Cathleen-
I don't think the water bottle is "cruel" at all. I've even read about it in books as a way to stop a cat from doing something undesirable. I don't really use it any more for that matter...they both know what it is and all I have to do is pick it up and they're spinning wheels to get away. I would never try and disipline them for an instinctive act; it's things like wanting to go outside after dark when I open the door to go get a stick of wood.
As far as a cat being as "smart" as a dog, they may very well be but in totally different ways. I've had labs all of my life and every time I called them they were on their way to me. If a cat sees a bird or hears a mouse in the grass and you call forget it. They are masters at ignoring. I've never tried to train a cat to do much at all. My old hunting dog was the easiest animal to train. I use to come in for the day and could just sit in my chair and say to Medic, the hunting dog "slippers" and he would go to the bedroom and bring my slippers to my chair one at the time in most cases. 2 or 3 times he accidentally grabbed both at once which I thought was neat. It didn't require a treat either. At first I simply took him in the bedroom and picked up the slippers a couple of times and he was trained. In my opinion he was the greatest dog in the world; he didn't even smell when he got wet and he loved water. He was also the healthiest and hardly cost me anything in the 16 years he was with me other than his shots and checkups. The other thing that was so special about him was he was born the same month my father died in January, 1990 and also the fact that he was bringing birds to me at 6 months of age until he was 14 years old when I retired him. He was old and knew it so he just lost interest. I went hunting the following year but I missed him being there so much I lost interest myself and haven't hunted birds much since. He would sit in front of me watching over my shoulder and when those ears went up I took the safety off, stood, and more times than not there was a bird I would have missed. He did that hundreds of times.
It's in the low 20s here this am and Graygirl is showing her age. She'll go outside and be back in a matter of minutes then straight to her spot under the wood stove. The new guys are loving the cool weather. I just saw Barney sliding down the frosted windshield of my car a few minutes ago. They just came in for their "breakfast" then right back out.
I don't think the water bottle is "cruel" at all. I've even read about it in books as a way to stop a cat from doing something undesirable. I don't really use it any more for that matter...they both know what it is and all I have to do is pick it up and they're spinning wheels to get away. I would never try and disipline them for an instinctive act; it's things like wanting to go outside after dark when I open the door to go get a stick of wood.
As far as a cat being as "smart" as a dog, they may very well be but in totally different ways. I've had labs all of my life and every time I called them they were on their way to me. If a cat sees a bird or hears a mouse in the grass and you call forget it. They are masters at ignoring. I've never tried to train a cat to do much at all. My old hunting dog was the easiest animal to train. I use to come in for the day and could just sit in my chair and say to Medic, the hunting dog "slippers" and he would go to the bedroom and bring my slippers to my chair one at the time in most cases. 2 or 3 times he accidentally grabbed both at once which I thought was neat. It didn't require a treat either. At first I simply took him in the bedroom and picked up the slippers a couple of times and he was trained. In my opinion he was the greatest dog in the world; he didn't even smell when he got wet and he loved water. He was also the healthiest and hardly cost me anything in the 16 years he was with me other than his shots and checkups. The other thing that was so special about him was he was born the same month my father died in January, 1990 and also the fact that he was bringing birds to me at 6 months of age until he was 14 years old when I retired him. He was old and knew it so he just lost interest. I went hunting the following year but I missed him being there so much I lost interest myself and haven't hunted birds much since. He would sit in front of me watching over my shoulder and when those ears went up I took the safety off, stood, and more times than not there was a bird I would have missed. He did that hundreds of times.
It's in the low 20s here this am and Graygirl is showing her age. She'll go outside and be back in a matter of minutes then straight to her spot under the wood stove. The new guys are loving the cool weather. I just saw Barney sliding down the frosted windshield of my car a few minutes ago. They just came in for their "breakfast" then right back out.
