When you want someone to sit next to you, you would be a little childish and weird for patting the spot you’re inviting them to but everyone would know exactly what you meant by the gesture. Why is that? Deeper: How is it that that action is universal to mammals? How do they inherently know this action and its meaning without it being taught?
It’s not the case with birds or reptiles. Pat a space near you all day long and aint no parrot or lizard gonna give a fkk. But give the chair next to you a couple of drum beats as body language to an infant who cant talk yet and they’ll know exactly what you’re directing them to do.
You might think cats are the exception but if you conducted a study closely, you would find that they know exactly what it means but they just accept the invite on their own terms and enjoy putting humans in their place by rejecting their affection and demanding it when they’re doing something else.
If you want to invite a dog up on a bed or couch or something and they need an extra prompting – a few pats on the surface they are invited to come jump on will get them to focus on that spot and then come right to it. But why?
I don’t have the answer. But perhaps this monkey does.
I never thought about it but you’re right. A few pats on any surface and dogs would run right to that spot. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work with cats very well. Generally, they wouldn’t give a f*** and do whatever they wanted to.