How Have Your Animals Trained YOU?

[vintagelover229]

Such cute stories!

I have a few to share too Our cat is a retired queen bangle who was born at the breeders house along with a ton of other cats-a Doberman pincher and a small Chihuahua-no kids. When we first got her she was affectionate but very much on her terms/do her thing sort of cat. I've never owned a cat before but we buy her the best food (~2.5 is 65.00+tax thankfully it last at least 2 months since she gets 3/4 cup a day) and her litter is ground up corn (best.invention.ever) which isn't cheap either.

We built her a cutom 6' cat tree (she loves it) and she is obsessed with blankets. In fact-I got a snuggie for my birthday in Feb. Yeah-it's not mine anymore. It's HER blanket now.


She also is afraid of everything. Hates change. We bought her a tunnel that has lights on it since our friends have 2 cats that LOVE theirs. She is SO afraid of it. She went though it once and it crinkles as she does it-yeah its not folded up and we'll use it for the baby or something lol! We also bought her one of the blanket/bags for cats. She hates it. I got her a bed right when we first got her and she wouldn't go near it. One day I see her sitting on it and what appeared to be getting ready to lay down (I was like VICTORY!) yeah no-she PEED all over it. She showed me! I cleaned it up and put it right back where it was. Over a year later she still won't touch it.

Since we've gotten her she's gotten a lot better. I used to not be able to pick her up without her freaking out and clawing you to death while trying to fling herself from your arms. After not allowing her to do that though and showing her that if I pick you up-I'll pet you and then gently put you down-now she doesn't freak out as much. DH still can't pick her up as long as I can but she's improved greatly.

She now cuddles under blankets and over blankets. If I wanted cuddle time I used to have to have my blanket and make a tent with it for her to be interested in coming and cuddling. Now she'll head butt the blanket-walk over my laptop and over me JUST to get the cuddles. She also will sit on the couch with us now-something she used to never do.

Our couch also has a butt print from my DH. She LOVES that spot. No clue why-but we'll find her there all the time. She used to run away as soon as we'd come over to sit down but not any longer. NOW we sit ON HER! We thought she would move-you know when your bum hit her but nope-she doesn't move until you actually put some weight on her then she will slowly get up and move. And give you a look


She also has this thing with my hair ties and plastic bags and the streamers that break off from her toys. She will play with them (not the plastic bags but the other 2) and it doesn't matter where she starts out playing with them with-they ALWAYS wind up in her water dish. Every. single.time. I have NO clue why she does this but it drives me batty. Soggy hair ties aren't fun. I always just put them on her cat tree.

I love her though and she keeps me great company. She's super funny to throw stuff at since she's so scared of everything. We'll throw socks at her (not since the move-we're waiting for her to adjust) and she'll spring up in the air about 5-7 feet depending on how good we got her. Then she sniffs it and gives us the look

She HATES her nails being clipped but she's gotten so much better. It used to be a 2 person job but now I can do it on my own. I waited longer than usual to do it after the move so she felt like she had protection and I did it yesterday and she threw a mega fit. I wasn't putting up with it and let her know it. I'm now on day 2 with out any cuddles-she'll meow in the morning like she's lost her best friend and then snore up a storm (she's upstairs and I'm downstairs and I can hear her).

She's got SO many meowing noises-I had no clue they could be so vocal (she's a talker) and understand so much. She knows. Oh-yes she knows. I can see it in her eyes when she is thinking. Then I think I'm a fruitloop cuz who pays that much attention to their cat


Sorry this is SO long lol. Her are a few pictures so you can see how crazy our cat is. Btw she hates her belly rubbed. Hates it. She used to make this high pitched growling sound mixed with something else. But I've gotten her used to it since I think she hated it due to nursing kittens/etc. Now she doesn't freak out or make funny noises when you do it. I'm still training her a bit but she has us trained that is for sure!

 

[vintagelover229]

Does anyone else have a pet that puts their food on the floor before eating it? I don't think she does this with every piece but she does it with a lot of them.

She also is like another poster (can't recall from above) who said their pet won't eat the last 1/3 of the food in the bowl. She does that too. It's the same food but not good enough.

She also does this thing that when she is startled/fell down/see's that we are watching her being all goofy and crazy where she'll stop and groom herself. Like saying that didn't just happen-see-I was just grooming myself


Sorry for the picture overload. She's just to cute and I had to share I hope you guys don't mind!

 

[iLander]

I LOVE the pictures! What a beautiful kitty!

 

[fabulousfindk]

Love this thread! Cute stories. Pickle goes into the kitchen and barks at the sink until we give him water. He does this at specific times throughout the day, every single day. Onyx the lab will actually use his nose to FORCE your arm up and pet him.. we had a houseguest this weekend and she kept remarking how she'd never seen a dog do that before! Yep, they're pretty spoiled.

 

[distracts]

Tanzigrrl, she's a Holland Lop and is 3 lbs, and almost 2 years old. I got her when she was about 3 months - she only weighed a smidge over a pound at the time! And ahahha, Gwen does the licking too. Sometime she'll go on licking rampages and lick you forever (and if you go away, she'll lick the floor, the furniture, the laptop, and anything else she encounters), but sometime she'll do exactly what you said and just lick you a couple of times and then demand seemingly endless petting. I have found out there are two kinds of licking - the "I love you and am licking you to show my love" licking, and the "holy crap you're scaring me and I'm licking you to show you how much the boss I think you are OMG STOP DOING THAT OMG LICKING HARDER TO MAKE YOU STOP!" licking, which happens frequently during claw trimming/tooth examinations/other events bunny wishes she didn't have to experience.

I am thinking of getting her a bunny friend - my friend who fosters rabbits has a bonded pair right now, and they are SO cute together. But everything I read says that the bonding process takes a while and I don't know how I could stand it if they fought at all.

I'm loving these stories!

I didn't realize bunnies and birds were so interactive. That's awesome.

My bunny is in between cats and dogs in interactivity, I think. She's a little more attention-seeking and trainable than my past cats, and a little less so than my dog. She likes to follow me around and get into whatever I'm doing - which usually means chewing on it. If I'm reading a book, she'll jump in my lap and start ripping at the pages. If I'm doing laundry, she'll come hop on the piles and start chewing tags and corners. If I'm eating, she'll come try to nibble my food (which is not allowed as in most cases it would not be good for her). You get the idea. She's really quite fun! And she remembers people she's met multiple times before - when she meets new people she won't really let them hold her or anything but once she's met someone several times, she seems to recognize them as a friend. With people she's seen a lot of, such as my bffs and family, she gets actively excited when they appear or she hears their voice on the phone.

 

[Imdanny]

Enerchi, SO and I call her a princess everyday. She's been hand raised by humans in a foster family since before nine weeks when we got her.

What a day we had today.

It started when I was sleeping and she jumped off my ankles with claws, landed on me again with claws, and bounced off the bed.

My foot and leg were cut and bleeding.

That's how I was woken up. She's never done this before. SO said a noise might have caused it. I told him I never heard a noise. He hadn't either. Then he said maybe she was waking up from a dream.

This evening I walked out of the house and left the door and screen door open. We found her right away standing near a flowerbed.

Then she ran across my foot cutting my foot again.

So I had to give her a bath. She hated it.

And we had to clip all her nails. She hated that too.

Oh well. There are days like this. I've spent time petting her and talking to her in a gentle voice, but she's still upset so I'm giving her some space.

 

[Enerchi]

Ouch! Danny, that is rough!!! hope your foot heals up - clean your cuts well to make sure no source of dirt is in there to cause an infection.

Is there anything caught in her fur or pads that could be upsetting her and causing her pain? or her mouth? cats/dogs/animals don't have any way to express pain to us, so maybe an inspection while bathing???? Just hoping it's physical that's bothering her rather than emotional....

cuz if that's the case, whoa!, she's just being moody like the princess she is!!

 

[Imdanny]

Enerchi, I appreciate your concern. Thanks. Yes, absolutely, everything was practically soaked with alcohol and band-aids put on. I am never without alchol and band-aids. In a tropical climate especially the risk of infection is very real. I know because seven years ago I got a bacterial infection that was eating the flesh on my foot where I'd left a blister from wearing new sneakers uncovered. You don't play around with a situation like that. I was in the emergency room twice. I won't ever leave a cut or blister uncovered again.

The rest of the day with our cat- Inhad to leave for two hours.,she sat at the door and whined the whole time. SO was not happy.

She had a really bad day. But fortunately she doesn't have a bad temperment. She would never hurt anyone on purpose.

She seems to be fine pysically but this morning she was sad and withdwawn. That's not her normal personality at all.

I guess the bottom line is that she trains us a lot but her being an inside cat is not negotiable. The worst part of yesterday was me leaving the door open.