How do your pets outwit you?

zanador

I have two dogs, both rescues, one of them a 5yr old JRT (who I have had since he was 1)

I also foster dogs occasionally and teach them basic commands and recall using treats. He watched this for a while, and now has decided that HE won't come without treats. So, I gave him the treats figuring it would end when the foster left. It hasn't. It started with recall, and then with coming in from the garden, now it's progressed to sit and stay - he won't do anything without a treat.

I have watched him outwit the other dog for 4 years, and now he has progressed onto me..

Cee-Jay-Cee

Think your in the wrong forum.

zanador

Oops, I think so too - you're just above animals & pet issues:D

Ruu

Moved this for you.

Mod.

Toulouse

He sounds like a lovely little character

My dog stands expectantly looking at my Dad some evenings. Usually this is the cue that she wants to go out for a pee. So she'll stand and look, and stand and look.

Eventually he gets up, goes into the utility room off the kitchen with her to open the back door for her. Then he looks around and she's fecked off back into the kitchen to sit on the couch and he's standing at the back door freezing

She only does it to him for some reason, I think it's because she shares the couch with him and sometimes feels he's taking up too much room

Jen Pigs Fly

My younger dog knows my dads dinner routine to a tee.

Ollie will wait In the kitchen while he's making dinner and as soon as my dad opens the cooker when the food is done ollie will run into the sitting room (where my dad eats dinner) and waits by the table to the right.

Ollie has learnt what hand my dad uses to eat with and what side offers the best chance of my dad accidentally dropping food.

A few times my dad tricked him and sat at the kitchen table, cue 10 mins of waiting and ollie came running in giving out "where are you, I was waiting for our dinner!"

Ollie will also tell my dad when it's my dads dinner time, around 7 o clock if my dad hasn't had dinner yet ollie wil try lead him to the kitchen. My dad is very routine and ollie knows this very well and uses it to his advantage.

both dogs will ask for treats every time they go outside :rolleyes: my older dog will go outside, potter around for a minute and then will sit by the press waiting for a treat, this stems from when we first got ollie 2 years ago and he was scared to go outside.

I don't give them a treat, but it's funny because when Scoobie feels like a treat she'll go outside.

And the fact that when I moved out, Scoobie decided my room is now hers and she chills on the bed every morning, amuses me a lot ... She moved into my room, decided I was gone so she was next in line for a bedroom

Pumpkinseeds

We have 2 sofas in the living room but 1 of our cats will only sit on 1 of them. It gets to about 11pm and he sits in on the floor in front of my husband and stares at him, unblinking, until he gets up and lets him have his side of the sofa for the rest of the night. This happens most nights.

Pumpkinseeds

I'm half convinced that our cats have a psychic link with me, well at least as far as food is concerned:D My husband could walk into the kitchen 50 times a day and the 4 cats would ignore him doing that, but as soon as I go into the kitchen to make dinner, before I've rattled a saucepan or opened the fridge, the 4 of them descend on the kitchen and sit watching me, close enough to nab something if it falls on the floor, particularly if there's raw mince or raw chicken on offer.:)

chocaholic04

We have rabbits in our house, when we move furniture around we have to put barriers around any cables in case they nibble them. No matter how well we have the cables or other areas they arent allowed go closed off, no matter how small the gap they will find a way in. It's the first place they will go to when we let them out as well, where can I go that I'm not allowed to. Eventually we find the gaps and close it off.

They rarely go upstairs but the one time we forget to close the door to the bedrooms they will be up and wandering around the bedroom before you've realised they are missing.

ShaShaBear

Well Shadow was the master of deception according to himself. He was of the opinion that he turned invisible when he broke eye contact, so he used to walk like a crab up to you and climb on you backways in order to get to share your sandwich/biscuit/crisps/dinner/whatever. But you couldn't see him until he looked at you.
He always got to lick the empty cereal bowls in the mornings from he was a pup, and no matter where he was, be it outside, upstairs in bed, even in the throws of late-stage cancer, he would literally fling himself into the room the second he heard a metal spoon touch ceramic. He knew that meant the bowl was less than half full and almost ready for licking I guess the outwitting is that clanging a spoon on a bowl didn't work. Apparently it sounds different with 2 inches of milk and three Cheerios in it

Opie, being trained properly with positive reinforcement to do things that Shadow never did, has mastered the art of being a crafty little ducker. We used treats to train him to "go to bed" (the crate) and if asked to do it he will run to bed, spin inside it and run straight back out, then come looking for his treat as if to say "Well, you never said stay in it!". We worked really hard to teach him "sit" when people come to visit, and he's getting better at it, but he is an utterly defiant little ... (I obviously can't use cuss words, but by gawd he needs them) as when my OH tells him to sit when he jumps on him, he promptly parks his arse on the floor and "sits pretty" so that he can still harass Mr. Bear with his paws. And I swear, the look in his eyes just screams "Go on, tell me how I'm not technically still sitting!"

My kitten Amelia has a sudden urge to go to the toilet when I'm making food. There is a big opening between our kitchen and sitting room although we have a curtain hung over it. I'm making food, Meels suddenly desperately needs to go outside to go to the toilet. So I leave my food and go "Come on so" and walk out towards the front door. She darts in the sitting room door, straight behind the curtain, and has my food before I can get back into the kitchen.

Oh dear I just realised the ultimate owner outwittage, in the form of budgerigars. They like being out of the cage for a while, but they love their cage - the cage is safe and comfortable. But when they're all inside, and I go to shut the cage door, one of them will fly back out. They like to keep their options open, you know. They take shifts. I'm not kidding. One of them will be bored of outside the cage, so he'll go back in. I jump at the cage to shut the door, but his brother saw him coming and was all ready and prepared to fly out. Then when he gets tired and decides to go back in, my yellow hen bird is just waiting in the cage doorway for him to come in, then she climbs out. They play this game all night! They know I wont shut the cage while one of them is out. They're also impossible to catch. Once I caught Drake, being very naughty, and when I opened the cage door to put him in, the other two flew straight out by my hand!

ETA: This isn't just my current flock of three, all my birds, ever, have done this shiftwork to keep the cage door open, whether they want to be out or not! I only shut the door for their own safety!

Shivi111

My two cats teamed up against me, I was getting my dinner ready (carving a chicken) and one of them lay on her side on the floor and started crying, while I was with her trying to see what was wrong the other cat stole half the chicken carcass and ran out the window with it. Then the 'hurt' cat leapt up and followed him and they sat down together outside eating the chicken.
They have worked out how to work as a team.
I am doomed.

MrWalsh

One of my cats uses a cat flap and she goes in and out as she pleases no problem UNLESS I am in the vicinity of the door its on, at which point she sits in front of it and cries and waits for me to open the door for her.

Going Strong

MrWalsh wrote: »

One of my cats uses a cat flap and she goes in and out as she pleases no problem UNLESS I am in the vicinity of the door its on, at which point she sits in front of it and cries and waits for me to open the door for her.

Mine does this as well. Also, I got a new backdoor fitted last year that opens the other way to the old door. My cat refuses to acknowledge this state of affairs so goes and points her little nose at the wrong corner when she wants to go out. She'll sit there for about 10-15 seconds pointing the wrong way before doing an "Oh well, if I must" saunter to the other side of the door frame and going out.

In warm weather, when the bedroom windows are open at night, I'm treated to her using the house like a 'ladder' to get from ground level to rooftops and back again, all bloody night long. Each time accompanied by an "Only me!" shout as she comes and goes.

zanador

I live mid-terrace and rather than walk round to the garden my cat meows to come in at the front door, comes in, walks through house and then meows to go out at the back door.

Pumpkinseeds

Our cats always wake me when they want something. They don't even bother trying to wake Mr Pumpkinseeds since they know he won't give in/wake up. We even tried switching sides of the bed once to see if they'd jump on him, but it didn't work, they just went around the other side to me.:rolleyes:

rannerap

its not really outwitting but she knows how to manipulate us. When we have dinner on the couch Blue jumps up beside us purring and nuzzling us and giving us the sad eyes until she gets a bit of whatever we have, works a charm! the others havent copped on and only come when called. Umi likes to bite my fingers while I sleep to wake me up so that I get up and feed her, if I hide my hands under the duvet she burrows in underneath the duvet to get at them. Very annoying!

Going Strong

Yesterday morning, being a Sunday, I felt I could do with a nice lie in. My cat had other ideas though. She burrowed under the duvet, passed below my feet and I could see a lump travelling up the bed towards me. I feigned sleep but got head butted repeatedly until I opened my eyes. I still refused to get up so she went back under the duvet and lay alongside me. Then she started pushing with her legs as she tried to shove me towards the edge of the bed. At this point, I gave up the unequal struggle and got up at 8.15 am. Result, she got fed and got the bed to herself for the day while I got to wondering how it ever came to this.