I think any intelligent animal will develop a way that gets your attention. I have had cats and dogs use nose, paw, face, shoving with front paws while standing on hind legs, specific barks, mews, or other sounds, etc., to get attention. If the desired result is achieved, both human and animal are 'trained' to great signals because both understand. For examples, a racoon used to come to the back glass door and put a paw palm on the door, high five style, to get food. We gave him food when he asked...seemed the polite thing to do for him. He would back away from us while we put food in a dish for him and politely wait for us to leave before he ate. He always left some 'for others' and he would 'thank' us before leaving. A feral cat used to do a similar thing, also 'thanking' us for food before leaving. He came to say 'goodbye' too before leaving permanently.
All of our Yorkies have signals, and they teach, and learn from, each other. Brody will pat with a paw for some things, give a single short, 'different' sounding bark for other things, or, although he will pat the door to go out, he will also walk toward the puppy pad but pause and look back over his shoulder to see if I noticed his 'need' to go potty, too. All of their signals work because I respond to whatever signals are used. I wouldn't call them spoiled...much.
