I always wonder what the pigeons think when they ride the tram a stop and now the doors go somewhere rise.
this post was submitted on 31 Dec 2025
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World changer, definitely
I've seen a cat use a train.
Dogs' intelligence, and perceived intelligence, vary a great deal among individuals. In general, dogs are a lot smarter than we usually give them credit for. I'm sure that all of my dogs have understood the basics of how an elevator works. I've also had three who could probably have repaired an elevator and one who could have invented them.
My dog doesn’t use the stairs, he knows that if he wants to come up someone has to bring him. He’ll either sit by the stairs or just bug you and then show you he wants up.
You want me to get into the transmogrifyingelectrogator? As long as I get to hang out with you I'm cool with whatever.
They probably realize they are moving because they can track the direction and strength of the smells of the previous room.
If you think about it, you can use smells to locate in 3d the same way you can use vision or sound.
If you think about it, smells don't act like waves, unlike sound and light.
You can locate things with smell, but not in the same way as sound and light. Yes, some species do have prominent stereo smell, so they can know a direction from which a smell is emanating, but the emanation doesn't propagate like waves.
/superpedant
I'm pretty sure they do. My parents had a particularly dumb dog and even she managed to figure out that she could catch up with someone that went into an elevator by racing up or down the stairs.
I'm sure they can feel it moving the same way we can.
At the same time, many dogs have dogshit object permanence and might think it's a world changer even if it didn't move. 🤷♂️
They understand dog carriers and cars, so my guess is that they think of an elevator as something like the other boxes used to move them around, but without windows. With that said, a big part of raising puppies is teaching them to just ignore strange things that they don't understand, so I doubt that most dogs think about elevators much. Mine had zero reaction to the elevator on the first time he rode in one, but he was the kind of dog who didn't even mind fireworks as long as he could see that I was relaxed.
Pretty sure my dog doesn't really understand cars. She cries like we are about to die the whole time, and has for her whole 9 years of life.
How unusual! I don't think I have ever personally met a dog that didn't like cars. Mine loved them enough to try to jump into strangers' cars.
they don't ask questions