Use this simple trick to tell if your cat understands you

If you think your cat regularly ignores you and wants nothing to do with you, you’re not alone. Many of us cat owners often feel like our feline friends would rather we weren’t there, save for having the super power of being able to open the cupboard doors.

But that might not be the case. It might just be that cats in fact do understand us more than previously thought, and there’s one thing you can look out for in order to determine if it’s true.

It turns out that a simple smile might be the key to unlocking their heart, but not how you normally would. While a human baring of teeth is seen as a sign of friendliness (real or forced), for plenty of other animals it is in fact a showing of aggression.

Science reveals how to bond with your cat

However, smiling slowly - without showing your teeth - and slowly blinking your eyes, scientists have confirmed, makes cats more receptive to humans, and even open to approaching them.

For the first time ever, evidence points to this facial expression as a way of showing the cats we are friendly and open to interaction, with the first experimental data showing that the felines are indeed more responsive and open to interaction when going through the back-and-forth of this ‘eye smiling’ technique with their owners.

“It is something you can try yourself with your own cat at home or with cats you meet in the street", said Karen McComb, a University of Sussex psychologist. “It’s a great way of enhancing the bond you have with cats. Try narrowing your eyes at them as you would in a relaxed smile, followed by closing your eyes for a couple of seconds. You’ll find they respond in the same way themselves, and you can start a sort of conversation."

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“As someone who has both studied animal behavior and is a cat owner, it’s great to be able to show that cats and humans can communicate in this way,” “It’s something that many cat owners had already suspected, so it’s exciting to have found evidence for it“, McComb added.

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