Research 

Highly evolved social beings like our cats, pet dogs, along with wolves, coyotes, Dingos African wild dogs, foxes and, to a degree Jackals, posses a completely unique ability: in that given the right set of circumstances, they have learned to adapt to the lifestyles of humans and build genuine social relationships with them.

What gets in the way is that we humans often demand behaviors from them that do not meet their physiological and social needs. In most cases, these behaviors actually contradict social etiquette.

Anyone who trains their dog or cat solely with "yes" or "no," with carrot and stick, reduces her learning ability to the level of an earthworm. Not that those amazing creatures should be judged in any way unevolved or insentient.

In the 1950’s, BF Skinner conducted inhumane and deeply depressing experiments, that, with the help of electrical punishment stimuli, trained earthworms to seek escape routes and learn to crawl into a dark room.

We humans are so much better than this, and, thankfully, our understanding of behaviorism and ethology has changed enough to be totally unrecognizable from those truly crass beginnings