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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Replying to @whitequark
I was against the idea of indoor cats for a long time for this reason, but then I discovered Sphynx cats and got
@NyarlaSaurus. They can't go outside, & love human company, so it seems less cruel. Keeping them indoors is prolly great for the surrounding wildlife, too...2 replies 0 retweets 0 likes -
Replying to @mrjesslynnrose @NyarlaSaurus
I think it's not about being indoor or outdoor, but rather whether they have enough to think about or not. Cities can be bad for humans too, but they're way worse if you're stuck indoors only with some trite garbage on TV
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Replying to @whitequark @NyarlaSaurus
True. Cats are little serial killers, so what they're thinking about is torture and murder more often than not. I've been thinking about coming up with toys to cater to those instincts, although I think they're all gonna need active human participation to be safe...
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Replying to @mrjesslynnrose @NyarlaSaurus
I've considered just getting live mice, but this cat seems far more interested in the hunting game conceptually than the part where critters are involved. she wouldn't "kill" toy mice, and in fact is just as happy fetching socks and other obviously non-biological things
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but the other cat would grab toys and drag them to his food bowl so I guess not everyone are on that level
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