• MTK@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Cats have a much more complex understanding of human behaviour and just consider us harmless and boring enough to not bother.

    As in your cat totally understands that your keyboard is special in a way and you don’t want it disturbed, but couldn’t give two shits about your wants. Or completely being aware of how unpleasant it is when they sit on you with their butthole in your face, but why not if that’s what they want to do right now?

    I think this is real and that most (not all) cats are smarter and more selfish than we think

    • Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca
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      3 hours ago

      I’ve always said that people who think cats are simple or ratty/skittish creatures have never laid with a loving cat on their chest. There are few deeper connections that a good owner and a well-loved cat. They are exceptionally bright animals.

    • ivanafterall ☑️@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Dogs are waaaaay more aware than most people seem to think. I think it’s true of most animals. We just don’t like to think about it.

      • w3dd1e@lemmy.zip
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        1 day ago

        This. My dog knows words that I didn’t teach him. I know people talk about pattern recognition and what not but that’s not all that different than human knowledge. I learn words by hearing them repeated too

        I know how to read his body language and the tone of his barks to know what he wants. He will even show me, if I ask him.

        I suspect he understands a lot more than I am capable of deciphering as well.

        • Hugin@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          My dogs know the difference between going out pants and around the house pants. We also have to say preambulate when talking about walks unless we want to excite the dogs.

      • MrsDoyle@sh.itjust.works
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        1 day ago

        I stayed out later than normal one time and missed one of my dog’s walks. He tore up a newspaper while staring at me. Rip, rip, rip. He knew I spent time looking at newspapers so he chose to destroy one, while heavily implying that if I fucked up his schedule again he would rip ME up.

      • Denjin@lemmings.world
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        1 day ago

        Dogs brains activate the same regions when the see human faces that activate in our brains. These same regions don’t activate in dogs to anything like the same degree when they see other dogs.

        Dogs are far more in tune with us that they are with their own species.

        Some of the oldest human archaeological sites have dog remains among the humans. Domestication of the dog was going on far far earlier than the first evidence we have for domestication of the first food species.

        We have evolved together as two mutually symbiotic species.

        • otp@sh.itjust.works
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          17 hours ago

          These same regions don’t activate in dogs to anything like the same degree when they see other dogs.

          Probably because they use scent more than sight for being in tune with their own species.

          • Hugin@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            Sent is just an id for dogs. They use body language with humans and other dogs. They also pay attention to threw same parts of human faces that we do. They don’t do this with other dog faces.

            • otp@sh.itjust.works
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              6 hours ago

              Scent is how dogs (generally) primarily experience the world.

              They don’t do this with other dog faces.

              Because dogs don’t use their faces the same way that humans do

              • Hugin@lemmy.world
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                3 hours ago

                Dogs use scent more then humans. However they still use sight and sound much morfe then they use scent.

                Dogs use body language and vocalization to communicate with each other. Watch two dogs interact they look at each other and will growl, and bristle or tail wag and play bow to indicate what they want.

                They look at faces on humans because that’s a major component of how we communicate.

                Smell is not how they communicate. It’s just how they know where other animals have been.

      • MTK@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I agree, but that’s not a conspiracy. Scientifically speaking, we know that animals are smarter than most people admit.

        The conspiracy here is that cats are not just smarter than we think but actually one of the smarter animals in general and they are also very internal and just don’t care about us so they don’t exhibit it in ways that we recognize.

    • RebekahWSD@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Some cats are extremely smart and very devious (looking at you, mother’s cat) and some are. Well. I love them. But I’ve met cats that absolutely had nothing going on upstairs, not a single thought in their little brains.

      That’s rare though! Most are pretty smart and know how to convince us to do everything for them! And I always will do my best for them.

      • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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        1 day ago

        cats that absolutely had nothing going on upstairs, not a single thought in their little brains.

        Ah, so you’ve met a Persian cat. Pretty cats, but at what cost?

        • Narauko@lemmy.world
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          20 hours ago

          Their singing ability was definitely a cost, never let one pick any Bard or Bard adjacent class.