Pet Personality!

[ReptileLover]

I came across this question in my Psychology homework the other day and thought this was an interesting concept:

'Do pets and other animals have their own personalities or is it mainly a result of conditioning? For example a dog may feel closer to the children of a family, but the children do the feeding, so does the dog asscociate the children with food?'

I believe that they do. I have 2 dogs and we treat them the same, but they act completely different. One is a loud ditz who is always hungry and the other is quiet but very smart and loving. For each of them to act this way, they both need their own independant mind and therefore a personality.

My lizard has a personality too. If i call her a lazy lizard (and i do a lot because she never get's outta bed [her corner]...) she give me a look that expresses that she's insulted and she has a look for a lot of different expressions. As does my brother's lizard, though i believe his actions are based on instinct than logic or any sort of thinking capacity.

Now what do you think? Observe your pets for your ideas!

[Anna]

Pets have a personality I believe. For example at my friends house his dog is very happy and hyper to see me and him come inside but eventually she went and did her own thing,the moment my friends grandmother brought her dog and we paid attention to him instead of her she got jealous and kept nudgeing my arm and when I paid attention to her again she calmed down greatly.
And my parents feed my dog yet he favours me,the one who is rarely home to do much with him. True im the only one who lets him sleep on my bed but I do see a personality in him. My mom treats him like hes a god-dog and I treat him like hes a dog dog lol and he favours me (maybe hes thinking about my mom "lady im a dog darn it I cannot do magic tricks")

[~Master William~]

I agree, I think pets do certainly have their own animal "personalities". I'll write more on this later, short on time. XD

[Anna]

I remember this subject from Anthro/Psycology and Sociology. My conclusion that I came to outside of the class was that indeed pets have a personality,some dogs actually have a preffered taste in their dog food,even human food,I have a dog who likes to eat only meat and a dog who will eat veggetable and fruit if he's given it. The dog that only eats meat is more...princess-like,she sleeps on people's beds and refuses to sleep on the ground, she has a prefered bed and a time where you just leave her alone while the other dog is very "who gives a darn?" attitude. I also have some cats who have their prefered owner.I dont feed any of the cats and some prefer me over the people that do feed them. So I leave this as yes pets have a personality.