Why do we talk to pets?

Question - why do we talk to pets?

I do not have a dog, or any pets for that matter. I was at a friend’s house today, and started petting their dog. Then I started talking to it, you know, like everyone does - inane stuff like “Are you hungry boy? Are you, huh?” Fed him a dog treat - “You like that, don’t you? Yeah…”

I didn’t think anything of it at the time, just normal activity. But now I begin to wonder, why do we talk to our pets? I mean, as far as we know they don’t understand us, and they certainly aren’t answering, so what’s the point? And why is it almost impossible for me to pet a dog and not say something to it?

You were communicating to the dog, if not with the actual words then by the sound of your voice. The dog was communicating with you by his reactions. If that dog had laid back his ears and growled, you would not have fed him that biscuit.

Why do we talk to pets? Because they’re there, they’re alive, and they can hear us. Nuff said.

Nonny

I’m sure our cat knows damn well what we’re saying to him sometimes … Just like I know damn well what he’s trying to tell me sometimes when he meows.

Who say’s we can’t communicate with animals?

I have had a large supply of pets in my lifetime, and I talked to all of them. I think that I talked to them because I thought of them as members of the family, and because I wanted companionship. I mean, what is the point of keeping a pet if not for companionship? And a big part of companionship is conversation. I know its not a two sided conversation, but then a lot of time it isn’t two sided with ANY members of my family.
I would also say that just talking is a natural thing for humans to do. Think about it, a lot of people (myself included) talk or sing while doing everyday activities that do not involve another person. No matter how loudly I yell “Turn around, Dammit!” to the stupid characters in horror movies I know they’re not going to hear me, but I do it anyways :slight_smile:

Yeah, just simple verbal communication on some level to let the dog know your feelings. You use words and sentences because that’s just how humans use their voices. For the most part, as long as you had a nice peaceful tone, the dog would get the same message if you flipped your eyelids inside-out and sang it a soothing whale song in D minor through your left nostril - but that ain’t exactly the way we humans communicate. The dog does the same to you when it barks in different ways… I’m pretty sure they think we are dumbasses for not getting the exact meaning the way another dog would, but as long as we get the basic message of “I’m glad you’re home!” as opposed to “There’s a burgler hiding in the basement!!”, they’re happy to stumble through verbal communication just like us.

I know that mine does!

Tozz da pitty little tat likes to hear her daddy’s voice, yes see does. Oh, yes see does.

One can get the impression that human beings have a deep seated need to anthropomorphize objects, animate or inanimate.

I’ve seen small children hit their shins on a chair, then turn around and kick the chair as if the chair was a living creature which could feel pain and be punished for getting in the way.

If children have this need, it must be almost instinctive.

If this is true, then it is not a great stretch for a person to talk to a pet even though on some level one knows that the pet doesn’t really understand English (or whatever).


SURREAL SAGE SEZ:* What color is a chameleon on a mirror? *

Labradorian, I nearly fell off my chair when I read your post. You sound exactly like me, talking to the various cats I’ve lived with/met over the years.

Being catless now, I can only use the “kitty voice” on spouse, and he doesn’t find it amusing At All.

Besides, “isn’t hims a pwecious boy, es hims is! Ess hims is! Isn’t hims tweet?!?” just doesn’t work as well without the fuzzy face and puzzled look only a cat can give.

I’ve heard that a typical eight-year old dog has about the same comprehension vocabulary as an eight-year old human. The same number of words, at least: I doubt that the human knows 37 different words for “walk”.

I’ve known animals that learned many words’ meanings. One, a weimaraner I knew in college, was phenomenal. She knew several of our names, she knew the difference between a car, Linda’s car, beatle’s car, etc. Certain words, like w-a-l-k, l-a-k-e and s-q-u-i-r-r-e-l produced frenzied activity. I spent one weekend trying to teach her the command, “Forget,” and she at least got to the point of understanding that meant to look somewhere besides where she’d been looking.

And she could understand commands delivered as full subject-verb-object sentences. Whether she felt like complying was another matter. Moody bitch she was. But talking to her was harrdly like talking to a post - more like talking to a 3 year old kid. And she definitely responded.

Cats, on the other hand…

Seeing as my cat talks to me, it would be very rude if I did not talk to him. Our conversation is pretty basic (hey, he’s a cat), but it is conversation none the less.

I can tell my cat things that nobody on Earth is ever going to hear. He knows more about me than any human being, even my mother.

Why I talk to him is pretty simple: he’s there, and it’d be quite rude of me to ignore him, wouldn’t it? Besides, he talks back. I’ve had five-minute conversations; I speak, he meows, I speak, he meows.

I read somewhere that cats are more vocal with humans if they’ve been around us long enough to figure out that most of our communication is with words, as opposed to body language and scent-marking and stuff like that.

Dogs…I don’t know, but it’s sure fun to insult my mom’s wonderful Golden Retriever in sugary-sweet tones, because she just WUVS it. Stupid dog. :slight_smile:

Who’s a furry little mustache man? Who’s got a furry little mustache?

Ooohh, yes, the Kitty Voice!

How I loved using the Kitty Voice. High-pitched, syrupy, and probably thoroughly disgusting to non-animal lovers. My sweet girl Clawdia seemed to like it, and the Pooh-Cat definitely responded favorably (my evil little feline gangster!).

And yes, now that I am WOK (WithOut Kitties), I still love to do the Voice. Any cat I see is fair game, and they do love their Auntie Creaky.

Happily, almost all of my friends have cats, so I get to talk to my nieces and nephews in the way I just know they love best!

Oh, heavens… are we nauseated yet? :smiley:

Daddy[sup]*****[/sup] sowwy-wowwy. I didn’t mean to make you faww off youw chaiwy-waiwy. No him didn’t. No him didn’t not.

**

Ess we dot to use da tat-voice on peopow sometimes, hmm? No thems don’t find it vewy funny, no they don’t.

[tickle under chin.]

Thems don’t have vewy good sense of humouw, no thems don’t. Thems needs thems wittew funny boney tickle-wickled, ess thems do.

  • I even daddy myself at the office: “Where did daddy put that disk? Daddy gotta go get lunch now.”