Can a cat teach a dog?

[Lolas Dad]

I have a black DSH cat named Harley. He is one and a half years old. I also have Lola who just recently turned four years old. Harley will force you to pet him and how he does this is he will reach his paw out to your hand such as when your sitting at the table and draw your hand close to him. He then will tuck his head down near your hand so you pet him. After a minute or so of petting him you stop, take your hand away and he will do the same thing so that you pet him again. This will continue repeatedly until he is satisfied.

When I am sitting at the table at the computer Lola will come up to me and stand with her two front paws against my leg. This is her way of asking to sit on my lap so I say you want to come up and she will then jump up on my lap.

The past few days she has been taking her paw touching my hand and tucking her head down to be petted the same way Harley does. When I stop petting Lola she will do the same thing all over again to be petted until she is satisfied.

She has always stood up with her front paws against my legs to ask if she can sit on my lap but she never did the paw thing before.

 

[Michiyo-Fir]

Absolutely cats can teach dogs! I've often heard that if you have a puppy taken away from its mother at a young age that even raising the pup with cats help to teach things like bite inhibition.

 

[MicksMom]

I don't see why not. The Siamese cat we had when I was a toddler taught a piglet to use a litter box.

 

[GoingNowhere]

Misty has unintentionally taught Boo to play using her paws. Boo always wants to play with Misty, and Misty generally swats at Boo. Since she doesn't have front claws, I assume Boo thinks that Misty is trying to play. It's hilarious to watch. Boo trots up to attempt to play with Misty. Misty hisses and smacks Boo. Boo lifts up her paw and pokes Misty. The "game" inevitably goes on until Misty finds an escape route, Boo gets bored, or I start feeling bad for Misty and call Boo away.

Call me a horrible owner. But I promise that Misty has never been remotely close to being harmed. She's just a grumpy old little cat (but I love her all the same!).

 

[Snark]

A friend of mine reported that she saw her cat teaching her dog how to stalk birds. They were side by side, in identical poses, crawling through the grass in an attempt to catch a robin (they didn't).
This is the same duo who caused my friend to put locks on all her cabinets. In the middle of the night, the cat would get up on the kitchen counters, open the cabinet containing the snacks (pretzels, potato chips, etc) and knock the bags on the floor. The dog would tear them open and they'd both have a feast...

 

[maxfox426]

Yes! We had our two cats a year before bringing Morgan home. We used the cats to help teach "sit" and "shake hands" to Morgan by example. (Yes, I'm a dork and I trained my cats. LOL!)

Misty has unintentionally taught Boo to play using her paws. Boo always wants to play with Misty, and Misty generally swats at Boo. Since she doesn't have front claws, I assume Boo thinks that Misty is trying to play. It's hilarious to watch. Boo trots up to attempt to play with Misty. Misty hisses and smacks Boo. Boo lifts up her paw and pokes Misty. The "game" inevitably goes on until Misty finds an escape route, Boo gets bored, or I start feeling bad for Misty and call Boo away.

Call me a horrible owner. But I promise that Misty has never been remotely close to being harmed. She's just a grumpy old little cat (but I love her all the same!).

Morgan does this, too! :rofl1: He weirded the instructor out at his first manners/obedience class because Morgan tried to play this way with another dog during the "cool down" period of the classtime. The lady had never seen a dog play like a cat before!