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?
Well, you should see how it is with birds
"How is your bird, is he fine?
- Yeah, he just suddenly laid an egg so we need to check his calcium intake
- Ah, so it’s a she? Did she make more than one egg? Is she healthy?"
And if you keep on saying a non-specific “he”, you get the “you’ll need to get used to saying ‘she’ now”
The only reason people switch pronouns easily with animals is when it conforms the idea of “sex at birth = gender”, if your dog has male genitalia, and you tell people “yeah I know but it’s still a she”, people are going to look at you weird and ignore what you said. They’re just unable to see past that.
Tldr: people are stupid boomers