What weird things does your pet notice?

Is there anything that your pet(s) pick up on that surprise you? Especially if it is not food motivated (because of COURSE they come running when they hear the can opener, fridge, food bowl being filled, etc. )?


Stanley is very in tune with what clothes I am putting on. It really surprises me sometimes how much he notices, even listening from halfway across the house as to which closet/room I go into to get them. For instance, I have a particular pair of shoes I always wear when I walk him. He can be dead asleep on the couch, or in his bed, but when he sees me with them on, or even carrying them, he hops up and follows me expectantly. I can put on other sneakers that are similar to them, but he mainly just hops up anxiously when I put on THIS pair.

Also, I have a pair of black Nike jogging pants that I wear almost only when walking him. In the summer, or any weather over about 55*, I wear basketball shorts. But when it is colder I wear this particular pair of jogging pants. I have literally not worn them a single time since this spring, probably March or so. Today I got them out of the closet and started putting them on. Stanley immediately jumped up from the couch and trotted over, ready for a walk.


The other thing that I think is interesting that he tunes into is packing for a trip. I travel weekly, so I have a roller suitcase that I use that is perpetually being packed and unpacked. I can take this anywhere in the house and be putting clothes in and out and he won't bat an eye. But if I get out a second suitcase, even though one is almost identical in size, style, and shape as the other, he reacts. He'll immediately lay in the room I'm packing, or in the doorway of it, and watch. It's hard to explain the exact difference in his behavior, but he starts sighing a lot, doesn't relax, and stays watchful the entire time. All of this is behavior he doesn't do if I'm packing just one bag, or any other time. It's like he knows the extra bag(s) means a trip, which means a ride in the car for him, and a possible drop off at my parents' house. Which leads to another weird observation. If we take him over there with a loaded car, he will not leave my side at my parents' house. Even though he likes it there, loves my dad, and enjoys my parents' dog, he doesn't want left there. However, if we just take him for a ride over there, and don't load up the car first, he's totally relaxed over there and shows no desire to be right next to me. He'll play, cruise the back yard, and nap.

I could list another half-dozen behaviors that I am surprised he picks up on (seems to realize the difference between cleaning the house and cleaning the house because someone is about to stop by, knows who he can wrestle with and who he has to be gentle with, etc.), but those two really stand out.

Am I the idiot pet owner that reads too much into his pet's behavior, or do your dogs/cats/birds/fish/undeadsquirrels do the same types of things?

 

My cats know when it's Caturday. They don't wake us up until 7 at the earliest, and they wake us up by cuddling. It's sweet.

They also both know the sounds of our cars, and my husband and I both get greeted at the door by the cats. If they're cuddling with me and hear my husband's car pull in, they rush off to greet him.

 

The area thing always amazes me too. My parents live about 45 miles away. Once we get about 2 miles from their place he starts perking up and looking out the window. A couple times there has been construction, or we had to make another stop along the way, so we came from a totally different direction, on different roads. 1.5-2 miles away and he still perks right up.

 

Studies have shown intelligent animals are in tune with their owners/parents...especially dogs.

Mine does it all the time...and it depends on the individual animal how aware they are by intelligence and personality. Just like any human.
I think we are arrogant to presume they are oblivious. When I see so many humans that aren't aware or engaged.

I go by the presumption that they are aware and are their own person. And that doesn't surprise me, actually it makes me smile.
They're just like kids. (kids who are isolated by not being able to communicate directly and have no hands)
My current pup is around the equivalent of a 5 or 6 yr old.
My past one, that I lost last year, was incredibly intelligent...she was more like a 9 or 1o year old. (hell. if she was off the leash...she'd even walk herself home if she got bored of a conversation I was having)
She'd try to have full conversations with me...knew EXACTLY what she wants...and how to get it or ask for it.

You treat them like individuals...engage them...they behave like individuals. Again, just like humans.
Have you ever met a person who's been isolated all their life?? Or mistreated? They don't react fully.
I dated & lived with a deaf girl for 2 yrs...her parents didn't teach her how to speak or communicate. So by the time she grew up, even other deaf using sign couldn't speak fully with her.
Her dynamic was very similar to the more intelligent "kids" I have/had.

Go by the presumption, they're aware...they respond as individuals. (again. depending on each one's intelligence and personality)

Humans
We're an arrogant sort of being...we presume that if others are not like us, don't act like us, are not to our same capabilities...then they are less.
Look what we've done to other cultures and the handicapped over the ages.

My dogs are my kids...I treat them as such.
And they surprise me with their awareness and personalities, just like children do with me.
I'm only grateful they are more capable than human kids and take care of themselves when I go to work...otherwise I'd have to get a baby-sitter.

 

One of my cats has a favorite sweatshirt of mine. I have two black sweatshirts, but she only ever wants to lay on the one, never the other. She can unerringly find that sweatshirt, no matter where I put it.

 

No, it's noting the patterned signals being sent from space by aliens replying to us, like in "Contact" (A mini radar)