# I've been pantsed; by my cat! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 28, 2015, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-pantsed-by-my-cat/713883 "2015-02-28T20:17:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![JcWoman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jcwoman/32/2889_2.png) [@JcWoman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JcWoman)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2015, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-pantsed-by-my-cat/713883/21 "2015-03-03T21:58:23Z")
My greyhounds love to poke. They have those long needle noses for a reason. Once when hubby and I were lingering overlong at the dinner table, and Capri had been whining at us to get a move on for some time, she got tired of being ignored and ran around the table and rammed her nose into his side just under his arm. That got quite the reaction. Another time, our big boy was feeling excited that I had just come home, so he ran into the room, reared up on hind legs and without touching me anywhere else, poked his wet nose into my left eye and then ran away. He was so fast that he did it before I blinked. Yeah, dog snot in your eye is something special. Before I had these guys I was skeptical why people would use targeting (teaching the dog to touch specific things with their noses) as the beginning point for many tricks. Now I see the folly of my former thinking. Dogs just naturally use their noses to touch things. Mine can’t look at anything without also touching it with their nose. It’s not just smelling it, it’s definitely a touch. Makes me think the nose is wet because it’s kind of like a tongue, with nose-tastebuds on it or something. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-pantsed-by-my-cat/713883/22 "2015-03-04T04:04:36Z")
> [@JcWoman](#): > > My greyhounds love to poke. > > \< . . . snip . . . \> > > Before I had these guys I was skeptical why people would use targeting (teaching the dog to touch specific things with their noses) as the beginning point for many tricks. Now I see the folly of my former thinking. Dogs just naturally use their noses to touch things. Mine can’t look at anything without also touching it with their nose. It’s not just smelling it, it’s definitely a touch. Makes me think the nose is wet because it’s kind of like a tongue, with nose-tastebuds on it or something. Dolphins love to poke too. It certainly has nothing to do with sense of smell, as dolphins don’t actually have any nostrils at the end of their snouts. Dolphins are said to have a poor-to-nonexistent sense of smell anyway (although I don’t know of actual research on that). Target training is used in training many kinds of animals, including dolphins and sea lions. First of all, by teaching a critter to touch a target, you gain a great degree of control over the animal. At first, the target may be stationary, affixed to a wall or fence of the animal’s enclosure. Then, you put the target at the end of a long pole. Then the trainer can stand outside the enclosure and use the pole, with the target at the end, to guide the animal around. A well-target-trained animal will keep its nose on the target even as the trainer moves it around. ETA: [Tutorial on target training](http://www.clickertraining.com/node/289) by Karen Pryor. She talks about doing it with dogs. In fact, she was also one of the principal founders of Sea Life Park in Honolulu, and has written a book about her adventures in dolphin training called _Lads Before The Wind._ ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2015, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-pantsed-by-my-cat/713883/23 "2015-03-04T04:27:59Z")
Oh wait a minute, this thread is mostly about cats. Okay, cats. I just noticed that Karen Pryor also has a [page on target training _cats_](http://www.clickertraining.com/node/23) : > [@Karen Pryor](#): > > I suggest that you begin your new clicker relationship by teaching the cat to touch a target. This is an easy behavior to build, and it has a lot of potential uses. A target can be any stick-like object, such as a pencil, a chopstick, or a wooden. Sit down in a comfortable and familiar place where you and the cat often interact: in the kitchen, at the breakfast table, or on the living room couch. Now, pick up a treat, and simultaneously click and give the cat the treat. You may hand the treat to the cat, drop it on a plate, or just toss it in front of the cat. I like to toss the treat near the cat so the cat has to move to get it, each time. Relax and do nothing while the cat eats the treat. Now take up the target and hold it an inch or two in front of the cat. The cat is highly likely to look at the end of the target stick or even to sniff it. Click as the cat’s nose touches the stick. Then put the target out of sight and give a treat. The instant the cat finishes chewing, hold the target stick out again. Wait for a touch. Click and treat. ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-pantsed-by-my-cat/713883/24 "2015-03-05T03:55:43Z")
> [@KRC](#): > > Okay, since you are all cat obsessed, my cat drooled on me. > > They didn’t give me a rabies shot–the doc said I was already insane. Ours does this whenever he feels especially sucky. He’s nicknamed Droolio for good reason. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-pantsed-by-my-cat/713883/25 "2015-03-05T15:22:49Z")
> [@Bookkeeper](#): > > Ours does this whenever he feels especially sucky. He’s nicknamed Droolio for good reason. Same with the pantser. Droolio is an adorable nickname. ---
**Author:** ![KinkiNipponTourist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e9bcb4/32.png) [@KinkiNipponTourist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KinkiNipponTourist)\ **Post date:** [March 5, 2015, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-pantsed-by-my-cat/713883/26 "2015-03-05T15:32:10Z")
I had a tall glass of milk. My Sadie likes milk, but isn’t the brightest cat around. She started licking the side of the glass. BAW HAW HAW DUMB CAT! I was cackling away…until she knocked the glass over. She won that round. ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-pantsed-by-my-cat/713883/27 "2015-03-06T02:04:34Z")
My ex-cat, the late, great Justin, would walk into a room full of people and stare intently at a spot on the ceiling. After a while, people would wonder, “What _is_ he looking at?” and stare at the ceiling too. Once he got everyone in the room looking at the ceiling like a bunch of fools, he would look back down and nonchalantly walk away. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-been-pantsed-by-my-cat/713883.md?page=1)