So I'm having a really infuriating time trying to figure out why my Sims are so obsessed with two things; bathing this freaking cat and using the sprinklers.

For the cat I have gone into:
Retuner > Settings > General > Social Interactions > Bathe Pet
Retuner > Settings > General > By Object > Sim (the first listed, there are 2) > Bathe Pet (BatheSmallPetInTub)
Retuner > Settings > General > By Object > Sim > Bathe Pet (PushBathOnSmallPet)

And have changed all of the Allow Autonomus to False, yet my sims still INSIST on bathing this cat all hours of the day. No he is not infected with fleas, this particular cat has only ever had them once and it was roughly just after getting him as a kitten, he is halfway through adult now. The dog also does not have fleas so it's not like bathing the cat would be considered a preventative measure, haha. Is there an option I have missed to stop them from torturing this poor cat?

As for the sprinklers:
Retuner > Settings > General > By Object > Sprinkler > Play In Sprinkler
Retuner > Settings > General > By Object > Sprinkler > Play With Sprinkler
(I know one of these is for pets and one is for sims but I don't know which is which, so off they both go)

The only reason I have autonomy off for this is because the Simbots on the lot will use them and short out endlessly, as if there is nothing else in their house to do. This is a legacy save and I'm on generation 7 raising 8, they've got the largest plot possible with a freaking 3 floor, 3 porch, 10 room, 4 bath, 4 car garage MANSION, and four of those 10 rooms are full hobby rooms! Like really, my lot has a lag issue that I willingly put up with to have all of this crap on it for them to do, and they choose to put their hydrophobic metal cans in a sprinkler? God giveth and god gonna start taking away if you don't keep out of the freaking water toys meant for the humans! I do believe this is fixed though as I haven't seen the teen try to use it within the last day (I sent the adults out for 2 days on that vacation to get them out of my hair while I dealt with the settings lol), but if possible is there a way to specify for the Simbots themselves to not use it while everyone else can? I ask because I have seen the sort by age thing, but nothing for sort by occult. Or maybe for only people with the Hydrophobic trait to not use them?

Thank you for reading my long, ranty post! Here, have a potato. I grew it myself.

(munches on raw potato, it's too hot here to fire up the stove) Hi there.

How would you feel about
(a) Fencing off the garden and locking the simbots out? Do they need to be in the garden for reasons other than playing with sprinklers?
(b) Replacing all of the bathtubs in this home with showers, and keeping one tub either locked up in the basement or in the family inventory for when a pet really does need a bath?

These aren't likely the permanent solutions you are looking for, there must be a Retuner way into the unwanted interactions beyond that which shows on the Object menus, but perhaps worth trying short term until we find better ones?

The shower stalls thing can definitely be implemented, I enjoy the aesthetic of having a tub (and my home only has 2, the others are stalls) but perhaps this will wean them off of the habit, per se. Can't believe I never thought of that, haha.

As for the garden, the problem is that the Simbots ARE my gardeners. The two of them don't have jobs so they take care of the home and do the boring, repetitive things so that the others are free to live cushiony, labor-free lives. Due to the size of the garden it has eight auto-watering sprinklers and now that I think of it, maybe I should take away some of the available number of sprinklers just like the tubs to try and discourage the behavior? Let's be real here I've had that thing since I was alive in generation 1, I don't need to be growing non-expansion foods anymore so maybe a downsize could help.

Would any amount of copy/pasting the individual simbots out of and back into the household maybe reset them? Or say save them to bin and completely wipe them from existence and re-apply them? Maybe there's something I haven't done to push the changes to take effect. Everyone else in the house steers clear of the sprinklers except for them.

Completely unrelated, I have been stalking the Sims forums fora couple years now (only recently found this website) and I kid you not, every problem I've ever had with the game has been solved by something you suggested or linked. I think outside of the cat baptism madness I'm glad to have had a problem I couldn't find a solution for just so I could properly thank you for all the work you've done over the years helping other people out. I'm sure there's even more people who've never surfaced to say it, too. Thank you for your dedication, some of us would have been really screwed without it.

The only thing you've proven here is that I like to talk (type) a lot. But thank you for the kind words and you're very welcome.

Resetting the bots is not a bad idea, but I would begin with a lower level kind by MasterController resetting them. Or one level up, retreat to Edit Town, evict the entire household to the side of the map, copy the lot down to the bin, bulldoze, replace with a copy, and move everyone back in (note this method will cause the loss of everyone's promised wishes and opportunities in progress). But yes, it could be that the bots' autonomies need a jump start.

I can look through the game's tuning file a bit later on for more sprinkler related things that can be adjusted though, unless someone else here beats me to it.

I'll try a few light things first then and see if that works. First; remove all sprinklers. Second; make new ones for the remaining corners of the garden i keep and re-tinker the auto water (maybe the old ones I've had for a while themselves are contributing to the problem?) Third; Save simbots to bin and purge/replace them. I've finally learned how to PROPERLY bulldoze/replace that house without nuking the portraits downstairs, so if the smaller above steps fail I'll do that. I have had to run a soul mill at my house twice now to bring all those poor people back only to re-paint them and put them down again, it's so cruel, hahah. And thanks for looking into it! Update on the cat bathing; I've passed at least a week and a half in game now and no one has tried to do it. I left one tub on the lot, but it is a custom content hot tub so maybe that's why they're not using it. Maybe I should just give all the bathrooms a hot tub! Woo!

You could replace at least some sprinklers with the store garden center, pretty sure those don't have a play in feature. Also if you don't mind CC in your game there is this http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=402818 , works great I use it for all my gardens.

Two of my sims approach the Magic Water Pump, which somehow they (and I) have never seen before.

"Are you sure about this? I don't think it's going to work."
"Positive. We just have to approach it from the right angles."
"And we're not going to get stuck in there?"
"Nope, that can't happen."
"You're positive we can woohoo in this thing, then?

Is it sad that I can so see sims trying?

@Phantasmai.
Do your simbots have the "Loves the Outdoors" trait? If yes, change it, that is a sure way to go and play with sprinklers, my sims with that trait go mad with the sprinkler, I am sure they break it too. I would fence the garden and lock the gate till the time when your bots need to go gardening. That's how I sort my sim's addiction. As for the cat bathing issue, yes locking the bathroom doors is another option. Sims are compulsive, once they decide on something that's it, I wish they would take learning to such level!