Do Cats Recognize Their Own Names When You Call Them But Choose to Ignore You?
Sometimes calling your cat feels like calling to a brick wall. You don’t really expect a wall to answer or come to you. Yet we continue to call to our cats and wonder, do cats recognize their own names when you call them?
Cats do recognize their names when you call them. However, most of the time they choose to ignore you or take their time coming.
Are You Sure Cats Recognize Their Names?
It might be hard to believe that your cat actually does know its name, but it’s true.
As we all know, cats think they rule the house. Any cat owner will tell you that their feline pet thinks they are actually in charge.
Why bother responding to your human if you don’t want to? Everything is on your cat’s terms, including coming when they are called.
Research Proves Cats Do Recognize Their Names
Behavioral scientist, Atsuko Saito, has conducted research to show that cats do indeed recognize their owner’s voice and their own names.
By studying 78 different cats from Japanese households, she determined that cats had more pronounced reactions to their names than other similar words. A pronounced reaction looked like:
- Meowing
- Moving their ears
- Moving their heads
- Swishing their tales
Saito had each cat’s owner and some strangers to the cat, call the cat’s name. Although the cats didn’t react as prominently to strangers calling their names as they did to their owners, they still reacted.
This just shows that your cat does indeed know your voice and their name. Meaning they do pay attention to you, but just choose not to show it.
Do Cats Know What Their Name Means?
Your cat does indeed recognize their name, but they more than likely don’t know that it’s how they are identified. There is actually no evidence that they associate their names with themselves.
Instead, it is more likely that your cat associates its name with a reward.
Think about it. Why do you call your cat? You more than likely call them:
- When you just get home from being away
- When you want to feed them
- When you want to give them a treat
- When you want to give them attention
These are all positive rewards that your cat associates its name with.
Cats Choose to Ignore You
If you have kids, you are probably familiar with the term ‘selective hearing.’ Well, just like kids, your cat likely practices selective hearing too.
Essentially, your cat chooses to hear what they want to hear. If you are calling their name, they likely know that this means they will be rewarded when they come. However, they may decide that they like doing whatever they’re doing better than the possible reward of coming.
Your cat sets the rules. No number of treats or amount of attention is going to pry them away from sunbathing in the window or patrolling the house.
Can Cats Learn Other Words?
With the ability to recognize their name, this may leave you wondering if your cat is capable of learning other words.
We all know dogs are quick to please and rather easy to train. Within a week of owning a dog, they will easily learn how to sit on command. Can your cats do this though?
Cats are less eager to please than dogs. That’s why we love them though. They are independent and in charge, at least they think.
Since cats can recognize their own names, this leads us to believe that they could be trained to recognize other words. Essentially, it is possible to train your cat like a dog. However, getting them to listen to you instead of doing whatever they want may be a difficult obstacle to overcome.
Cats Do Recognize Their Own Names When You Call Them
Your feline friend is smart, cunning, and unique in every way. They don’t always care about positive reinforcement, but they do know what you’re saying when you call their name.
After all, do we really expect our cats to answer to their servants, or I mean owners?