mleku on Nostr: my cat goes bananas when he hears the sounds of me preparing his din dins and freaks ...

my cat goes bananas when he hears the sounds of me preparing his din dins and freaks out when he hears the sounds of me getting medicine prepared to squirt icky tasting liquid into his mouth.

higher mammals are all basically 18 month old human level intelligence, and motivation... all about eating and pooping and playing.

you probably can effectively neuter the response actually by using it randomly for no reason repeatedly over a few weeks period and then after they have remembered that walk doesn't mean anything it they will then start to parse "let's go for a walk doggo" instead.

i believe that dogs are known to be able to remember about 150 commands and i think it's about the same for cats, they are similar grade of brain with a fairly different set of instincts.

just brace yourself for lunacy while you decondition "walk" and within a few weeks it will mean nothing and you will be able to anchor a more specific expression instead of having the dog go ballistic while you talk to your friend on the phone about going for a walk in the park.