I’m not pet owner and I don’t spend much time around animals in general. (Don’t get me wrong, I love them, It’s just I know I would be a terrible pet owner.)
How common it is for people to see, let’s say, a dog and immediately just know whether it’s “she” or “him”? If two dog owners meet in a park, would it be awkward for one of them to misgender the other’s dog?
Of course, I mean without looking at the “obvious” traits.
Are there behaviors that are typical for male/female pets outside the one directly related to mating?
I recognize that within the animal kingdom, the traits are not always clear, and I guess gender is quite more flexible than sex. I would be interested in both aspects.
What about cats or other animals?
It’s not as simple as that, at least for humans.
Firstly, you’re not generally going around looking at people’s genitals, and even if you were you wouldn’t be able to tell if someone’s had surgery. A lot of trans folk pass well enough that you wouldn’t be able to tell we were trans unless we told you, at which point you look crazy insisting that a guy with a full beard and pecs is a woman.
Secondly, while sex and gender are separate, the distinction is often brought up without nuance. Sex is not a simple concept, and it’s impossible to define generally in a way that doesn’t misrepresent some class of cis folk. A trans woman has neither the hormonal levels, body fat distribution, strength, brain mapping, medical risks, nor (necessarily) sexual function of a cis man. Defining it fully by some metric such as chromosomes or the ability to reproduce erases all sorts of human experiences, like intersexuality or menopause.
We assign pets genders because of our human experience, but they almost certainly lack the concept. A dog doesn’t care what you call it. Hell, a dog rarely cares what it’s fucking.