Expecting them to speak English. I communicate very clear expectations to my cat as to what I expect and for the most part she has no issue following my rules. Everybody says their animals don’t listen or are spiteful and all I see is inadequate communication.

The biggest thing people notice is that when I tell her to stop doing or get away from/off of something she immediately stops and moves (sometimes trots/runs) away from whatever it was. I don’t have to yell a bunch of times I just sternly say “No. Stop that.” once. This is because this is all the warning she gets before I spray her with water. Even if she runs away, if I have to say it twice I will find her and spray her. To me, I’ve been tasked with her safety, which means keeping her from eating things she’s not supposed to, breaking glass and stepping in it, etc. So when I need her to not do something that command needs to work, and it needs to work right away. She’s also an indoor cat and the same rules apply for hanging around near the door.

On a nicer/cuter note, right now we’re learning to not step on my boobs. When I touch something she doesn’t like she yells and pushes me away with her paws. So that’s what I’ve been doing when she wants attention and steps on my boob. I say “ow!” about as loud as she’d yell at me and push her paw away. Today she went to step there but realized where her paw was going to be and put it back down and rubbed her head on my arm instead.

Stop expecting your pets to just magically read your mind lol.