It’s not really possible to fully know why our dogs may be displaying these behaviors. With some dogs when we observe their body language, their pattern of behavior, and what causes the behavior to increase or decrease, we might be able to infer where their behavior stems. For dogs, their behavior typically stems from a variety of different factors: genetics, early socialization experiences, and other lived experiences. It is typically a combination of all three factors rather than any one factor.

Fortunately, we don’t have to understand exactly why our dogs are displaying these behaviors to modify them! My first recommendations for dogs displaying patterns of behavior typically called “reactive” or “aggressive” are muzzle training, careforreactivedogs.com, and a qualified in person positive reinforcement based trainer.

What a shitty rescue, it should be the opposite.

You know, I don’t have an answer for you! It’s something we see a ton in internet videos and I hear anecdotal stories about it all the time, but I’ve actually never heard a good explanation. 

If I had to take a wild guess, I would assume it’s just sort of a really weird situation for a cat to observe: not so much because of the ‘human is getting wet’ part, but because it also involves a lot of noise from the water and the fan and has uncomfortable things like shower curtains and lots of smells. That’s a lot of sensory stimulus, and I could see either the novelty of it stressing the cat out, or maybe just them being concerned because of it. 

Since we are social members of our cat’s group - all “cat things we’re weird bipedal cats” memes aside - it might make sense that either the cat is concerned that we’re doing something as strange as showering, or that the cat is wanting to be near us and be social but does not like the proximity to all the stimulus of the shower.