Our dogs have little quirks, but this is what they've learnt and stick to:

Eddy:
When we sit down for dinner, Eddy sits next to dad first, then moves to mum, then my sister, then to me because he knows who will finish first. He knows there's no point sitting by me because by the time I've finished everyone else has! (He never gets anything - he can just hope!)

Takara:
Whenever dad is in, Takara is the dog from hell. She barks, bites his hands, gives him her toys...
When he's out she's good as gold.
Why? Because she knows he will give in and play with her to shut her up whilst the rest of the family won't.


What have your pets picked up on?

My pathetic cat knows that if he glares at me for long enough at meal times I`ll sneak food to him. He also knows that if he rolls on his back as Im cooking and makes pathetic mewling sounds ill feed him then too.
Its the only time the little parasite wants anything to do with me, when there isnt any food around I could die for all he cared.

Brude strops off upstairs if he's cross that we're breaking some unwritten beagle rules that he's tried to convey to us, and shreds a tissue out of a bin somewhere.

He's now got wise to the fact that I make him put all the bits back in the bin, so he only shreds them into three big bits now, instead of hundreds of little bits :D

My lot now know where to sit to snuggle up while I'm online (in a recliner, with my lap occupied with the laptop)- one on each side of me, one behind my head and one between my knees. They're always the same way round too (Arthur on top, Baby between the knees, Merlin on my right, and Tiffy on my left).

Baby (who's a hand reared feral) also likes some reassurance and love before eating her dinner, and she knows that I feed them directly before going to bed, so I put the food out and she has a nose about then goes to wait for me on the bed, so that she's ready for a love when I've cleaned my teeth.

All of mine now also know that they will get ignored if they eat anything that wasn't in a stainless steel bowl on the kitchen floor- so they don't touch anything from plates, even if they're put down with a slice of chicken on.

All of mine now also know that they will get ignored if they eat anything that wasn't in a stainless steel bowl on the kitchen floor- so they don't touch anything from plates, even if they're put down with a slice of chicken on.

Hopefully ours will learn that after last night's stealing-of-the-pork-chop incident :suspect: :rant:

they missed out on the usual amount of fuss they'd get when i get home from work and got ignored and repeatedly shoooed out of the kitchen for about 2 hours afterwards... :(

My guinea pigs know what time of the day is feeding time, they only wheek when i open the fridge at 8pm at night, no other time

Hopefully ours will learn that after last night's stealing-of-the-pork-chop incident :suspect: :rant:

they missed out on the usual amount of fuss they'd get when i get home from work and got ignored and repeatedly shoooed out of the kitchen for about 2 hours afterwards... :(

Oh dear- they're a bit young to have learned proper manners yet though. give them a few more months.

If it's any consolation, my aunt's cat once stole a whole fresh turkey (that was about twice her size). She got the door of the pantry open and just slid it out across the lino floor and into her bed. Strangely, she was unable to eat all of the evidence and was caught red-pawed with the carcass in her mouth.

Theres a chance that I may have overfed the cat a little. (http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i159/Doppler1/giantkitty.jpg)

they are learning things slowly, we know 5 months is still very young, but we don't want to let them get away with things now only to stop them later in life...

poor Ghaiyas thought she'd done fabulously well, killing a whole pork chop on the floor (or at least finding one that had committed suicide inexplicably out of a sealed bag on the worktop) Gustus was busying himself looking all sweet and innocent (hah yeh right!!!) whilst having his 'post dinner wash' :suspect: in the lounge...

in answer to the OP's original question, our babies have discovered that sometimes mummy and daddy don't think in the clever way they do :rant:

Purdy knows the one way guarunteed to get my full attention is to place a paw randomly on my computer keyboard (and we're not talking letters of the alphabet, if you know what I'm saying.)

Amos discovered (doubtless after many hours of research and experiment) that the best way to get me awake and out of bed in the morning is to hook a claw just inside my nostril. Have you ever tried this? I'm sure it's one of those first-aid tests people do to see if someone's in a coma or not! :rant:

My cat learned that i often like to wire the rug up to the electricity mains (http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i159/Doppler1/mvkz11.gif).

hehe there's some great stories there.

Our cats won't go on the kitchen side at all. In fact, we had major problems moving them onto a windowsill to eat their dinner where the dogs couldn't reach it because they knew they weren't allowed up there :lol:
Why? A spray bottle :D
As kittens they got sprayed everytime they were on the worktop or table and now we can leave them in the kitchen with a roast on the worktop and they won't go near it.

Shame I can't say the same about the dogs...

Jabberwocky - appreciate the first post but stop trolling now! :thumbsup:

Ok Ok Ill be good....



for now,,,

hehe you daft sod...

Poppy has learnt to come and tell us when she is hungry (she has a badly mended broken jaw so eats a little frequently). Hanni has learnt that if Poppy has got her food, she will let Hanni have a bit (especially if she pushes her out of the way).

Mozart has learnt that I go to bed at 10 pm so he hops in and waits for me. If I don't appear, he will then go downstairs to find me and drives me nuts till I do go to bed. Unfortunately, he also learnt that the alarm goes off at 6.15 so he wakes me just before (even at the weekend), usually by biting my nose!

Robin is just plain thick - I don't think she has learnt anything at all!

I just remembered.
My cat also knows that if theres a chicken in the fridge, then all he has to do is sit and stare pityfully at the door when anyone goes into the kitchen and hell get a treat. Youd think that he sat there all day because every time you go in there hes there, at the door staring.
However, a few weeks ago he was right at the top of the garden in the sun. He heared footsteps going down the stairs to the kitchen and he RAN down the garden path to get to the fridge door to take up his position.
He was caught out that time because he was seen, the little con merchant!

Because of our problems with our dog fighting the cats for food she quickly learnt that if there was food about she wasn't allowed anywhere near. So now as soon as I shout that dinner is ready she goes and lays half way up the stairs until we have finished. She then gets her food with any leftovers and a chew or something for afters.

oh wow! Wish mine would do that!

Takara will usually lay down and ignore the food although occasionally she'll revert back to puppyhood and try to steal it off your plate but Eddy sits bang in front of you with big puppy dog eyes and rocks back and forth! :lol:

I wouldn't mind if I didn'thave to make sure the bin was empty before I went out as she empties it and then attacks the cats if they go near the rubbish. Best thing is our Sheba (cat) rubs her head against the dog and the dog sits down for her to do it! I'm sure that dog has a split personality :suspect:

One of my rabbits has realised that if she picks up her bowl and bangs it against the bars of her cage i will eventually fill it up to keep her quiet. all of them, and the rats know that the first time they see me in the morning its feeding time. marley knows that when i feed him i leave the cage door unlocked and he can make a run across the living room if he pushes it open!

Come to think of it, my parrakeet (who I had to rehome as she was getting bored and needed a chum and more attention that I couldn't offer) learned that if I wasn't paying her all the attention she wanted, if she picked up her food bowl and threw it at me, or if she landed on whatever I was doing and started pecking my hands then she got attention (mostly because that's pretty hard to ignore).

haha yeah,

When Takara was a baby she had a little plastic bowl for her water and when it was empty she'd pick it up and trot through to the living room with it and drop it at my feet!
Now it's a bigger metal bowl that she can't carry so she picks it up and drops it against the flagstone floor in the kitchen to make a noise so that I come and fill it up!

Yeah my piggies used to wheek when they heard their food been chopped but now just walking into the kitchen is enough to set them off, and if I open the fridge....OMG! Also, they know they get fed in a morning as well as a night time so as soon as I get out of bed and walk into the living room they start :D bless them :)

Cat

They know the time, sound and how quickly I chop. As soon as I stop they're off and God help me if Im late!

Lol aren't they adorable?! I can't help but grin when I think about them even though I am a slave to their needs (which come before my own lol). They have a funny way of making you do exactly what they want you to do :D and are miles cleverer then most people give them credit for (well usually! the other day William sprinted out of the Pigloo and Jack ran directly into his head :confused: )

Cat

Gadget was taught by his previous owner not to pester people while they are eating (which is great!) so he will sit and stare at me the whole time I'm making dinner; watching any move I make incase I drop something on the floor... but when we sit down he disappears off into the other room :)
Then he recognises the sound of cutlery-clanking-on-almost-empty-plates and comes rushing in wagging his tail as if to say Ooh I've been a good boy, so don't forget to leave me some leftovers! :lol:

our dog has been taught not to beg when anyone is eating but when I lived with my cousin she always used to feed him cos she felt sorry for him. Now whenever he sees her he stays by her side because he knows she will give in to his little "I'm a starving cute little dog" eyes. There was once about 6 of us having a meal at a friends and he didn't leave her side, even though he hadn't seen her for ages. :hihi:

My Mum's whipper/lurcher knows the precise points during his walk through Glen Howe park where I always throw the ball for him. Even if I've not walked him for months and he's been used to going elsewhere, as soon as we reach a certain point in the woods he knows it's bally time and he gets all alert and frisky.

Im the one who feeds the cats. Anytime a car goes up when im due home my youngest runs out to see if its me. When I do arrive home she shoots through the cat flap and waits on the drive for me and after Ive pulled up I open the car door to her sat there Meowing, I then go into the house and its meow meow meow until I feed her. When hubby gets in she does not meow once cus she knows the one that feeds her. My eldest cat also knows feeding time as she is never home before I arrive always within 10 minutes after Im home.