(in households with multiple people)
Yes. All animals know exactly which human is touching them. They know who every human is, where they live, and their fears.
If a lion named duke that lives in Kenya ever gets to North America I am FUCKED.
Can pets tell who's petting them without looking?
Submitted 23 hours ago by AmbiguousProps@lemmy.today to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
krooklochurm@lemmy.ca 5 hours ago
Shanmugha@lemmy.world 5 hours ago
Cats and dogs - absolutely. Humans are smelly:)
Manjushri@piefed.social 20 hours ago
Not always. I was at my sister’s house and her cat was not over-fond of me. That bothered me because cats normally adore me. At one point, the cat was half-snoozing on a stool so I reached over to give him a pet. At first he started to purr and stretched out. Yes! Thought I, finally making friends. Then he looked over his shoulder and saw it was me. He hissed and ran to the other side of the room and started cleaning himself. I’d have been hurt if his expression hadn’t been so funny when he realized that it wasn’t my sister petting him.
IntrovertTurtle@lemmy.zip 23 hours ago
Not the best answer as I’m no biology major, but from my understanding, they can smell just as well. So they likely know who’s closest to them and figure it out.
SolidShake@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
I had a deaf cat a while back and when she was just chilling in her tree seat looking out the window and I would let her, she would flip out and bite at me until she could see me lol.
QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 15 hours ago
zakobjoa@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Which borderlands is that and how well does it run on the deck?
Hathaway@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
It looks like two(the best one). And given that it came out in 2012, I would imagine it runs well, but I cannot answer that part.
the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
I asked my dog and she said “shut up and pet me”.
NoForwadSlashS@piefed.social 21 hours ago
You could be rich with that talking dog
the_riviera_kid@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
What do you put on the top of a house? Roof!
Whats on the side of a tree? Bark!
Shes quite talented.
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Nope. I lived with a girl, and we got cats. Lived with her for the next 4 years with those cats.
We fell apart as a couple. I assumed she was going to take the cats. I wasn’t stopping her. But she wanted nothing to do with the cats.
Which, truth be told, was the outcome I wanted anyways. The cats always loved me more than her.
But for the next 10 years, anytime they’d be sleeping, and I’d pet them, they always snapped their heads up to see who it is.
It’s me. It’s always me.
I can get why they’d have that reaction for the first year. Still in the habbit of multiple people living with them.
But they ALWAYS checked, everytime, until the day they died. They were happy to see me, everytime, but they still checked.
14th_cylon@lemmy.zip 22 hours ago
they would do that even if you were single their whole life. if someone touches you, you just look at them, that is natural reaction, that doesn’t mean they wonder who is petting them.
and that is for cats. asking if dog, who can track 24 hour old track using just nose, knows who is petting them, is just laughable.
Angelevo@feddit.nl 7 hours ago
Yes. I guess it does depend on the pet a little bit – the ants in your ant farm probably cannot. ;)
Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 hours ago
People often touch vastly differently from one another. I would assume a dog would become familiar with those who pet them often.
sharkfucker420@lemmy.ml 20 hours ago
My partner and I pet our cat in very different ways and I truly believe that were our cat blind, she would be able to tell immediately.
AlecSadler@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 hours ago
I feel like my cat can because it rarely looks up and I just snuck up behind it. Either that or it sucks at survival (it doesn’t, it is jumpy beyond reason at almost everything else).
I assume it’s more than the petnique though, and includes step noise and scent.
dddontshoot@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
My cat could. But only because I would rub my fingers together to make a faint noise, so they could tell where my hand was without looking.
It significantly reduced the number of surprises, and they felt a lot more comfortable around me.
RebekahWSD@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
All cats I’ve ever had always looked up to see who was petting them. They usually didn’t mind any of us petting them, but they always looked.
nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 hours ago
that’s how they say hello
thejoker954@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
I would imagine so - smell alone probably gives them a pretty accurate idea, but people also pet differently (probably not as uniquely as a fingerprint but differently enough)
Some people are heavy petters some light, some only pet in one direction, some only pet certain areas (head only, flank only, etc.) And so on.
FUCKING_CUNO@lemmy.dbzer0.com 23 hours ago
Yes
Source: am dog
Kolanaki@pawb.social 21 hours ago
I would assume many dogs could but IDK about cats or others. Most dog breeds could smell you coming without seeing or hearing you.
southsamurai@sh.itjust.works 22 hours ago
Of course, at least under normal circumstances.
Like humans or wild animals, a pet is going to have their full sensory array available. Even a blind and deaf animal can pick up vibrations as someone approaches then, feel changes in air movement, etc.
Since hands are different sizes, even if they were asleep at the moment of contact, it wouldn’t take long to figure out whose hand was on them. Obviously , that might be negated if the hands are similar enough, but I would suspect that even then the differences in how a person pets them would be useful.
You could likely create a situation to bypass everything and “fool” a pet, but that’s what you’d have to do.
SolidShake@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Depends how smelly you are
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 33 minutes ago
In my experience: yes. People have different sized hands, use varying amounts of pressure, different motions, etc.