blenderweaselhasopinions:

hollowedskin:

prokopetz:

Trainability in cats is a funny thing.

My cats understand and will obey a number of verbal commands, one of which is “go away”. I don’t use it often, but if they’re bugging me and I’m trying to work or doing something that could be dangerous for cats, I can tell them to go away, and off they go – they’ll only keep pestering me if there’s a serious problem they need me to look at.

That said, their idea of a serious problem that requires my attention is somewhat eccentric. Previous instances have included:

• There was an unfamiliar car parked across the street
• Their water bowl was four inches to the left of its usual position
• One of them had puked on the stairs and they didn’t want to walk past it
• It was raining
• One of them saw a weird bug

These are all very important things that required your attention. They’re doing a good job.

Dogs really aren’t much better.  I teach all my dogs the command “show me”.  How it works is if the dog needs something but I’m having trouble understanding what exactly they’re trying to tell me, I say “show me” and they lead me to whatever the problem is.  Usually they lead me to a real problem (like a toy that got stuck under the couch, their water bowl is empty, etc).  But sometimes they want me to fix things like this-

• They pulled the covers off my bed and now they want me to put the covers back
• They put their ball on top of the ottoman but the ottoman won’t throw it for them
• The cat is sleeping and won’t chase them
• A flower fell off the potted plant
• The cat is sitting in a box and they don’t like it
• One of them lost their bandana
• The cat won’t take the toy they’re trying to give her
• The cat DID take the toy they gave her and now they want it back