Dogs definitely know when they’re doing something they’re not supposed to be doing. They get all sneaky and quiet, and look hella guilty if you catch them.
Yeah, just like the post described - they know good and bad. They get sneaky, quiet and guilty because they know they were bad.
I have a cat and a dog and i swear to god, my cat gives me a challenging look of pure intent when she does something that she KNOWS she is not allowed; Like jumping up the kitchen counter. We don’t want her on that. She sits in front of it, sees me coming, looks me in the eyes with a very certain look and jumps on it. When i tell her to jump down, she will do it immediately but again… a look of pure intent and naughtiness.
My cat has never even once jumped on the table to get something she shouldn’t have. The ONLY reason she ever gets up there is when she decides she’s been crying for dinner too long, because she knows she’s not supposed to. She doesn’t even know WHY she’s not supposed to, she has no idea what to do when she’s up there. She gets up on it and just stands there and looks at me.
Absolutely! My parents have a horizontal bar slightly higher than the working surface in their kitchen. The cats are allowed on the bar, not on the surface. These fuckers lay on the bar and stretch their paws down so they are barely hovering above the surface, as if they were saying “I’m not touching it!” like a child. And that’s not a relaxed position, they have to really stretch their paws to touch it. Yet they always do it and look at you like “what are you gonna do? I’m not touching it!”
I’d say dogs kmow when they’re intending to be bad, such as stealing food, going in places they’re not allowed whilete think their owner isn’t home or when they generally think they’re yet to be caught being bad, they act mischievously. I’d also say that it’s the intention to be bad that is naughty, and dogs are very capable of that.
I think the difference is that dogs can think “hoohoo I’m gonna be bad >:)” which is a naughty thought, and means they understand it, but they can’t go to that next point where cats are which is “I’m gonna do something naughty and I don’t even care about the bad bit at all”.
Except huskies. Huskies know no guilt. When you catch them, that’s how play starts
Dogs don’t know guilt.
They do know that looking at you a certain way makes you no longer mad at them.
and cats. Cats have evolved to have big eyes to beg for food, or, in this case, pity. Its like the homeless.
Source: “you can see it on their faces”
I think cats just have some limited ability to predict human behavior after a while. Comprehending the idea of crime is giving them too much credit.
“My human doesn’t like it when I do this. Too bad human isn’t around.” -😼
To be fair, raccoons give (and take) gifts. I think they consider anything shiny or colorful you leave out accessible to them a gift. My wife was attempting to feed neighborhood cats and we did get some, but we also got raccoons. They took a bright red bowl we were feeding them out of. In return, we’ve received several shiny rocks and a spoon.
But when it’s 1:30am and two of them jump out of a dumpster at you as you’re taking out the trash after a night with friends it feels more like a standoff and your trash is a mafia-style bribe
[citation needed]
If it’s toxoplasmosis that makes me love this deeply then I don’t want to be toxoplasmosesless.
I left out a crockpot of mostly eaten mac and cheese on the counter. I was on the couch half-asleep when I heard my keys (which were next to this crockpot) jingle. I didn’t say anything, I just turned my head and saw my cat running for cover as if it had just tripped the alarms during a heist gone wrong. How do I interpret this in any way other than my cat knowing what it was doing was naughty?
I can sometimes hear my cats jumping off of something in the kitchen and they then look at me guiltily while I investigate the countertop to make sure they didn’t do anything.
