What is a command you accidentally taught your pet?
My goldendoodle puppy doesn't ever want to come back inside. I told my beagle "go get your sister" as I tried rounding up the puppy. Now when I say "go get your sister" the beagle runs to the puppy and baits her into chasing him into the house.
I taught my pet rock to "stay" in 1988.
It hasn't moved since.
Thank you Mr. Wright.
Comedian Steven Wright, for anyone who's unfamiliar with him, you should check him out
I like you.
"After you".
My dog would walk right on my heels and nearly trip me. Taught her "after you" kind of accidentally and now she goes ahead a distance and then waits for me if I'm not fast enough.
It wasn't a command, but I distinctively remember the first time my cat growled at me for picking him up and I set him down immediately. Now it's his way of telling me to let him down whenever. So I guess he taught me the command instead!
It's nice to know when your pets are unhappy - they deserve respect too. However, my stupid dog growls when he's unhappy and being picked up but also when he's very happy being dried after a wet walk. So. Yeah. Not super helpful
Yes! He's really built up his confidence saying no. He'll even gently kick my hand off if he doesn't want to be picked up when he's laying down. I think it really builds up trust as well. He may be a little grumpy but he's wonderful.
Not a command perse, but my dog has learned that "hey Google, what's the temperature outside" usually means a walk is coming and gets excited.
My dog reacts very poorly to "Okay, Google". I'm not sure if it's because of the response from a person that he can't see, or that in the past I've yelled at the phone to stop when it won't stop listing. But every time I say "Okay, Google" now he gets up and goes into his crate. He does the same when I talk into my Google TV remote too, so I assume it's the response from the Google Assistant that he finds so troublesome.
Consider changing the voice, maybe that will help relax your dog
My cockatiels have learned that “Hey Google, broadcast it’s dinner time” means it’s time to fly to the table and ambush the food as it’s delivered.
“Car” When we are walking in our neighborhood (there are no sidewalks) I’ll say “car” and he’ll move into the grass area when a vehicle approaches.
there are no sidewalks
What a world.
Wife taught our dog to crawl.
She was trying to teach the dog to lay down and stay while she backed away with the treat. Our dog figured that if she kept her belly on the floor and crawled over to the treat it should be fine...
So my wife said "Good crawl!", and kept working on it with the dog. Now the dog crawls on command.
I heard you could train your dog to tell you when they need out by putting a bell on the door. I didn’t have a bell, but did have empty beer can and random nuts and bolts.
She learned to knock over my beer if she wants out.
Incredible. I have bells on my doors, but my dogs don't use them. They go to the door and stare at me when they have to go out. I've developed a sixth sense to tell when a dog is watching me lmao
Best my pup can do is sniff the bell which makes the quietest 'tink' and unless I am in the room I have no idea .
You can train your dog to do way more than just ring when he wants out. I have a cat that I trained, he now has 12 buttons in the same location, with concepts like "later" and "now", "yes" and "no" etc. The fact that I sometimes need to argue with my own cat that indeed he was fed already and treats are not an option is ridiculous to a lot of people. The cat gets incredibly excited once I get new buttons (but they're expensive, so I don't do that often). Some time ago a friend was teaching their maltese puppy to use buttons for a walk. I spent half an hour with it, got it to push buttons, got it to recognize that button = treat, later got it to recognize different buttons do different things. Training a dog is easy mode once you've trained a cat lol
Kinda somehow trained my dogs to expertly remove socks from feet.. Started as a puppy with an interest in toe biting, decided to try to mould it into something positive. Lots of "OWW"s later, she will delicately nibble the tip of your sock to seperate a bit of fabric from the toe, then grab on, and tug straight backwards (you gotta point your toe to help her out) and voila! Sock removed.
Thought it was dumb but 7 years later, my pregnant wife thinks it's the fucking bees knees
My cat has learned how… delicious? ear wax is. I was itching my ear once, she started licking my finger, and now if I even raise my right hand near my head she flips out and runs up into my space just in case it’s ear wax time.
Note I don’t actually have a ton of ear wax or feed it to her, but something about my finger after I scratch my ear just drives her crazy.
Seriously though my ears are clean 😂
Cats are sensitive to a protein in our earwax so they find it appealing. I had a cat so obsessed he would hunt down my ear plugs (I had to put child locks on the bedside table drawers). Occasionally the earplugs would fall out in the middle of the night. One morning they both fell out and I grabbed one and thought I may have accidentally dropped the other. My cat raced in out of nowhere and I chased him away but I couldn’t find the plug. Fast forward twenty four hours later and I found a full ear plug in a pile of vomit. Thank goodness he was ok, but that damn cat zoomed in and swallowed that earplug whole in a millisecond and it makes me laugh thinking about it to this day.
My wired iPhone earbuds vanished one day.
A few weeks later, one of my cats went under the bed. I jokingly told him, “hey, bring my headphones out, will ya?” In front of my partner.
Seconds later, I heard the distinct klak klak and he brought them out.
If my partner wasn’t there to see it, NO ONE WOULD EVER BELIEVE THIS STORY (even me)
Dang! So it’s not just my dorks, good to know
Cat seems to like strong body smells, we had an amazing cat when I grew up, completely black, short but very compact fur, with tuffs of hair on her ears, she was a mix between a siamese, norwegian forrest cat and swedish farm cat, she was an amazing huntress as well she caught a lot of annoying fieldfares snd mice, even came home with the tail of a squirrel once....
Anyway, she really liked the smell of my toenails and would even lick the clippings.
I wonder why....
She also LOVED my moms home made apple pie, she could resist meat, fish chicken and other stuff like that being left out, but apple pie... she just would not care and go straight for it, even if we were in the same room and she knew she wasn't allowed on the table, that was the one thing she was obsessed with...
Cats are a mystery!
My cats all CROWD me when I file my nails…
Cats love ear wax. With one of my cats we get wax out of her ear and let her lick it. I think it's the protein.
My dogs have learned if they sit up and beg and spin I can't fucking resist it and will give them a treat. The little fuckers taught me a trick.
You too?!
My partner and I bought these shitty squishy balls for our cats when they were kittens. They’re super basic dumb squishy bouncy small balls, we call them Regular Ball. Our cats are grown up now and, when snacky, will bring Regular Ball from WHEREVER THEY HIDE THEM to our room where we hang out, where I cannot resist giving them TREAT.
The beep one of my monitors makes at power off (at the end of my workday) catalyzes my three cats into immediate action. They could be passed out or hidden, and ignore me when I walk by (I've tested this), but the moment they hear that "beep-chime" they materialize.
They know it means I'm available for cuddles and snacks. Confuses the hell out of them on the occasional weekend when I take a Zoom call for one of my volunteer gigs. I'll also use it to summon them when one vanishes for too long and I need to make sure they didn't get out.
My cat Siegfrieda thinks that "bitte" (please) means "free petting". That's because I usually tell her bitte when she's taking too long to obey the command. For example...
Ich liebe deine Katze!
What a wonderful kitty.
Cat gets treats when the dishwasher starts, not sure if I trained him or if he trained me but that is what happens 100% of the time or else he gets loud.
Uh... Pretty sure the cat didn't get trained
Your halfway to teaching your cat to do the dishes
My cat blesses people when they sneeze
I think we're going to need a bit of an explanation here
Cat's the new pope; haven't you been watching the news?
Anytime someone sneezes, he runs into the room, makes eye contact, and meows kinda loud once. If you don't acknowledge him, he may continue 'murr'-ing if he likes you, until you do say thank you or pet him. It's really fricken cute. I think it's because my wife sneezes a lot and we're very consistent with 'bless you' and 'thank you's ourselves. Neither of us are religious or superstitious, so it's kinda silly, but it seems polite
Maybe a sympathetic "mrow?"
My cat loves riding around on my shoulder, and also loves food. He figured out that he has a better than average chance of getting treats after a shoulder ride. The counter in the bathroom is the highest in the house, where he can get the closest to my shoulder. So I apparently taught my cat to come running when he hears the toilet seat go up. Does it every. Single. Time.
Plus your bathroom is the territory you carefully mark every day, so your cat thinks it's your inner sanctum.
I taught my half Maltese half shih tzu the command move over. Every time I'd take her for rides she'd sit in my lap and if I needed to go around a corner I'd say move over and put her in the passenger seat. Now if she's in my spot on the couch she'll growl if I try to move her. But say move over and she'll go
Lol
"Move over!!!"
I have taught my cat that "Scootch" means "you have about 5 seconds to move on your own or I'm going to move you." It has been very effective.
My dog now knows she is "the dog". Any time we say the word, she starts listening.
She picks things up that I never imagined a dog could understand.
"High five" instead of "paw" for two dogs which wasn't the accident. The accident is they learned to associate high five with wanting something. When they want pets, food, bones, or toys they obsessively high five at you.
My cat does it now too. Maybe they learned it from the cat who saw they got treats for high fives. My wife hates it. I think its hilarious.
My sister's dog does "business deals" with me (offers a paw to shake) and it gets to the point where I have to tell him I don't do deals on the weekend or I'm out of goods to trade. That little ferengi never truly believes me though he thinks I'm just trying to play hardball ...
Exploitation begins at home
Slightly unrelated, but one time I let out an amazing belch and nobody was around to hear other than the dog, so I high five her. That alone was worth teaching her that trick.
My mom's dog will hold your hand when she wants something or is in trouble. She knows we think the gesture is adorable, so she tries to manipulate us with it. It never works lol.
We put a battery powered doorbell on the door leading outside. My puppy Veronica quickly caught on but mostly rang it when excited rather than when she needed to go out.
But about six months ago it kicked in what it's for and she'll surprise us by going across the house to hit the bell and tell us she means business.
So it wasn't exactly accidental but took a year.
Also same as yours, "Go get your sister." She'll go try and figure out what her older sister is up to and bring her back.
Yeah, the doggy door bell turned into the "Attention" bell instead of the "Outside" bell for a while for us.
Then when she realized we made her go out every time, she stopped using it and went back to a little wuffle.
One of my cats will headbutt me if I say "headbutt", he's like a pokemon or something. Hard enough that I can hear a thunk.
One of mine would headbutt me right in the nose/lips (like "yes human kiss head here") if I did the "smooch smooch" noise, every time. Pretty hard too in his younger years!
Not quite a command, but I seem to have confused my oldest cat so that he thinks "excuse me" is a threat. He'll be blocking a doorway, and if I say "excuse me" as I try to pass, he hisses and possibly swats, but if I just silently try to squeeze past, we're all good. Currently working to undo that one.
I had a cat that would run away if you said, "what do you think you're doing, sir?"
Most of the time he was actually getting himself into trouble. His fave thing was stealing slices of pizza, taking them to my room, eating all the cheese, then leaving the soggy, saucy crust right in the doorway. I stepped on it every goddamn time. Idek how he stole the pizza to begin with!
We lived in a house with a bunch of roommates when we got our dog, and at some point "fuck off" became "go lie down on your bed and get outta my space"... So now if "go lie down" isn't taking, then "fuck off" works...
I have one cat that gets several meds that I mix in baby food. I also have two other cats that need to be distracted from the cat getting the delicious (hurk) chicken baby food. So i toss treats across the kitchen to get them far away. I started saying “READY?” right before I would start tossing treats. So now as soon as I say ready, they “go long” and run to the far side of the kitchen to wait for their treat toss.
For a while he learned that "this is the last one" meant we were about to stop playing fetch and he'd pretend to have noticed something odd or been distracted to avoid bringing the ball back and having it taken away. We worked through that one with some treats, so now "this is the last one" means "treat upcoming".
We air dry our clothes on a balcony he doesn't often get to access and he gets to walk out with us when we're doing that and bark at birds and neighboring cats (which is why he isn't allowed out there all the time). He's learned to set up camp next to the door when he hears the washing machine beep after a wash cycle. Also when he sees us grab the container we use for the laundry, in case we're about to go pick up a dry load.
We accidentally made our cat yell when we point at her. Not even sure how it happened tbh; some combo of squirt-bottle-get-off-the-counter and very half-assed start to clicker training. At least we have a goofy party trick when we have people over I guess?
My wife and I get up at different times so we each have our own alarms. She gets up first and feeds the cats.
When my alarm goes off? No reaction.
When her alarm goes off? OMFG...
I can yell Cheese Wrapper at the dog park, and mine will come running.
Both of my cat's think their names are "Hungry?"
If there is food out, I can be hungry.
my cat thinks "up" and "down" both mean "get off my lap".
she also recognizes that when I sit and talk to myself (voice chat) is perfect petting and cuddles time. she's well known to my therapist and team because of zoom meetings.
and both guinea pigs and the cat have all decided that we do cuddles about 830pm. I thought it was "after work and dinner, sometime before bed". but the number of times I look up to see what the fuss is, and it's 830 and all 3 are looking at me expectantly... I assume they figure the time by daylight, because it's not consistent when I get home.
Maybe they recognize what the clock looks like at 8:30.
There were two.
Back in college my dog learned the sound of the Xbox power-off chime and she'd hop off my lap and go jump in the bed.
When my GF started visiting she commented on how cute my cat was for quietly meowing for food. She said she had a cat that would rake his claws across the wall to get her attention, and demonstrated this just once in front of my cat. That same night the little guy started doing that whenever he wanted anything after just seeing her do it once.
My cat and I slow blink at each other a lot. She usually wants to eat breakfast on the catio, but it's not fully screened in yet, so I would prefer she ate inside as it attracts other cats and sometimes ravens. I stand in the doorway and ask her to come in, but if she slow blinks and then keeps her eyes closed while still pointing her face at me I know she's not coming in. That's my signal to put down the damn cat food woman, it's al fresco today!
Did I teach her "eyes closed for outside breakfast" or did she teach me "give up when I squinch my eyes closed at you"?
That slow blink givin me life
It’s how you knowwww she loves you
🐱 😸 😻
My doggo will normally follow verbal commands for sit/down/shake without much issue. But sometimes he gets too excited or obstinate and doesn't want to do it even if I've said so a few times. At some point, I inadvertently taught him that me putting my hand(s) on my hip(s) is the "Ok, we're not moving on until you listen" gesture.
I make him sit before he eats, and if he isn't sitting, I'll just put my hand on my hip and he immediately plants his ass against the floor, tail wagging. He also knows the question, "Are you begging?" if he's too close to someone eating, and he'll put his head down and slowly skulk away for 5 minutes before sneakily returning to his previous position, hoping for scraps. 😆
My cat thinks the sound of my Playstation powering down means "time for bed". He's not wrong...
Not really a command but I accidentally taught my dog to play fight me whenever I get home, because I did it when he was a puppy. So now it's like Kato and Clouseau every time. Even when I'm super tired.
Border Collie — go get mom. She’d go and find the now ex-wife.
And “Attack!” She’d just stand there and bark like mad.
The dog was sweet; and your biggest problem was she roll on her back and pee on the both of you.
With my last dog, I would reward him with extra treats when the cat was also in the kitchen. The cat figured out he got treats whenever the dog and I were in the kitchen and now just joins me in the kitchen (on his stool) whenever I go there.
One of our cats somehow has learned to distinguish between someone cutting chicken vs. anything else from anywhere in the house.
I’m in the kitchen, cutting veggies, cat nowhere in sight. The second I start cutting up some chicken, she instantly materializes at my feet out of thin air. Not sure how she even does it, sound or smell or whatever. She could be anywhere in the house, she just instantly knows.
My cat is on a raw food diet that I portion out once a week. Anytime I go to portion it out, it doesn't matter what I grab first she is immediately in the kitchen rubbing against the cupboards. (I let her lick out the empty containers).
Once I'm done and start putting things away she knows I'm done and wanders off
My dog responds to swear words by doing the kinds stuff you see emotional support dogs do in videos- press on your chest, give you kisses, nuzzle your face, etc.
Except she's small, blind, and a bit... intense, so she kinda launches into you if you're sitting, with some intense affection.
IDK why. I guess we don't swear very often, ao when we do, its special, and we swear with enough gusto for her to think we're very, very upset.
I have no idea how my dog learned this, but whenever anyone says “Window”, he rushes to the closest window and stares outside and barks.
Not specifically a command, but my dog knows the sound of me taking my headset off. She figured out that me taking my headset off means I'm getting up, which means there's a chance I'll let her outside.
Mine has learned all the various ways people say "goodbye" at the end of a virtual meeting and gets really excited when she hears one of them. She knows it means I can pay attention to her now.
Holding empty hands out and saying "no more" so they stop looking for treats.
Also, "this is people cheese; not doggie cheese"
And then the same for the cat, who likes cheese.
All that cheese is cat cheese. At least according to the cat! They told me so! :D
My beagle gets really upset when I tell him there are no more treats. I also have to keep anything resembling people food from him because he resource guards it. He's the sweetest boi other than that lol
Cat screams constantly when he wants anything and he’s so damn cute we always give in. So it’s just screaming to wake up and feed me, screaming to scratch his bum while he eats (he LOVES that shit), screaming for attention, screaming to go outside. He’s so annoying but god damn do I love him.
My cat screamed constantly, I miss that fucker
If you scratch his butt, do you also love that shit?
I can make my husky howl by saying "space camp."
Are you sure he is not just howling because husky
She's rather quiet and chill for a husky. Although, I do not have two of them which is when they really get nuts. lol
As a space camp alum and lover of the 80s movie, I’d love to know the story here
It's not as exciting as an 80's movie. She just was staring at me one day after she just came in from a walk, had food and water available so I just started saying random words until I got a reaction. It's the only phrase that has no meaning to her to makes her speak out at all.
The only other phrase that makes her speak (and run away) is "bath time."
That's incredible. My beagle likes to sing me the song of his people without being prompted. Sometimes he is actually trying to tell me something.
My cat once hurt their foot and was limping so I gave them some treats and food.
They now limp around with their front paw raised anytime they want food.
Is your cat called Susan?
No but that's exactly the same thing she does haha
My Chihuahua mix is a very eager lapdog, couch potato, and bedbug. However if she is in any of those places and I say, 'excuse me,' or, 'I gotta get up,' then she knows it's time for her to move and gets out of the way for me.
I tell my beagle he is in the way constantly because he likes to steal my spots on the recliner or bed. He always moves, but looks upset about it
My dog is like that. She lays in my spot in the bed until I'm ready to get in, and then I tell her "scooch" and she moves to her spot. When we cuddle in the morning, she knows that, "ok/alright," means it's time to get up and go pee.
My dogs go to their leashes and sit when they see me loading my pipe...
My dog learned the sound of the keyboard shortcut to put a windows machine to sleep: Win + X, U, S
He'll be dead asleep on the bed next to me, but the moment those keys are hit he full sprints to the backyard for his final potty of the night while I brush my teeth.
When one of my cats is on my lap, she responds to "ok" as time to get up. Started with, "ok kitty, I need to get up," but now just the "ok" and she jumps down so I can stand up.
I have yelled "Hey!" so many times at so many pets over the years (dogs and cats) when I caught them messing around with something they shouldn't be that they all started to think "Hey" was their name.
I work from home and there's daily shipping logistics involved. My dog knows the word "UPS" and will immediately alert and generally be insane.
Our greyhound knew what “road trip” meant. He LOVED going for rides in the car, and if he heard one of us say that then he’d immediately be at the door, jumping excitedly…
"Face".
She will put her head through any circle if she thinks I want her to, because I would always get annoyed at her when she wiggled too much trying to get her harness on as a puppy.
Oh that’s adorable. I might try this one on my dog.
My new pup is supposed to sit before getting a treat. So as soon as the seal of the treat bag crinkles, his butt is planted to the ground.
I think it's delightful. My wife insists that we're supposed to link sitting with the vocal sit command. (I want him to be friendly and well-behaved. She wants him to take orders.)
Somehow “Okay” has become the command to ask my dog to get off my lap so I can stand up. I’m not sure how it started or why.
That's my command to signal that its ok to cross the street.
My dogs understand "Right" as we're going outside to wee, cause I'm like "Right, I'd best go to work" or "Right, It's time for bed" which is followed by letting them out and then doing whatever.