Before-and-after videos show how one cat learnt the clever trick from his older brother in just a couple of weeks.
Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849 – 1936) once taught a dog to salivate upon hearing a bell, in what became known around the world as the “Pavlov’s Dog experiment”, which proved his case for a learning process called “classical conditioning”. While many believe “Pavlov’s Cat”, if it ever existed, would’ve turned its nose up at such an experiment, preferring to either sleep or starve rather than follow instructions from its human, a new video from Japan is showing that felines can do what Pavlov’s Dog did and more, by turning the tables and ringing bells with their paws to summon treats from their compliant owner.
One of the cats in the video was first to learn the neat trick, even dressing up in a witch’s hat to show off his bell-ringing skills last Halloween. Earlier this month, the clever kitty was charged with the task of teaching his little brother how to ring a bell for food, and judging from the video below, it looked like the little cat might never be able to understand what was going on.
Now, just over a week later, the little one has been trained up to the same level as the senior cat, eagerly tapping his paw on the bell over and over again to receive some tasty treats. The kitties are so eager to use the “service bell” for food that the owner has given the clip the title “The Restaurant with Many Orders”.
The video of the clever cats blew up online, receiving over 170,000 likes and more than 130,000 retweets in just a matter of days, along with a huge collection of comments from amazed Twitter users.
“What talented kitties!”
“The way they gently touch the bell is absolutely adorable!”
“I can’t believe how well they’ve learnt!”
“It’s a busy ‘restaurant’ you’ve got going there!”
“I’m going to teach this to my cat at home.”
“I couldn’t help watching this over and over again.”
The cute cats should now reach around and give themselves a pat on the back for making thousands of humans smile while also proving that felines really can learn new tricks. Let’s just hope other cats don’t see this clip or else they’ll all be ringing bells to get humans to do their bidding!
Source: Twitter/@b_ru_ru
Top Image: Twitter/@b_ru_ru