Question for today

[dianec42]

Do cats and dogs really enjoy being petted? Or is it just something we do because it makes us happy, and we've selectively bred our pets to put up with it?

Comments

[madbodger.livejournal.com]

I've wondered about this too, but after years of postulating, I am firmly convinced that they indeed enjoy it, and while humans may have enhanced the effect, it was around before. Imagine how itchy it must be under a fur coat! A good scritch with a comb is appreciated by most furred creatures.

[siderea]

I don't have any pets, but other people's pets voluntarily seek me out on the street to be petted, so it seems they like it.

[siderea]

Since I like to be petted, I don't see why they wouldn't. :)

[scruffycritter.livejournal.com]

My cat affirmative *asks* to be petted.

He does this by meowing and demonstrating on you what he wants you to do.

Since in a sense he was offering paw anyway, I used petting as the reinforcement for "shake hands" and trained him to do so.

His sister was a little different. She got insulin shots after food was presented and she was petted. When in the hospital, a tech put down food for her and she meowed quite the annoyed little meow at him that she dared offered her highness food without petting.

[dieppe.livejournal.com]

Think about thousands of years of domestication in this context. The kitties and doggies who hung around the humans and got petted were more likely to be well fed than the kitties and doggies who were skittish or ran away. So, in a sense the animals that enjoyed being petted were more likely to breed than the ones who didn't and from that standpoint may have been unintentionally bred to enjoy being petted.

Or put up with it. Of course there are feral dogs and cats out there, but really it's not so much that we've been able to breed out being wild, it's a case that those cats and dogs who could (as babies) more easily bond with humans were more likely to be kept safe and those who didn't..

Still, when an animal comes to you for attention and doesn't leave when you pet it. It has to mean that it enjoys it and enjoys your company! Otherwise it'd just go hide under the bed again. :)