# What do animals know/understand/appreciate about humans and human stuff? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 26, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361 "2005-03-26T16:03:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kiminy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Kiminy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiminy)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/21 "2005-03-27T12:57:13Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > I’ve often wondered about how dogs & cats perceive our comings and goings. In their world, one would go out and about to patrol territory or to hunt. Perhaps they see us going out day after day on unsuccessful hunts, but on approximately one day in seven (not that they can count) returning with a great bounty of prey – whole huge hunks of cow, for example. HEHEHEHE!!! My theory on this is that cats wonder why ON EARTH we humans have to go to the vet so often. After all, the only place they ever go by car is to the vet (or occasionally to the kennel), and I wonder if they have any perception that there are other places to go. I told this to hubby once, though, and he pointed out that we bring back things with interesting smells, so he thinks they know that we go other places. The poor cats just can’t fathom what those places are like. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/22 "2005-03-27T13:23:51Z")
> [@MaddyStrut](#): > > The winner will often snort and buck around in a horsey victory dance. Aren’t there fines or penalties for victory dances now? ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/23 "2005-03-27T15:15:21Z")
> [@Kiminy](#): > > HEHEHEHE!!! > > My theory on this is that cats wonder why ON EARTH we humans have to go to the vet so often. After all, the only place they ever go by car is to the vet (or occasionally to the kennel), and I wonder if they have any perception that there are other places to go. > > I told this to hubby once, though, and he pointed out that we bring back things with interesting smells, so he thinks they know that we go other places. The poor cats just can’t fathom what those places are like. I think my dog used to believe that my husband had gotten stuck in the telephone. She, for some reason, had the idea he could get stuck in very small places. When he was late, she would search the house for him, systematically, room by room, looking under all the furniture, including peering down into the toilet bowl. Then, he would call me from work, she would stare at the phone in a very concerned way, whining plaintively and wiggling. When I would put it down, she would bump it around with her nose, trying to let him out, I assume. She even put her eye up to the holes in the mouthpiece once. ---
**Author:** ![Sample\_the\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/24 "2005-03-27T15:38:03Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > I think my dog used to believe that my husband had gotten stuck in the telephone. How can anyone not love dogs? They are so wonderful! 🙂😃🆒 ---
**Author:** ![picunurse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/25 "2005-03-27T18:18:28Z")
> [@Lissa](#): > > \ They don’t bring you their mangled kills as a “present”-- they bring it to you to show you what they’re capable of . . . and you may be next. > \ If the kitty brings you a dead mousie, she is “feeding” you like a kitten, not yet able to hunt. If she brings you a live mousie, she’s teaching you to hunt. Time to get out there and earn a living (in kitty language 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/26 "2005-03-27T23:42:54Z")
How did dogs learn to whine so piteously? My dog has learned that she can usually get admitted to the bedroom if she whines and cries like a human baby. Also, dogs seem to be good at acting out…one dog I owned had injured his leg. When he got home from the vet, everybody was so kind to him, and attentive. Soon after this, the wound healed and the bandage was removed…but the dog (Lucky) soon began limping agan-he had learned that the crazy humans would treat him extra nice if he put on that limp again! ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/27 "2005-03-28T00:38:11Z")
I watched a program on Animal Planet one time that showed some interesting dolphin behavior. There were two groups of different dolphin species (I want to say Spotted and Bottlenose). A larger bottlenose picked on a smaller spottes who went swimming back to his group with his proverbial tail between his legs. Next day, a bunch of spotted males went back to the bottlenose group and picked back. Dolphin revenge? Maybe. Also with dolphins, they have ‘names’ that are unique but based on the ‘names’ of their mother. Communicated through little dolphin noises (squeaking? squealing? y’know, dolphin noises :)) I bottle raised my cat and she is very human in many ways. She sleeps under the covers between my husband and I with her head on the pillow. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/28 "2005-03-28T00:47:43Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > I bottle raised my cat and she is very human in many ways. She sleeps under the covers between my husband and I with her head on the pillow. Maybe she just likes being an only cat and wants to keep you from making more kittens. :eek: Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/29 "2005-03-28T00:50:19Z")
> [@picunurse](#): > > If the kitty brings you a dead mousie, she is “feeding” you like a kitten, not yet able to hunt. > If she brings you a live mousie, she’s teaching you to hunt. Time to get out there and earn a living (in kitty language 😃 I know . . . I was just teasing. I do find it amusing that cats find us so incompetent. They must pity us, the slow-moving, clumsy, huge things that we are, armed only with blunt teeth and vestigual claws. ---
**Author:** ![Domokun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c77e96/32.png) [@Domokun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Domokun)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/30 "2005-03-28T01:15:08Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Do animals appreciate human music, on any level? [Certainly](http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1408000/1408434.stm)! ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/31 "2005-03-28T01:32:32Z")
> [@Stranger On A Train](#): > > Maybe she just likes being an only cat and wants to keep you from making more kittens. :eek: > > Stranger 😃 That was pretty funny, but she is a momma herself. Her ‘husband’ (neutered) and son sleep on the foot of the bed. Occasionally Kitt, the baby, sleeps under the covers, too. ---
**Author:** ![Kiminy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Kiminy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiminy)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/32 "2005-03-28T02:08:58Z")
> [@The Sausage Creature](#): > > I bottle raised my cat and she is very human in many ways. She sleeps under the covers between my husband and I with her head on the pillow. I didn’t bottle raise one of the cats I grew up with, but it was pretty close. The cat was born in a litter of exactly _one_, in a suitcase full of dress-up clothes under my bed when I was about eleven. Its mother was a stray that we took in a couple of months prior to that, and whose pregnancy was completely unknown to us until I woke up to find a kitten under my bed. (We had her spayed as soon as we could after the kitten was born.) I completely adopted the cat as my own, though, and at night, he slept in bed with me, with his head on my pillow, and the rest of his body under the blanket, like a living teddy bear. He even let me train him with basic commands like sit, stay, and come–much more than any other cat I’ve known. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/33 "2005-03-28T02:42:44Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Our kitty box was once located in the bathroom. (Our current bathroom is too small to include a box.) Yes, they do know what you’re doing and they will join you if the facilities allow. It’s quite the bonding moment. Our dogs have gone one step further: if they can’t get outside to go to the toilet they’ll only crap in the bathroom, in front of the loo. It’s not something we’ve ever taught them, they started doing it on their own. Makes for easy cleanup cause of the tiles! To answer the OP, I was reading about a guy who had a pet octopus (I’ve decided I want one) and he said it used to come to the side of the tank when he got home and turn soothing colours. When strangers came around it would hide and try to camoflague itself. ---
**Author:** ![gerb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3bc359/32.png) [@gerb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gerb)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/34 "2005-03-28T02:51:26Z")
I have seen some very interesting behavior from two of my dogs. DaVinci, a beagle, once showed me a game that he plays with our cats when we are not home. I was up late one night watching television and eating potato chips. I would eat a few and then give one to the dog. After crunching down four or five chips he stopped eating. He took the next chip and put it in the middle of the floor. I was so startled by this behavior that I actually said “What the fuck are you doing?” He looked back with a dog smile on his face and preceded to hide behind the couch. I watched intentenlly for awhile not knowing what would happen. After a few minutes the cat walked into the room to investagate and found the food. As soon as the cat sniffed the chip the dog pounced from behind the couch and belly flopped onto the cat. After the cat ran away he picked up the chip and looked at me before starting to crunch. A friend of mine told me dogs will often make up their own games when people are not around. My dog has repeated this behavior several times since. I think he does it just to hear me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Sample\_the\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Sample\_the\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sample_the_Dog)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/35 "2005-03-28T03:34:58Z")
I almost forgot this one. Years ago my cat Jackie (peace be upon her) got very unhappy when I allowed a girlfriend to bring her dog over. She hung out on the bookcase til I actually touched the dog. At that point, she disappeared. Until sometime in the night, when she crept onto the bed and took a dump in my hand. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/36 "2005-03-28T03:44:00Z")
I read a horrible, horrible story in _The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression_, about an octopus who had been in a circus or something where it had done tricks for applause (and I assume rewards). It was “rescued” from the circus and put in an aquarium, where nobody cared about its tricks. It kept doing them and doing them, and eventually became depressed and slashed at itself with its beak until it died. Obviously, it’s easy to ascribe human behavior and feelings to the octopus… but the story makes me want to cry. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/37 "2005-03-28T06:32:10Z")
> [@MLS](#): > > Hasn’t it been determined that in their natural environment young male dolphins engage in something that in humans would be described as gang rape? Yes. [Here](http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1052990.htm) is a transcript of an ABC Australia TV interview with the woman who made the first audio recording of a dolphin rape. Dolphins are highly sexual animals. In addition to attacking other dolphins, there have also been many reported cases of dolphins attempting to mate with humans - enough, at least, to catch the eyes of writers for Fox TV’s _King of the Hill_, which featured a clever episode involving Hank and an unfortunate “dolphin encounter.” By the way, if you’re curious about these oddities, _don’t_ do a Google search for “dolphin mate human.” Trust me. Animal-on-animal rape seems also to be practiced by ducks, according to [this](http://www.jp.dk/english_news/artikel:aid=2934452/) Danish news article entitled “Town Battles Duck Gang Bangs”: > [@](#): > > But all winter the park’s visitors have witnessed violent and gruesome scenes, as gangs of 6-7 aggressive drakes attack the few female ducks that live on the lake, raping them and often drowning them in the havoc. > > ‘This is simply gang rape,’ Slagelse project leader Peter Johansen told daily newspaper Politiken, adding that the sexual abuse had escalated as spring approached and the drakes became even more randy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/38 "2005-03-28T06:47:24Z")
> [@Sample\_the\_Dog](#): > > I almost forgot this one. Years ago my cat Jackie (peace be upon her) got very unhappy when I allowed a girlfriend to bring her dog over. She hung out on the bookcase til I actually touched the dog. At that point, she disappeared. > > Until sometime in the night, when she crept onto the bed and took a dump in my hand. Once I went to work in the morning and closed the door to my bedroom behind me when, unknown to me, my roommate’s cat was in my room. When I got home, the cat was sitting on the edge of my bed, facing the door with an unmistakeable glare on his face – and had taken a dump on the **exact center** of my bed, as if to make a point. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/39 "2005-03-28T06:52:21Z")
> [@neutron star](#): > > In addition to attacking other dolphins, there have also been many reported cases of dolphins attempting to mate with humans . . . :eek: Did this ever go further than an “attempt”? (It would seem impossible, given the relative sizes . . .) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2005, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361/40 "2005-03-28T07:08:32Z")
When I go to the bathroom, and only number two, Sadie the Cat will throw her weight against the door and open it if it isn’t latched. Then, she’ll sit and watch. She won’t do anything in her litter box. She just stares. I have no idea what this means. My theory is that she’s plotting to keep me from ever using _her_ bathroom again. Sometimes she’ll help me unwrap toilet paper by clawing at it for me. Good kitty? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-animals-know-understand-appreciate-about-humans-and-human-stuff/296361.md?page=3)