Cats & Dogs Really Needs an Update

With the news that there will be some updates to children and dining, it has reminded me of just how much I wish Cats & Dogs would be updated. Here is a list of features I would love to see:

Sim NPCs that can be hired to take care of cats and dogs. Children have nannies and butlers. Horses have ranch hands. But currently there are no NPCs that can be hired to take care of pets. I would love to have NPCs that can be hired who will feed pets when they are hungry, play with them when they are bored, bathe them when they are dirty, talk to them when they are lonely, etc.

Most importantly, please have an NPC who can act as a dogwalker. One of the most annoying things about having dogs in this game is that they always want to go for walks but walking them takes up so much time. It takes so much time that even with a short walk most of the time the walk is cancelled because the dog is hungry or something.

If a Sim has multiple dogs, make it so that one Sim can walk more than one dog at once. It's a bit annoying when you have multiple dogs in a household that just has one Sim, forcing them to have to walk one dog and then another. It would be great to be able to walk two or three dogs at once.

Make it so that children can walk dogs as well.

Very importantly, make cats and dogs better able to take care of their own needs. Too often a cat or dog will be uncomfortable because it is hungry or it wants a nice clean litter box/to go outside to potty. But this is annoying because I'll have multiple automatic food bowls full of food around the house, multiple automatic self-cleaning litter boxes around the house, and the dog has already supposedly learned how to go potty on their own. So why do they need me to direct them to go eat or to go outside to potty? Similarly, the cats and dogs will sometimes be unhappy because they want to play, but I'll have a toybox or several toy balls around.

Basically, I wish that if there are full food bowls, litter boxes, toys, and the dog knows how to go potty on their own, the pets would just take care of these needs on their own without becoming unhappy and complaining to the owner. The litter box thing for cats is especially annoying because you can't even command a cat to go to a litter box, so when they complain about wanting to use a litter box there's nothing you can do if there is already a clean litter box around. Usually I just have to use "reset object" on them and then they go find the litter box.

Also, if there are multiple cats and dogs in the house, let them satisfy their social need by interacting with each other rather than always depending on Sims.

Speaking of needs, I don't know why my pets don't seem to take care of their Energy need on their own. They are always passing out from exhaustion. Related to the above, if there are pet beds around the house I shouldn't have to constantly be telling them to go to bed, they should just do so on their own when they feel tired. My Sims don't go to work and have the trait that makes it so that they never get tired. Pets seem to mostly sleep when Sims are away at work or sleeping, otherwise it seems like they will just keep going until they pass out. So please make it so that pets will sleep on their own when tired.

Speaking of needs, please make it so that you can see the needs of cats and dogs. This is the case with horses, and with horses we are able to see their needs. Yes, it's easy to know what a cat or dog wants by asking them what's the matter. But I want to know how much of an action I need to do before they are completely satisfied. Yes, I know the cat is bored and wants to play... but how much do I need to play with it? Is just playing with the cat wand once enough to satisfy it, or do I need to play with it several times in a row? When I'm told the cat or dog wants hugs and cuddles, does petting it once suffice or do I need to hug and pet it multiple times to satisfy it? Being able to see these needs would help a lot.

Returning back to dog walking, make a buy mode item that satisfies a dog's need for walking without having to take them for walks. Perhaps something like a pet treadmill or a dog-sized hamster wheel that dogs could use autonomously and satisfy their need to walk.

Give dogs a build mode item that is a dog version of a litter box, like some newspaper, a potty pad, a toilet tray, or whatever, so that dogs can be trained to go inside the house rather than outside if you want to keep the doors locked or don't want the pets going outside on their own for whatever reason.

Following the above, allow cats to be able to be trained to go potty outside like dogs. One of my Sims has a cat as their Familiar (Realm of Magic), so the cat goes almost everywhere the Sim does. But eventually the cat will have to use the litter box, which means my Sim has to always carry a litter box with them. But I believe this only works when you or on a lot. If my Sim is in an area that isn't a lot, then they can't place a litter box down from their inventory. It would be such a convenience if the cat could just poop or pee outside and then my Sim could just clean it up, just like with a dog.

Speaking of which, there is something that annoys me about bringing pets with my Sims when they travel. When the Sim and pet are in an area that is not considered a lot, they have the option to send the pet back home. But this option doesn't show up when on a lot. So, if my Sim brings their cat or dog to another lot, and then wants to send them home, they have to walk outside of the lot to be able to send the cat or dog home. It would be great if the option to send the cat or dog home was always available.

There is a glitch with Realm of Magic and Cats & Dogs. For some reason, if your Spellcaster Sim has one of the Familiars active from Realm of Magic, the option to tell their dog to go potty disappears for some reason. I had wondered for the longest time why the option to tell my Sim's dog to go potty was no longer appearing, and then I learned from the Internet that having a Realm of Magic Familiar active makes that option disappear. This doesn't happen though if you have a Cat or Dog as an active Familiar. Having a Cat or Dog as an active Familiar does not affect the option to tell a dog to go potty.

With the pet adoption agency, allow people to see what personality traits cats and dogs have before setting up an adoption visit to meet them. With horse adoptions one is able to see the traits of the horses in advance. I wish the cat and dog adoptions allowed you to see the traits on screen. It makes sense that the adoption agency would have some information about the pet's personality available to protentional adopters.

Meeting stray cats and dogs is so glitchy and difficult. I go to lots that have the lot trait that brings stray cats around. I click on a cat that I want to introduce the Sim to. They take forever to do anything, and then the action is cancelled because the cat went to sleep, or the cat suddenly decided to leave, or the cat is doing something else that cancelled the action. I sometimes have a Sim having to make multiple attempts to introduce themself to a cat that just gets stuck or cancelled and then the stray cat leaves before they could meet.

Make cats and dogs count as family members to Sims. I don't mean that literally per se. But I think of my real cats and dog as part of my family. Well, I had a Sim once who was the only Sim in a household but had multiple cats and dogs and even a horse in the household. The Sim had the Family-Oriented trait and started getting negative moodlets for not being around family. But why shouldn't the Sim think of their cats, dogs, and horses as family? A lot of the advertising for the Cats & Dogs expansion, as well as the residents of Brindleton Bay, speak of pets as being like family. So at least for the sake of the Family-Oriented Trait it would be nice if a Sim living alone with their pets wouldn't get the negative moodlets.

Speaking of which, it bothers me that having the Cat Lover trait makes a Sim more likely to develop the fear of being alone. I have a Cat Lover Sim who is always getting that fear which makes no sense because they're married, have a kid who lives in the house, has multiple cats, a dog, a horse, lots of friends and lovers... and yet still they keep getting the fear of being alone which I think is due to the Cat Lover trait.

Please add more pet clothing and outfits. It would be nice to have more stuff to dress cats an dogs up with.

 The Independent pet trait for dogs says that such dogs can even walk themselves. While it is true that dogs with this trait can be sent out for a walk on their own by themselves, it doesn't actually seem to satisfy their desire for a walk. I had a Sim that once had a dog with the Independent trait. The dog would be whining about wanting to go out for a walk, so I would have the Sim send the dog out for a walk on their own. The dog would go run around the neighborhood for a while, but when they returned, they still begged to go out for a walk.

Please make a pet version of Werewolf Diplomacy for werewolf Sims. Currently, Werewolf Sims can use Werewolf Diplomacy on other Sims to make them more relaxed around Werewolves. Such Sims gain a trait that makes it so that they won't be bothered by seeing a werewolf in their werewolf form. However, this ability doesn't exist for pets, so as it is now a Werewolf Sim that has cats or dogs will always have their pets being Tense around them while they are in their werewolf form. Please make some kind of ability to use on cats and dogs so that they won't be Tense around their owner while they are in werewolf form.

Cats and Dogs both can be trained out of certain misbehaviors. But there is no viewable list in-game of what misbehaviors exist and which misbehaviors the pet has already been trained out of. Please make it so that there is someplace one can see what all pet misbehaviors are and which ones your pet has been trained out of. The pet aspiration involves training a pet out of a certain number of bad behaviors, so it would be really helpful to know what misbehaviors there are and which ones a pet has already unlearned.

Give pets family dynamics. I've noticed that if you designate cats or dogs as being related, you also have the option of choosing family dynamics for them. From what I understand this doesn't actually do anything. But I think it would be nice if it did work.

Related to the above, it would be nice if in Create-a-Sim pets could be designated as mates in the same way that Sims can be designated as partners, engaged, or spouses. Sometimes I want to start a new save with a household consisting of two cats or two dogs that I want to designate as mates, especially if they already have a child together.

It would be great if veterinary clinics could function as a small business from Businesses & Hobbies. It would be nice if Sims could have an area of their home to act as a vet clinic.

Let Sims be able to bring their cats and dogs to live with them on campus in a dorm in Discover University. Is this realistic? No. But most aspects of the Sims 4 are not that realistic anyway. If the University is fine with aliens, mermaids, vampires, spellcasters, werewolves, ghosts, fairies, and servos living on campus, I think we can overlook having a cat or dog on campus as well.

Finally, I would love a general update to pets. Maybe new pet traits, as well as new behaviors and actions for the existing pet traits. New animations and such as well.