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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Stupid Things You Say To Or Call Your Pet
 
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cadaver.
Oct 31, 2009
 My cat was named Mars by her last owner and I call her marzipan, marsy-moo, loaf, peahead

kaworu posted:

If I say a random name, my cat will more or less ignore me. If I say her name, she picks up her head and looks at me. Dogs can obviously be trained with commands.

But even more to the point, pets understand us in different ways. When we use these silly pet names, we often also use a particularly affectionate tone of voice; we use body language that can easily be read as loving and affectionate, often because we are petting them/lovin' on them, whatever. Pets absolutely understand this - they get what's going on. To what extent we can only estimate and surmise.

Obviously, they aren't literally understanding the affectionate nicknames we give them. But I think there's a case to be made that they recognize the tone of voice they're said in and the set of behaviors they're combined with and figure out pretty quickly the overall gist. Cats can be dumb but they aren't TOTALLY dumb.

Mars knows sit and lie down and high five, as long as there's treats involved :cabot: I used a clicker dealy to train her. She's still pretty dumb though
It's me, I'm the :toxogond: :(

* # ¿ Mar 25, 2016 18:31
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# ¿ May 22, 2024 09:47
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cadaver.
Oct 31, 2009

IronClaymore posted:


It made even less sense when I was looking after this staffie dog. Their fur is so short and smooth it doesn't even make sense! They don't have fluff! (Hey, anyone have an idea for cute names to call a staffie?)


Butt-head/head-butt


(Ancient pic of my old butthead doge :rip: in peace :( )

Also called her wrecking-ball-butt, cause she was a runt born with a stupid stub of a tail so used to swing the back half of her body around in lieu of tail-wagging :3: many objects and people were knocked over in the process

Lotta butt names I guess

* # ¿ Jul 12, 2016 13:15
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Stupid Things You Say To Or Call Your Pet