Animals Understanding The Word 'No' And Not Caring (Tumblr Posts)

Animal owners tend to live under the assumption that their animals don't actually understand them. You look at your hooligan, delinquent cat in the eyes as it's about to drop one of your favorite teacups onto the floor, and you say "no", and your cat looks at your like you're insane/insanely stupid and does it anyway. Maybe they really don't understand for the most part, but some animals... 

Some animals are smarter than we give them credit for. It's not because they don't understand that they're not allowed to do it either. These tumblr posts clearly show that your pets understand exactly what they're doing. They do it because they're jerks. And they're jerks on purpose. And we love them anyway lol.

Author image for Mariel Ruvinsky Mariel Ruvinsky
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  • 01
    Font - wow-david Follow My parrot has a vague understanding of the word “no." He knows to stop doing what he's doing when he hears it, and he knows how to say it. He knows it's a word that is used when he's doing something he shouldn't be doing. However, being told “no" doesn't make him stop doing it in future. If he's ever out of my sight or if l'm not paying attention, I know exactly when he's doing something bad. Because he says "no" to himself as he does it.
    via wow-david

    At the very least, we have to appreciate the forewarning that you get about disasters involving this little hooligan. He may not be intending for you to catch him, sitting there, being a smarty pants, murmuring to himself about how bad he is, but at least he's letting you know what's up , and we definitely appreciate it. 

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  • 02
    Smile - astromechdroid-r2d2 Follow My pigeon has the same understanding. He knows he has to stop whatever he's doing when I say “no". Sometimes he stops, sometimes he doesn't, cause he's a little bitch. Sadly, he's a pigeon thus he can't speak. But I love that apparently, this is a thing with birds. ^
    via astromechdroid-r2d2

    We love that this is a thing with birds too. Honestly, we had no idea birds were so smart... and have so little self-preservation until we really started looking into them. And now, we want nothing more than to have a pet bird for all of its amazing and wholesome shenanigans. 

  • 03
    Rectangle - elena1701a Follow My cat understands the word "no", because she will stop what she's doing, look at me, then go back to whatever she was doing!
    via elena1701a
  • 04
    Human body - spaghet-dad Follow Whenever my birb is being scolded he pauses to listen to the lecture and then starts dancing immediately afterwards
    via spaghet-dad
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  • 05
    Font - Othe-duchess0 Follow This just reminds me so much of my dog. She loves going into the garden but knows full well that she's not allowed to bark at people walking past the fence. When she did, we used to send her back inside and tell her to go to her cushion. Now however, whenever she's outside and barks at the fence, she'll walk herself in and lays down on her cushion before anyone said anything. Like... you could have just not barked? Then you were allowed to stay outside?
    via Othe-duchess0
  • 06
    Font - thewitchway Follow Our African Grey used to rattle his water dish around in his cage and spill water EVERYWHERE and directly yell “STOP IT!" He must have assumed "stop it" was the term for "rattling the water bowl and spilling water" because when he got a new cage he could now longer play that trip and never said that again.
    via thewitchway
  • 07
    Font - asterroc Follow OMG if Kappa could talk, this would definitely be her. She's a dusky conure, and conures are right at the edge of big/smart enough to talk, and females are less talkative than males, so no real words for her. Unlike the cockatiels I had before her, she definitely knows and understands the things l'm telling her, and makes a conscious choice to do other than what l'm asking. The cockatiels either understood me and did what I wanted, or didn't understand me and that's the on
    via asterroc
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  • 08
    Font - You can see it in her face, the furtive way she looks at me while doing something she knows she's not supposed to be doing, the way she'll be actively doing *thing* and making loud noises while doing it when l'm not paying attention to her, but the instant I turn away from my computer to her she suddenly goes quiet, or furtively runs away from what she was doing. It's hilarious.
    via asterroc
  • 09
    Font - circe154 Follow Cats are the same way. No just means to do it when you're not looking. ninety-eightpointsix Follow Depending on the cat, they'll even do it while you're looking, not because they're unaware of the rules, but because they like to test their limits. Like when you catch them on the table, they won't jump off, they'll sit there and maintain eye-contact, waiting for you to make the next move. At least my cats do.
    via circe154, ninety-eightpointsix
  • 10
    Font - violetsbisme Follow My sunconure is like this, 'no' is one of the words she can actually say. Except when i tell her no she either screams at me or tells it back. I tried saying "HEY!" In a very firm voice since she started doing it but now she can say hey. The only vocals she knows so far are 'no, hey, yup! And a bunch of booping and screeches and clicking.' Besides always getting into stuff and me having to tell her to knock it off shes a good girl and i love her to the moon and back.
    via violetsbisme
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  • 11
    Font - blueandbluer Follow My cat Mort had a very specific meow he used when he was about to do something he knew was naughty. I would hear it across the house and be like "Mort? What are you up to" and find him chewing plastic, sharpening claws on the furniture, or something else he knew wasn't allowed. I called it "telling on himself."
    via blueandbluer
  • 12
    Font - grinningbobcat Follow I work at a vets office and we have an African Grey Parrot named Kuka that lives in the lobby. He loves to rip down boxes and bags of inventory on the shelves behind him and before he pulls them off he says “No, Kuka! Stop that!" because that's what we yell to him every time he does it.
    via grinningbobcat
  • 13
    Rectangle - positivityoutlet Follow My bird will do something similar. When she tries to bite at people toes, she'll go "eHH" because that what we say when she does it and she knows it's bad.
    via positivityoutlet

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