Cats and dogs and many other mammals can literally smell your stress, tension and fear. Your cortisol, more or less.

If you are actually calm, actually centered, actually cool… theyre much more likely to view you favorably.

If a pet likes a not-member-of-the-household stranger more than other people, thats likely because you the stranger are more relaxed than those other people generally are.

Visited a friend not long ago and they tried to prepare me for the dog to hate me.

“Don’t take it personally. He’s like that with everyone. He’ll warm up to you eventually.”

Me and this dog were immediately friends as soon as I walked through the door. Within 30 minutes, he was chilling in my lap and soaking up the attention. Within an hour, he was laying next to me on the couch and partially resting his head on the cat which was so unheard of that my friend had to take a picture because they said their partner would never believe it. Apparently the dog got along with the cats like… well like cats and dogs, but my presence got them to all chill out and just hang on the couch. I absolutely felt like this pic.

I was at someone’s house and visitors came in with a Bernese mountain dog. I was warned beforehand that he really didn’t like men. I just thought ‘that’s ok, we’ll see’. Big pupper went around sniffing everyone, then doubled back straight to me to sit in my lap. As I sat on the ground, pretty much all I could was just, DOG. Giant. Dog. Friend of mine said ‘welp, guess you’re not a man’

Joke’s on him I’m nonbinary now lmfao

Pupper knew all along. Good dog. Thanks for transing me.

Like when you go to a concert and the band says that <your city> has the best audience.

My ex said I’m a Disney Princess when it comes to animals. Their dog and cats love me, stray cats hang out in my backyard, current partners cat sleeps on me every night. Heck, I caught the neighbor’s cat sneaking into my garage this week!

I used to have two rats, a cat, and a dog and they’d all sleep on me at night.

I feel more like

I have picked up cats who otherwise have never allowed themself to be picked up on my second time meeting them.
They want down after a few seconds but they don’t hiss and fight like with anyone else trying.

Nobody tell OP

Careful, some owners don’t like it if their dog likes/trusts you more.

My girlfriend made the assumption that I liked dogs because I was the only person the families angry demented chihuahua would go sit with. I had to tell her, I’m good all animals but that doesn’t mean I want pets. The only thing I would keep as a pet is a barn cat.

Its not that hard. Letting them smell you is the most important part. Most animals want to “ID” you before they will interact with you. From there, move slowly, be gentle, dont force any interaction. Pet the “common” areas like their backs/etc to make sure they are okay with it. Then move on from there.

What’s this image from?