Our cats Stoffer and Blik have lived with us for almost three years now. I've tried to teach these crossings of a ragdoll and a British shorthair a few words by consistently using word X with intonation X in situation X.
Let's first look at the results of Stoffer, the grey female sibling:
She responds to these Dutch words:
Nee! (No!): immediately stops doing what she's doing and meows annoyedly: [æ̃ːw̃].
Kom! (Come!): proceeds me in exiting the room.
Hoi! (Hi!): utters a short meow or chirrup when said after her entering the room.
Slapertjes maken? (Make sleepies?): starts whipping her tail and runs from us when we approach because this is what we say before bedtime.
Stoffertje! (a diminutive of her name): looks at us, which she doesn't do when we use a different word with the same intonation.
Now let's turn to Blik, her brother:
Results:
zero.
...
In Blik's defense, he knows the click sound of the button of the laser light and starts looking for the red light around him when he hears it. (This light always leads to a treat.)
And while they're not obsessed with food, they both know the sound of a sachet containing wet food or a liquid treat.
