Cats vs Dogs

[fairybasslet]

I think the frontal lobe/temporal lobe removal experiment would have the same result if performed on the average advanced open water scuba diver. Put them in a group of divers or on a dive boat, and they would be hard to distinguish from regular divers. And consider Skinner's theories regarding people as basically a simple package of reflexes.

Cats and dogs are very different in that dogs were almost certainly the first domesticated animal, while cats were probably the most recent. Cats are much closer to the wild state than dogs are, a big part of their appeal. They are not, like dogs and most people, slavish slavering butt lickers.

OMG this is one of the funniest posts I have ever read.

 

[mase]

When I go on dive vacations, its, what do I do with the Dog? The Cat I just put out some food and Water, put her out of the house and say, "see ya when I get back." Try that with a dog.

 

[TSandM]

Dogs are trainable, because we have bred them to be trainable. I've done a lot of teaching in my time, and my experience with people is that the most trainable are often not the most intelligent . . . In fact, the very brightest are often VERY difficult to train!

Most felines are not social animals and do not have to evolve cooperative behaviors to live in groups. They don't look to leaders and they don't have hierarchies. A cat who is motivated by his own impulses can demonstrate some amazingly intelligent behavior -- They learn to open and manipulate things. We had a cat in the neighborhood where I grew up who learned to ring doorbells. When the door was opened, he would march through the house to the back door and demand to be let out. That way, he didn't have to climb fences. That's pretty high level abstract thinking.

Dogs, on the other hand, live in packs and have leaders, and their nervous systems are all set up for cooperating with others and dealing with hierarchies. They're much easier for us to understand, because we are social animals, too.

I have and enjoy both, but I frankly prefer cats. They don't smell as bad, their personal hygiene is better, their waste is easier to deal with (unless you have a sprayer in your house!), and most of all, they don't BARK.

 

[fairybasslet]

Dogs are trainable, because we have bred them to be trainable. I've done a lot of teaching in my time, and my experience with people is that the most trainable are often not the most intelligent . . . In fact, the very brightest are often VERY difficult to train!

Most felines are not social animals and do not have to evolve cooperative behaviors to live in groups. They don't look to leaders and they don't have hierarchies. A cat who is motivated by his own impulses can demonstrate some amazingly intelligent behavior -- They learn to open and manipulate things. We had a cat in the neighborhood where I grew up who learned to ring doorbells. When the door was opened, he would march through the house to the back door and demand to be let out. That way, he didn't have to climb fences. That's pretty high level abstract thinking.

Dogs, on the other hand, live in packs and have leaders, and their nervous systems are all set up for cooperating with others and dealing with hierarchies. They're much easier for us to understand, because we are social animals, too.

I have and enjoy both, but I frankly prefer cats. They don't smell as bad, their personal hygiene is better, their waste is easier to deal with (unless you have a sprayer in your house!), and most of all, they don't BARK.

I knew I could count on Lynne for the most logical and well-thought-out answer.

 

[RonDawg]

I have and enjoy both, but I frankly prefer cats. They don't smell as bad, their personal hygiene is better, their waste is easier to deal with (unless you have a sprayer in your house!), and most of all, they don't BARK.

Cats themselves don't smell as bad, but their litterboxes :11: :11: :11: IMHO, there are VERY few cat-residing homes that don't have that tell-tale litter box smell. Cleaning a kitty box to me is FAR worse than dealing with doggy-do in the yard. Plus, the mere fact that the animal pooped in the house isn't very pleasant.

Cats don't bark, but if not fixed they can be just as obnoxious as any barking dog, particuarly an unfixed male. I know, I've been awakened by many a neighborhood tomcat "looking for a little love." Also, they are just as destructive as dogs in the form of scratching, which is necessary to keep their claws in good health. A dog can be trained to not chew on things, or at least heavily discouraged from doing so. You can attempt to train a cat to scratch only on specific surfaces, but in the end the cat has to scratch on something, and I've seen an awful lot of unwanted scratching in the cat-residing homes I've visited. That's of course unless the cat is declawed, something many animal activists feel is a cruel process.

Of course, more people are allergic to cats than dogs (I'm one of them). And, a cat bite is more likely to cause an infection than one from a dog.

Finally, I hear people boast all of the time how their cat is "dog-like." For example, a couple of friends of mine have Maine Coons, and although they don't know each other they both boast how this breed is so "trainable" and otherwise behaves more like a dog than a cat. OTOH how many people have you heard boasting how their dog is "cat-like?"

Although I'm pet-free for the time being, can't you tell I prefer dogs over cats?

 

[Brandnew2Scuba]

Love dogs, not crazy about cats. My pic to the side there is my Rhodesian Ridgeback, best breed in the world.

 

[RonDawg]

When I go on dive vacations, its, what do I do with the Dog? The Cat I just put out some food and Water, put her out of the house and say, "see ya when I get back." Try that with a dog.

Not a problem, as long as you provide the proper water/food/shelter.

 

[RonDawg]

Also, another thing I wanted to refute:

Work dogs bond with only one person in their "career" and thats their handler. They cannot bond with anyone else or they cease to be effective as a K9. Try to get close to a police dog and pet him. When you get out of the hospital, let us know how it went.

Not necessarily true. My department went back to having K9's after a many-year absence. The K9's we have now, while far from being cuddly golden retrievers, are also far from the "take your head off" types you allude to, and which my department once had -- with tragic consequences to the young daughter of a handler.

Ours can be petted with the handler present, as long as they are not in "working" mode. A couple of them will even go to the elementary schools and do PR work with the kids. They were chosen specifically for their ability to be mean when they need to be, and to be relaxed the rest of the time. Nowadays with lawyers, there's too much civil liability for departments to have the "old style" police K9.

 

[Tienuts]

Ours can be petted with the handler present, as long as they are not in "working" mode. A couple of them will even go to the elementary schools and do PR work with the kids. They were chosen specifically for their ability to be mean when they need to be, and to be relaxed the rest of the time. Nowadays with lawyers, there's too much civil liability for departments to have the "old style" police K9.

Are they effective work dogs? Our dept tried to do the same thing. They got a dog with a pleasant demanor, to be good for PR type things. I remember the handler had problems getting him to work effectivly. (He was a Shepard, tracking and narcotics dog).

The dog was retired after lots of retraining and only 18 months of service.

 

[cfelliot]

You get what you give. It takes more work to train a cat, but they're a lot smarter than most give them credit for.

Case in point: Harry the Amazing Fetch Cat

Harry in action: www.chuckelliot.com/Movies/harry.wmv