Why can dogs learn their names and cats cannot?

The question is false because cats can ‘learn their names’. In truth, neither cats nor dogs learn their names. They learn the sound of their names and attach it to a reward as opposed to understand the meaning of their name (as a label) and attaching it to themselves. That’s my opinion. For cats you achieve this through clicker training or informally.

There is no reason why cats cannot learn the sound of their names. My cat understands the sound of his name. He turns to me when called and often comes to me when called. Okay, he’s not reliable in this respect but he usually responds to the sound of his name.

“Experts’ don’t know if dogs are able to understand that they are a living creature with a name, meaning self-aware. I don’t think they do. They simply respond to the sound of their name through training. It might be informal training: positive reinforcement.

The general view is that cats are not self-aware either. There is no evidence to believe that they are.

You call your dog (or cat) and give him his favourite food. Over time he’ll learn to come to your call. This is standard training. There is nothing fancy in it. As I understand both cats and dogs are ‘conditioned’ to respond in a certain way to the sound of their name which in this instance means to come.

When called for breakfast a cat or dog will hear the sound of their name (or the sound of food preparation is often enough) and decide that it is likely to mean that food is available or something else worth investigating is taking place. The timing and context are important.

Dogs are easier to train because they are more inherently sociable and look to their leader – the dog’s owner. As cats are inherently solitary (albeit domestication has changed this) they make their own decisions and are less likely to look to others to lead. That’s how it works, in my opinion.

If you have different views please tell me but trolls are banned from commenting.

[weaver_show_posts cats=”” tags=”clicker-training” author=”” author_id=”” single_post=”” post_type=” orderby=”date” sort=”ASC” number=”3″ show=”full” hide_title=”” hide_top_info=”1″ hide_bottom_info=”1″ show_featured_image=”1″ hide_featured_image=”” show_avatar=”” show_bio=”” excerpt_length=”” style=”background-color:HoneyDew; border:2px dotted darkgrey; padding:12px” class=”” header=”Associated pages (this is a selection. Please search for more):” header_style=”color:Indigo; font-size:130%;” header_class=”” more_msg=”” left=0 right=0 clear=0]