i make a point of never *training* a cat to do anything. the game (not food or clicker or whatever) is its own reward, and the only thing they get is being taught a way to solve the game. sometimes the hint needs to be learned too, e.g. the concept of pointing is nontrivial
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i think cats intrinsically understand (or easily learn) the concept of pointing with eyesight, but it hasn't been very easy so far to communicate the concept of pointing with a hand. i *think* it worked a few times but not very reliably yet
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i try to associate words with contexts, too. she knows her name (i can say different things in exact same tone and nothing happens, vs she responds or runs towards me when i call) so there's no reason she can't learn other words, in principle
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but i don't really know if she associates a specific word with an arbitrary context, versus hearing any word in a given context, and i'm not even sure how to check it without messing up existing associations
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the name of her mother is "cat" so i called the daugter "kitty". if there's ever a third generation i have a problem
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i wonder if most housecats are just constantly terminally depressed because of how incredibly boring it is to live in an almost completely static environment for 1.5 decades with a pigeon on the window being the extent of mental stimulation
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unfortunately, not all cities are suitable for that. this one is, it's more of a general problem
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