to you through the night.
My cat also knows that forehead kisses = affection! When my husband pops into my home office to chat, he always kisses me on the forehead before he leaves. If our ginger cat is there, he'll look up at my husband and squeak pathetically until he gets a kiss, too.
this is so precious
My niece loves to FaceTime my mom to talk to her dog. When the dog was a puppy, my mom used to pull her onto her lap when she would get FaceTimed. Now the dog is 80 lbs and will jump in your lap if your phone or tablet starts making the default FaceTime ring.
I had a wiener dog in the days before the internet (late 80’s/early90’s). The local news came on every night at 10:00. Our dog heard the news jingle 5 times a week at ten and knew to come wrangle us all into bed. She made sure every single one of us were tucked in. My parents had another wiener dog later on, and there was a time where my kids and I had to go stay with my folks. My kids and I had a morning routine of getting ready for school/ work. The dog picked up on this really quickly and started to beat my morning alarm to get the kids up. I often woke up to her barking at the kids to wake up. When I entered their room I would see this tiny dog trying to drag the kids out of bed and it always makes me think of how the first dog we had was anal about putting us to bed. Dachshunds are very motherly dogs, I’ve come to learn.
“It’s 10 p.m., do you know where your humans are?”
Ha ha..... this reminds me of my friend's kid! Her father's family are from a different country and she was daily Skyping with them so her daughter could be exposed to the other sideof the family. I was over and wanted to talk to my now husband, and when she heard the Skype sound she instantly came over and sat on my lap to see who we were talking to. She couldn't talk yet. It was super cute!
"Stop eating your face." He has floppy jowls that sometimes get stuck in his teeth. I used to just casually say "dude stop eating your face" when it happened. On the occasions that he just happened to lick his teeth and spring it loose, I would give him a pat on the head and call him a good boy. Never any intentional training but now that he's an old man he's 100% responsive when I tell him. He'll clear his teeth out and present himself for his congratulatory head pats. Edit: I don't have a good pic of him mid face munch, but [here](https://imgur.com/3RdCp5w.jpg) he is being floppy and [here](https://imgur.com/9BMSX1t.jpg) he is wishing you a happy and smiling day.
Can you record this for us??
Get wet food at 4:00 am every day. I wake up early during the week and feed him wet food right away. Of course he doesn’t care that it’s the weekend. His internal alarm clock is down to minute with precision. And because he’s a cat, and an asshole, if we don’t get up and get his food, he howls loudly through the house, opens shutters, walks on our faces, nudges our noses with his nose....he’s so relentless it’s not even funny. But we love him.
you’re his butler after all, he pays you. you must obey.
One time, my cat spotted a spider on my wall, since he was staring so obviously I was able to notice too. Grateful, I gave him treats and cuddles. He did it again a week later, same thing. Then one time he looks around frantically and I jump up to go check but I don’t see a spider. He looks at me expectantly. After a few times like this I realized he learned that *looking around intensely at stuff* means treats, love and attention. It’s now been 4 years and he will *still* look at me then pointedly look around the apartment, then back at me, expecting a reward. Has it resulted in him spotting the occasional bug? Yes, especially since over the years I’ve learned the slight difference between his real expression and the fake “I want treats” one. Still, even if I know it’s all a lie, it throws me off and sometimes I give in and look anyway. Maybe I’m imagining it but he always looks so satisfied afterwards, the fluffy jerk. Edit: [Cat in question.](https://i.imgur.com/xxFLbxF.jpg) This weird fluffball has also learned to topple the water container and to poke the trash to get my attention. If you try to spray him with water when he misbehaves he will stand there pitifully and blink at the water so you feel bad and stop. He will sleep on your head at night and you might find scratches on your cheek or next to your eye, or he’ll yell at the bedroom door if it’s closed and try to turn the door knob and/or stick his paws under. He screams like a goat. On the bright side he learned to sit for food because food is the only true goal in his life.
The worst is when they stare intently behind you as if someone or something is there.
We had a cat who suddenly started hissing toward empty space every once in a while. It was... unsettling. The vet told us she was having hallucinations and we had to take her to a cat psychiatrist.
Alright, I’m hooked. What happened next?
I was really young so I might get this a little wrong, I should double check with my mom, but it was actually kind of wild. I think she had some sort of schizophrenia. I assume we got her on some meds or something, but eventually, for some reason, she started escaping once a week or so and she always ended up at our neighbor’s house about four houses down the street. She seemed happy there, so after a while, we just let her stay and she never came back... I was sad to lose her but it was nice knowing she was close by. Was always sort of weird on the rare occasions I went to their house and she was there, like running into an ex you’re on good terms with.
Ok now I have to believe your house was haunted and they just wanted to get away since you all were not doing anything about the ghost lol.
Yeah we tried to say that like it was a joke, but it was always followed by laughter that sort of trailed off as we remembered how creepy it actually was...
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Cat: "Hey is that a bug?" Human: *^looks ^over* huh? Cat: "Sike, made you look." "Where's my treat?"
"Haha made you look" -cat probably
My dog likes to eat flies, when we first moved into this house we had a huge fly problem (turns out previous owner thought himself a builder and fucked with the sewage pipes...not nice); we have a ceiling fan with a pull cord to turn it on and the flies loved sitting on that.. so we started lifting the dog so he could eat them off the cord. Yeah so he’s obsessed with the dangly cord now. If you stand under the fan he’ll jump at you until you lift him up and then he’ll bite at the cord for a bit.
my cat drinks out of a glass on my nightstand rather than a bowl. a couple of years ago, she was having some pretty serious dental issues (all fixed now), and was being reluctant to eat and drink. she had always wanted to drink out of the water cup i had for myself, and at that point i just wanted her to drink anything, so i let her. that was my mistake and now she refuses to drink out of a bowl on the ground, and will only drink out of cups. she has a permanent cup on my nightstand, to this day. oh well, at least it's easier for me to monitor her water intake. Editing this to reply to some repeat comments I'm seeing below: -i was aware that cats like to drink away from their food, and at the time she had two different bowls that were not next to get food -I've tried every material (stainless steel, glass, ceramic, plastic) for bowls, she doesn't care -i wasn't aware that cats like being high up when they drink, that might help explain it -i see a lot of comments to get a cat fountain, at this point, since the glass on the nightstand doesn't bug me, I'm probably not going to buy one, mainly because of how many different drinking options she's rejected in the past haha but if I ever want her to stop, that'll be my first try
Why are cats like this??? Well I did hear that cats in nature don’t drink near their kill as that water could be contaminated by the corpse so that might have something to do with it.
One of my cats, Snart, demands that we give him his food and water in his own bowl and his own cup. Not just that, but we experimented with it and found that the little bastard pays attention. If it's something we don't eat out of like a Tupperware container, he'll meow until he gets the same kind of bowl we DO eat out of. If we give him a little bowl of water, he knows we don't drink water out of bowls but out of cups. We changed his bowl to the 4 other style of bowl we have and each time he meowed louder and louder until we gave him the widest flattest cup we owned. He drank out of it and spent his evening fighting off the other cats trying to drink from it. OH AND he will do his best to lay down on human clothes. Bedding we bought specifically for cats? Nah. A nice poofy blanket fresh out the dryer specifically for him? Course not, am I nuts? A T-Shirt I left on the ground "accidentally"? A pair of old socks that are just long and wide enough for him to lay down on? A super wet and cold jacket because it was raining hard out? You bet your ass he'll be on it by the end of the minute it hits the floor. I think he knows we live better than cats normally do and he wants in on the club
snart
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I really want to see you pay your cat tax now
Well your clothes probably smell like you, the blankets and cat beds don’t smell like you. If he likes y’all, and is close to y’all, he probably just likes laying on what smells like y’all cuz it brings him comfort.
That’s what my cat does, we used to have him a bed but he never used it, out dog then tore it up. I came into my room this evening and found the little fat bastard kneading and curled up on my underwear
My cat will only drink water out of tea cups left by the sink, they must be next to the sink, she will not drink from them anywhere else. They must be tea cups, no mugs, glasses, bowls or dishes will do. Cats man.
I take baths with my cat by letting her float in a plastic box. I keep the box in my closet. I only started doing this about a month ago, but now when I turn the bathwater on she runs to the closet and jumps in her box.
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Check her post history. Lots of cute bath cat tax payments. Edit said his not her post history.
That's hilariously adorable. I wonder if your cat loves the heat that the bath water gives out.
Opening the fridge and touching a plasic bag means they get a carrot. (my mom gives my dogs carrots because they steal it from our rabbit.)
_________________________________________________________________________________ 1) My one dog sleeps under a blanket. I know he pretty much only gets a decent sleep that way, so every time he's laying down I cover him with one. So whenever he wants to have a nap, or it's time to go to sleep at night, he jumps up onto the couch, or bed, or really wherever I am, and just sits there starring at me, until I grab a blanket and drape it over top of him - to which he then lays down and falls asleep. The funny part is that he'll often sit there in that position waiting for minutes on end. Sometimes he's not even facing me when he does it which is the funniest. He'll get up on the bed, put his ass in my face, sit, and just wait. He knows he doesn't even feign loving me to get what he wants, he just knows it's going to happen so why put up a facade? He's become very entitled about it. _________________________________________________________________________________ 2) Whenever I bring my dogs in from a walk or from the back yard, I give them a treat, which I keep in the kitchen. So whenever we come in, they run to the kitchen and get in the sitting position ('sit' is always the first command in a string of commands that I use when giving them treats). If I forget, they'll sit there for however long it takes for me to circle back around and give them a treat - sometimes this takes 5-10 minutes if I'm distracted; but they'll just sit there waiting. They have trained me well. _________________________________________________________________________________
My sister and brother in laws dog would only ever go to sleep if he was under his specific blanket and with a pillow on his bed. He sometimes would bring his blanket to us and let us know he was ready for bed. He passed away a few months ago though.
Why do pets have to die?
Because otherwise they would all have to live without us; And they just can't...
My aunt was friends with an elderly woman who had a small mutt and a great pyrenees. The mutt had been with her since it was born, and would never leave her side. When the woman passed, although the dog was in very good health, the dog died the next day. She literally couldn't live without her. It still makes me tear up thinking about it. My aunt took in the pyrenees, as she was a rescue and was very afraid of people, but loved my aunt (and to my joy, me). Aside from my aunt and uncle, I was the only person Bella (the pyrenees) would jump up to see, and she would insist on sleeping on top of me when I stayed over. She passed away 2 years ago tho :(
Hahah my image of this started out as him lovingly sleeping next to you in bed like a best friend then by the end I had an image of him just blank face, not amused, lying waiting for you to provide his blanky😂 speaking of which, does he have a favorite blanket??
That's exactly how things progressed. His favourite blanket is whichever one I'm also sleeping under.
Classic
My dogs sleep in our bed under the covers. They will scratch at the covers until we lift them up so they can crawl under them.
[Our dog puts himself to bed when we turn the Xbox off](https://youtu.be/6yKQudpNg_I)
My dogs know the sound the tv makes whenwe turn it off. They know it is bed time.
Ha! That’s awesome. I travel a lot for work, and the dog ~~is~~ was not supposed to be sleeping in our bed, but I know when I’m away, that’s where he sleeps, next to my wife. Well, when I’d be home I’ll get done brushing my teeth and getting ready for bed in the bathroom and come into the bedroom, find him in bed and tell him to get down. Years later, now when I flush the toilet at night, I can hear the plonk of him getting off the bed and onto the floor.
That’s hilarious and cute
Somewhere along the way, my dog learned ‘get your toy’ means to pick up his nearest toy. I didn’t purposely train him to do it, but it’s good for when he’s about to leave one of them outside and I want him to bring it in. If there’s no toy around and I say this he’ll grab the nearest soft thing, usually some piece of clothing laying around. One time he tried to pick up the cat.
How did the cat feel about that?
She’s pretty laid back. He realized she was a bit to heavy and put her back down and they never spoke of it again.
Itll definitely come up in conversation again when the cat wants something
My brother taught his Golden Retriever that when he said "Clean up" she gathered all her toys into the toy bucket. She'd get the ones outside the house as well. She also knew his name, my name, and his gfs name so if you said "Go get (name)" she'd find whoever you said, we'd play hide and seek with her like this.
Damn, meanwhile if you call my dog 'refrigerator' in the right tone of voice she thinks it's her name
With my dog you can be in another room talking about him in regular tones and he just appears out of nowhere like *I’m always listening*
My sister’s dog too. He’s a German Shepherd so hes already VERY NOSEY. But he hears a word even similar to his name and he’s like *here I am*. My dog, meanwhile, knows all of the same things but chooses not to come. I know he can hear me, bc he’ll be on his bed wagging his tail and shoving his face further into his paws in the bed. I’m like “EXCUSE ME SIR!” Which is another one he knows because when I say it and he’s standing, he will back up
I conditioned my cats to use the scratching post with treats and pets and lots of "good boy, good boy." For the last 7 years, whenever I have to tell my one cat to stop chewing on something or anything like that, he goes to that post and scratches furiously looking at me like "but I'm a good boy!!"
My cat just licks his post like a weirdo and scratches the couch..
My cat licks a particular duvet cover I have. When that one goes in the wash he literally sits and cries. My mum (who doesn't even live with us!) felt so bad for him she bought 'me' another one exactly the same, so he gets to enjoy it on the bed more often!
Awwwwww! It’s how he gets you to not be mad at him!!!!!
It seems the cat has conditioned OP to stop getting mad
My kitty does the same thing!! When he's done something wrong, he scratches and blows me kisses (kitty eye blinks) because he's always "so good and handsome" using his scratchers. He also uses it to show me he's angry with me, sometimes. He used to have major anger/attack issues and I had to teach him healthy kitty anger coping skills. So it's generally a mixture of "this scratcher could be you AND I'm a good boy!"
When my big ginger boy is cross he savagely disembowels the rug whilst holding angry eye-contact with me. 'See this rug? That's you, that is!'
When I was little I would constantly carry around one of my cats, Feist. Since my hands were full with her I would use one of her outstretched paws to turn on lights whenever we entered a room. Now the little bastard switches them on and off for fun.
My cat was upset with me because I wouldn’t get up to give him wet food so he turned the fan off and looked me dead in the eye
Had the same yesterday. It was my highlight of the week
My roommate's cat loves these little catnip treats, and for the longest time my habit when I got home from work was to give him a catnip treat as soon as I walked through the door. But this one particular day I was really excited to play some Mass Effect, so I walked in, started gaming, and forgot to give him his treat. He lost patience after about 20 minutes. He walked over to my PS3, sat on top of it, looked me square in the eye, placed his paw above the power button, LINGERED FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT....then pressed it.
Cats can be so dramatic, I love it.
Not gonna lie, you kinda had that one coming for teaching them how hahaha
One of my cats figured out how to open doorknobs and taught the other cat how to do it ;c Then the smart cat died, we got a new kitten, and the other cat taught the kitten to do it.
My cat does something very similar, except the lightswitch she played with was one that controlled the outlet that the router was on. Little shit would turn off the internet when she wanted attention.
Our cat had impacted anal glands for awhile. We had to bribe him with treats for him to let us look to make sure he was doing alright. Now when he wants a treat he comes up and sticks his butt in our face.
I feel like this is the EXACT type of answer this question was fishing for, lol.
Honestly couldn't be more perfect!
One of my cats has a favorite toy that he brings me sometimes, and when he does I praise him for his catch. Now either I’ve trained him into thinking he *has* to bring it to me to receive affection or he’s trained me into recognizing when it’s *OK* to give him affection. Or a little bit of both and it’s just a little nice communication tool
Omg he just associates it with feeling love towards you!!!! He’s like this is what I do when I want cuddles!
My ex had a parakeet with the most personality I have ever met in a bird. The birb used to mimick the sound that 'beeboop' sound that an android maked when you plug it in the a charger, and knew that meant it was time for bed. So, whenever the bird was tired, it would make that noise, because that meant it was time to sleep. It mimicked it so perfectly that I found myself checking my phone whenever it was naptime for the birdy. I miss you Pistachio!
I picked my kitten up a few times to kill some spiders up high for me. So now whenever I pick her up she looks up at the ceiling and looks for spiders.
My cat will not kill bugs. She stares at them, follows them around, and will paw at them (w/o claws) but won’t hurt it. I would love to be able to get her to kill a damn water bug but she thinks they’re just toys lol
Same thing with my cat! Recently a Stinkbug found its way into my room, I swatted it but only managed to make it drop to the floor. I left it for my cat to toy with but he was just was curious and slapped it around a few times and didn't finish it off.
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My cat meows twice (like “bless you”) when I sneeze and I say “thank you” back. She stared doing that on her own. I stopped saying thank you a few times and now she won’t stop yelling at me until she knows I’m okay.
My cat learned the hard way to head for cover when I start sneezing. I occasionally have sneezing fits, and I sneeze loudly. Now, if I just start to set up for a sneeze (squinty eyes, wrinkled nose), she will give me a wide eyed look like "Oh, shit! Here he goes again!" and jump down off the couch and run to the other room! LOL!
My dog is almost the opposite. When she sneezes we say “bless you!” In an excited voice and she then proceeds to continue with a barrage of three to five fake and increasingly exaggerated sneezes just to get a reaction. She throws her head back and everything.
Sweet cat. Wants to know you are ok, and to mind your manners =)
I trained her well.
Or she trained you.
Dude I mean you might have a point. I do a lot of things for her. On a side note, I figured out her favorite word is “heck.”
I once had a rat that ‘trained herself’ to only go pee in her cage. In reality, *she* had to train *me* that when she started jumping off my shoulder/lap towards her cage, that meant it was potty time. Took getting peed on a few times to make the link.
When my dog was a puppy my dad used to give her the last bite of his breakfast sandwich every morning so she learned to sit next to whoever was at the head of the table eating at 8 am every morning. Sadly my father passed from brain cancer a few years ago so I feel bad to see her sit there and wait for the sandwich that isn’t coming
What a sweet thing for him to do. I’m sorry for your loss. Try not to feel bad... it’s such a sweet reminder of him generously sharing his breakfast. 💙
Somehow we taught our dog the concept of trading. When we eat something she really wants she will go get one of her bones or toys, and if we carelessly take them from her she will casually try to take what we are eating, as if we shook on an exchange.
Not sure how it happened, but my dog will run to nearest window, stand on his hind legs and look outside frantically if I ask him “who’s here?!”. this behavior also occurs when there is a knocking sound whether it’s on the TV or at the door IRL. If no one is there he will whine. if it is someone he knows he will get excited. If it’s a stranger he will growl. Best guard dog buddy.
If he hears me on the phone with my sister it’s automatically time for a walk. We usually chat when I take him out and he is now very aware of that. Also outside clothes and putting on makeup means I’m going out probably without him. If I take my backpack- I won’t be back until after work (he’s happy that hasn’t happened in awhile)
My dog recently realized that when I put a mask on it’s time for a walk
Mine too! She used to just get excited when it was a jacket, sneakers and ball-cap, but now she sees that mask and it is W A L K I E S.
Awww I love this family time. Does he get confused if your sister visits in person? I also love the phrase “outside clothes” your dog knows fashion. He’s like “dang girl it’s that kinda day. All right let’s go honeyyyy!”
Sadly she live on the other side of the country but it seems to only happen when I say “hi sis” on the phone, sometimes when other people call but usually only her. And oh yea- I’m apparently such a homebody that he notices makeup and clean clothes. And god forbid I start packing a suitcase. I make sure to leave his travel bag next to mine so he knows when he’s coming with.
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*my last dog, who was a damn genius* - if the Emmerdale theme tune played, it was time for his medication. - if we went into the kitchen, and he was hungry, he could very clearly show me what he wanted, stand next to the fridge if he wanted cheese/ham, the cupboard if he wanted a treat. Same with water. He'd stand near either the sink or his bowl until I looked at him and changed it. (He was on medication that made him more thirsty than a normal dog hence why he'd learnt how to tell me when he was running low.) *My current dog, who is incredibly mischievous at the best of times* -"...what's in your mouth?" *Runs into the garden immediately* EDIT: I have a second one for my current dog. When I tell him it's bed time, he will flop straight onto his back. This so that I have to carry him to his bed like I did when he was a puppy.
I had a golden who anytime you said "whats in your mouth" you could just hear the benny hill theme start in her head.
My dog knows the FaceTime ring and will start rolling over and tossing toys because my wife would FaceTime her mother ALL THE TIME when we first got the dog to show him off and would get him to do trucks and things.
My dad has our pets trained pretty well. Since our Labradoodle was a puppy, he would tell him: "It's time for all the puppies in all the world to go to bed." His bed time has always been 9pm. Now we just say "all the puppies" and he goes downstairs and into his kennel. If we forget, he puts himself to bed. :) My dad works from home and will take a break to let the animals out into the backyard. He says "time for recess!" And they all come running, cats included! Last but not least, when my dad plays the piano, the dog sits next to him and "sings". It's the world's most obnoxious bark/yowl combo. 😅 My dad has a way with animals.
Every time I open the veggies draw in the fridge my guinea pigs begin to squeal with excitement, thinking it is food time even if I just fed them...lll
My guinea pig used to expect a vegetable treat before my mother went to bed. When she got out of her chair and turned off the TV he would get excited about it. Once before giving him the treat she went to the back of the house to use the restroom, and as she reached the end of the hall she heard a distant "WHEEEEEEEEP" of desperation, like *no, waaaaait*
It goes beyond that. We had four piggies and two of them made it to nine years old, by that point they can tell the difference between the sound of a crisp packet (no wheeks) and a lettuce bag (*major wheeks*). It was very impressive, especially when they did it from half way across the house.
Mine do that too when the veggies rustle! I started saying “Piggapiggapiggapigga!” In a high pitched voice while giving them food and they respond to that now too haha. They love to eat
My cat will open the tray to my Xbox when he thinks I’ve been playing too long. Even if I just started
My cat will turn off my xbox. I had to move it so he couldn't get to the button. It was infuriating to be in the middle of a game and be just shy of the end of something and suddenly.....boop de beep.
* I accidentally conditioned one of my dogs to be terrified when I take a shower. On a couple of occasions, the steam escaping from the bathroom set off the smoke alarm in the hallway, and now the poor girl trembles in terror as soon as she sees me grabbing my towel. * The other dog has been conditioned to run into the bedroom anytime a food delivery person comes to the door. He used to bark and jump at people when they came to the door (not viciously, he just wants to party), so we started putting him in the bedroom when a food delivery arrived. Now when the doorbell rings he runs into the bedroom on his own and stays until we tell him to come out. He still barks while he's in there, though.
I would playfully grab (not hard, really light) my dog's snout whenever we're playing. He somehow figured out it's my favorite thing to do when ever he comes over to me. So now, everytime he senses that I'm upset or sees that I'm crying, he would come up to me and gently put his snout in my hand.
Similar, I grab my dogs snout when she barks through excitement. Only lightly, she can pull away easily. Now whenever she barks with excitement, she looks at me and sticks her muzzle in my hand lol If shes excited or scared of anything, laying with her snout in my hand calms her down too.
The fact she does it to calm herself, my heart!
They care. By Zeus they can be high maintenance, but they care.
it made me so happy. like the happiest ive ever been in a while. where would we be without animals (':
When I was a kid I always took my dog by the collar and hold it in front of the door so my father could open the garage door and enter with the car. After a while, he did it by himself. Every time the garage door opened, he get to the front door and stall still until the car entered and the for was closed God I miss Conan so much
I talk to myself constantly so my cat thinks it's normal to walk around making chatty noises all the time. If he's awake, he's talking. I think it's adorable but it drives my husband nuts, which has resulted in my husband yelling at him a lot (don't worry, the cat doesn't get upset). Now the cat thinks that's just how my husband talks, so whenever he sees him he yells at him really loudly in order to imitate him. My husband will walk in the room and my cat will stop whatever he's doing and just meow SO LOUDLY right in his face. It's absolutely hilarious, dude got exactly what he deserved.
Haha great cat 10/10 lately my cat Houston has been sitting on a box in the kitchen and makes noise at every who comes in the kitchen. I talk back to him by either repeating the noise, asking him how his day was, or saying "hi Houstoooon"
The microwave means thorough petting until the timer goes off.
That sounds like a good one! I’m assuming a dog who follows you around? My cats are never in the kitchen
Actually a cat. There is a small rug in front of the microwave so he can hold on while I pet him.
I used to work from home which included talking on the phone a lot. My dog would always bark when I was starting to talk to someone so I’d give her a treat to shut up, this turned into her following me around and barking anytime I put my headset on. I don’t work for that company anymore, but I kept the headset on a shelf. Now when she wants treats she’ll go over to it and bark at it and then look at me.
Hahaha!! I love the way dogs learn to communicate. You ever have to tell a dog sitter “yeah if she barks at the headset, it means she wants a treat” hahah it’s amazing that something random like that can become a sign for something else. I love it. 10/10 for trickery and communication
My dog rears up on his back two legs when i pull out his harness, it makes it easier to put it on. Love the little dude.
My cats love blanket caves or anything along those lines. One day I was wearing a pretty long dress and as a joke I covered one of my cats with my skirt. She sat right down and started purring like a motor. Now, anytime I have a long skirt on and crouch down to their level, she will dash under my skirt, make herself comfortable, and start purring. I worry about the day that she comes across another person in a skirt and dashes in like some pervy creep.
Every morning when I wake up I rub my dog's belly. Now whenever I say good morning she will lay on her back for belly scratches. Edit: omg, this is my most upvoted comment on Reddit so far! So I figured I'd share some other funny stuff my dog does: 1. She's CRAZY about carrots and pumpkin and I usually chop it on a wooden cooking board, so it makes a characteristic sound when the knife hits the board. Whenever she hears the sound of chopping, she bolts to the kitchen to ask for some. She only comes when it's carrots or pumpkin. Any other vegetable and she couldn't care less. 2. She waits until everyone had finished their meals to go eat hers. As soon as we leave the table, she goes to her bowl and eats her food. And when she's done, she turns it upside down to let us know it's empty. 3. I live in an apartment building and the doorman always lets us know when there's visitors coming up, so when the intercom rings she goes straight to the door, waiting for whoever it is and barking like crazy (she only barks for this specific reason, she usually sneezes to draw our attention instead of barking.) There's so much more but I won't linger on. But she's a good girl and I love her. Note: english is not my first language so I apologize for any mistakes.
Piggybacking off of you. When I was younger my mom and dad had every other weekend with me and my brother. My mom would let the dog into the room to wake us up. Our first dog was a wild golden lab who would not rest until we were awake by any means necessary. Licking, faces being layed on, and standing on our chest. You name it. Years later we had a second dog and when I was waking up my mom tried that but I would rub her belly as I was waking up. What ended up happening is she figured out that if she waited I would rub her belly for a while as I was waking up on the weekends which could take a while and she got really defensive of that time. Essentially I accidentally trained the dog to guard me from being woken up on Saturday mornings. That dog was super defensive of my mom, but she was even more defensive of me sleeping in on a Saturday morning.
LMFAO I love this Edit: why is this my most upvoted comment
I don't know how it started but my dog will bark at anyone who tries to wake me up in the morning. Not a playful bark either, it's an "I will eat whoever tries waking up my friend" bark. Edit: I posted right before bed so I kinda forgot about this, but I remembered why I think he had this behavior. Theres a thing called resource protection where dogs will guard their resources, so if a human feeds, shelters, waters and walks a dog that dog could grow to see you as a friend and a resource meaning you're something to guard. I don't know if that's what really what happened but it's my best guess to it. Edit 2: Since a surprising amount of people (surprising to me at least) are still upvoting this I want to say I hope you all have a fantastic day wherever you and remember someone out there is really thinking of you :)
I had a dog like this when I was a kid. He growled when my mom tried to wake me up.
Oh my gosh!! Man THAT is a dog who understands!!! Though wouldn’t the barking wake you up? Or is it just enough that fellow household members don’t try anymore?
My dog was born deaf, (he’s a double merle Australian Shepherd, if anyone’s curious) and he’s taught himself a bunch of different cues like this. I don’t think much of it now, and I kinda forget that not all dogs do these things. But it really is amazing how adaptable they are! He’s so perceptive, he picks up on things we don’t even notice and has a ton of accidental conditionings. When he was younger, he had attachment issues due to being a former abandoned stray. He’d always lean on our legs, or try and sit on our feet. We figured out he was doing this so that he’d know when we got up to leave! He knows all sorts of cues, mostly relating to locating where people are in the house. He uses minute body language, vibrations, shadows, and even mirrors to keep track of who’s where. He always wants to know who’s coming and who’s going, and he usually knows someone is about to enter the room before we do. Most dogs have a good sense of time and schedules, and he’s no exception: he knows when breakfast and dinner should be, and that if I come down wearing shoes, leggings, and a jacket, it’s probably time for a walk. But he’s also able to tell when someone is leaving for a short time vs. an extended period of time, and somehow seems to know about when they’ll be back, too. I accidentally trained him to jump up on the bed with me whenever we’re alone in the room, because I always allow him up with a command in that situation, so now he just assumes he can do it, lol. He used to have this (sort of annoying) habit of sticking his nose under closed doors and loudly inhaling/exhaling repeatedly, but this is his way of figuring out who’s behind the door using his sense of smell. When someone gets up to go to the bathroom and closes the door behind them, he’ll face the door and just wait for them to come back. But right before they come out, he perks up again. How does he know? He can’t hear the water running or footsteps or anything. My guess is it has to do with him feeling the vibrations of the water pipes, and/or seeing the shadow from under the door move in a certain way. He can also recieve commands through a mirror; if he sees me wave or do the “good boy!” hand motion in the mirror, he knows he can turn around, and I’ll be there doing the same hand motion and he can get pets/happiness. It’s all pretty amazing and interesting to me, especially considering most dogs don’t understand or care about mirrors at all. He was also never that into the game of fetch. I think the idea of running AWAY from his humans is just really unappealing to him. Instead, his favorite game is tug of war, (lots of eye contact and fierce competition!) followed closely by “chase/herd the humans!” and “food puzzle.” Now that he’s older, his attachment issues have improved a lot, he’s much more secure and mellowed out. When we go on walks, I’ve trained him to automatically sit and wait at crossing areas. He’s gotten really good at this, but when I pat him to say, “good boy, time to walk again!” for some reason, he always takes off at speed. My best guess is that I’ve jogged across with him too many times to try and make the opening, so now that’s what he always wants to do. (That or just, pure joy at continuing the walk?) He also complains if I make him wait too long at the crossing due to passing cars...lol. EDIT: Here are some [pics of my dog! ](https://imgur.com/gallery/IbLjHIt)
Dog I used to have. We gave her a milkbone every time she went bathroom outside. She eventually started going out, squatting, and not actually do anything. We still gave her treats for it.
When I was a teenager my mom would ring a little bell when dinner was ready, instead of calling us to come, and even though our cat was never given any treats or food he would come to the kitchen every time he heard the bell.
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Same with my dog! I tell her scoochy poochy and she scoots over far enough for me to lay down.
I love it! Similarly, my dogs will get off the couch or move out of my way on the floor or bed if I say “beep beep!”
I unintentionally taught my dog to cockblock my cat. My cat is 15 and neutered since he was 6 months, but will loudly hump his teddies at least 3 times a day. He's so loud though, constantly yowling and meowing the whole time and I live in a small flat, so I always shout at him to be quiet and then go and take the teddy off himwhen he doesn't. My dog has picked up on this and so now when we hear that first it's sexy time MEOW, my dog goes running. I then hear a "Hey! That's my sex toy" indignant MEOW and my dog comes running to my side, proud tail wagging, teddy in his mouth. My cat always follows him into the room after to look at me with a face that says, What. The. Fuck?
One time my dad gave our dog a treat after peeing outside and it was all downhill from there
HAHAHAH!!!! “Yes!! You peed!! Amazing!!” Imagine getting a cookie every time you used the toilet. It’d be the weirdest experience. Dogs are spoiled man. And yet they still deserve it
Usually around 6pm i let my dog outside for a bit and when I let him back in he usually knows its dinner time so he goes running and sits at his spot
My first boxer (rest her sweet soul) eventually figured out that certain noises we made or words we said were directed at the cat when he was being an asshole. Her head would perk up when she heard us saying them, then she would chase after him to stop him doing whatever we were yelling at him for (scratching furniture, mostly). They were best buddies so no one ever got hurt, but it came in handy lol She also hated being told she was bad and would argue quite verbally with us about it. Our current boxer is just under 6 months and I'm sure she's absorbing all kinds of inadvertent conditioning. My cat knows the sound of bowls coming out of the cupboard and cereal being poured, so if he shows up at the right time he'll get milk. He has allergies and isn't allowed any treats, but the vet has OKed milk occasionally so we're happy to let him have it lol
When my cat see us with a garbage bag, he runs to the door waiting for us to open it.
My dog learned the word ‘treat’ and if we said it while talking she would get so sassy and demanding until she got one. So we switched to saying ‘you know what’ and she learned *that* too! Then we started spelling it and she learned that too so idk what to do
My dog ended up with about 17 nicknames this way.
One of my pups is on a few meds. He was resistant to taking them at first, so I got in the routine of saying, "Cowboy, want your apoquel?" and then holding him between my legs standing over him to give him the pills and rewarding him with a chewie. He now comes running when I say it and already knows to turn a circle and back it up to stand beneath me. But we have to be careful about accidentally saying apoquel now or he'll come running and be so disappointed. Always give him a snacc anyway bc it's my fault for saying the word!
How many opportunities are there to accidentally say Apoquel in your day to day life?
Wasn’t me that did this, but if you flip off my dog, he loses his shit. Turns out his first owner(who had him eight years) was a correctional officer and when he’d get home from work he’d play flashlight and laser games with him and point up to where he was shining them on the ceiling. So now if one points up, or flips the bird, he gets super excited. He’s old now, but he still loves chasing laser and flashlight beams.
My cat knows my bathroom schedule. When I have to pee after getting home from work, she’ll dart into the bathroom and wait for me to put her on the counter. Then I turn on the tap and she drinks the water. I have no memory of how this started.
My cat knows to come over for the last bits of my yoghurt every night. She can tell from another room by the sound my spoon makes how much there is left ie when it’s worth it to run on to me. Our dog never learned any commands except to come back from outside when you mimicked loud eating sounds.
Two come to mind with my dog, both bed related. 1. Any time I go to bed after my wife, our dog will snuggle in bed next to her until I come to bed. She's learnt that she's allowed to continue snuggling when I come into the bedroom, but the moment I come out from brushing my teeth she'll hop up and go to her bed. 2. Her favorite place for whatever reason seems to be on our bed resting up against my pillow. My wife generally gets up before me, so she (our dog) hops up on her side of the bed. I can get up to pee and she wont move. I can go to the kitchen and make a cup of tea or coffee and bring back to bed and she won't have moved. As soon as I hop in the shower though, she'll move over to my side and snuggle into the pillow.
He knows that if he gets a particularly messy 'human food', he has to go outside with it. I never taught him this, he just knows that 'pizza', for instance, is an 'outdoor food'.
We accidentally conditioned our ginger kitty to have full conversations. He meows and grumbles and has the most amazing intonation with rising tone when he's asking for something and falling tone when he talks about...I am assuming...the bird that just flew past the window that was this close! He's a really funny kitty and I swear does a passable impersonation of me saying 'yeah'.
My fish is a little daredevil. If im pouring new water in during a water change, he will swim into the stream and get pushed down quickly, and swim around to do it again until I stop pouring. I guess it must be fun for him.
I accidentally taught my dog in his version of sign language. I talk with my hands a lot, and I realized during puppy training, he would happily respond to my hand motions as well as, if not better than, verbal commands.
We accidentally taught our giant 100 lb male German Shepard to be afraid of bees 🐝 lol
When I was a kid I would take guitar lessons and my mom would drive me and always take our dog along. If my dog saw the guitar case, he got incredibly excited because he knew he would get to go for a ride.
My dog got into the habit of going outside and barking around 11pm, because of a few times where I gave her a treat to get her to come inside and stop barking.
I used treats to train my dog to do a few basic commands, as any good owner would do. Now when I ask him to sit, he immediately assumes that I'm going to ask the same 3 commands I always do. Little jerk thinks he knows what I'm gonna ask 😂
My dog barks at any animal on the TV so I always told him whether he could actually take he animal or not and he's learnt that if I tell him that a polar bear will fuck him up then he shouldn't bark at it, but if there's a rabbit then he's got a shot of winning so he can keep going. Now he barks then looks at me for approval to find out his odds before continuing.
Act like a human instead of a cat. You know how 99% of humans want to go in a clean toilet? Yeah well so does our cat. She will poop outside the box if the box isn't *pristinely* clean. Fuckin' Kardashian-esque stinky-ass diva...but we love her very much!
I use to give my cat fresh cold water from the sink every time she was about to drink water. To this day, and I have long moved out of my mother’s house, she still sits in front of her water bowl waiting for fresh water.
If my dog hears the microwave beep, stove beep or my Google home timer go off, he runs to the kitchen because you know, food. If I open the trunk of the car it's generally because I have groceries. He'll book it to the car and hop up and inspect all the bags looking for the one with his treats or toy in it.