Does your cat recognise your voice?

Calling all cat owners, how many of you have cat's which will respond to your call?

We've all seen this "ability" displayed by dogs and for many of us, we watch in envy as the interaction between dog and human seem to be on another level when compared to our feline friends. Why is it that cat's respond differently? Cat's are suppose to be comparatively intelligent as dogs are they not?

Well, let's step back a bit and look at history. Dog's have been domesticated for over 30,000 years, they were intentionally bred to obey commands of their owners. On the other hand, cat's have been domesticated for around 10,000 years, and with the advent of the agricultural revolution, humans began to abandon the hunter and gather lifestyle infavour of raising food and then storing it.

How humans and cat began there journey was actually down to a mutual benefit. Rats would destroy and attack human supplies of food, and cat's would kill and eat them. There was no direct command given to them, it was just nature and the natural order working in tandem.

Our relationship with cat's may have been mutually beneficial, and even, endearing.. they still don't respond to their names the way that dogs would, do they even know what their names are? Do they hear us calling out for them?

Well a study set out to answer this question and it turns out that cat's can distinguish between their owners voices and other people's voices, but their reactions may not be to come over to you.

To train your cat to respond to your voice, you have reinforce them coming to you when you call for them with a treat. This gives then motivation to come over every time. For instance, call your cat, then offer some dreamies.To stand a better chance of making this work, it's best to start this training as young as possible, and never get angry at your cat if they don't respond. It's better to not build this positive association than to build a bad association.