Topic: Would You Rather be a Dog or a Cat?

OK

Would you rather be man's BFF or have 9 lives? The choice is your's. However, I'll throw you a treat if you explain your selection...!

I would rather be a cat because they are smart and more independent and can take care of themselves. And they are sneaky. And I can sleep all day and don't have to come when called. Meow! Meow! Where's my treat?

My preferences:

Dog
Ninja
Nintendo

I would be a dog (a male on), since I could piss on everything and everywhere.

Definitely a cat. Sleek and fluffy totally beats smelly and drool.

A cat, they are clean, agile, balanced and a joy to bond with, the human is the pet not the cat. Don't like dogs, they are stupid, smelly and annoying. I've always said that if it was made illegal to house pets, cat's would slot seamlessly back into nature, whilst dogs would be dying in the gutters and biting children.

@Omega

I disagree that cats are smarter; that's just a matter of simplification by cat owners, who erroneously perceive indifference or independence as intelligence. The intelligence of a dog varies greatly by breed, but some of them are, I'd say, far more intelligent than any cat you could find. Their sociality is often part of their intelligence, in that some dogs are remarkably cognizant of the perspectives of others, something that is a mark of a fairly complex mind. I've seen dogs we owned growing up that would fake or cover their tracks in order to get away with something; if sleeping in one of the beds when no one was home (forbidden) they would jump down as they heard the car coming, get back into their doggy bed, and even close their eyes to pretend to have been asleep there as everyone came in. I was able to observe this often because one dog knew that I wouldn't tell on it, so it ignored the fact that I was home watching, but went through the whole routine as soon as it heard the parental car down the road.

EDIT - @Machu -- as soon as I posted that, your little rant went up as well! Again, that's completely false and confused. Sociality is indeed a fundamental part of a dog's nature, but that's often a testament to their intelligence rather than a mark against it. Dogs evolved to be very social beings, indeed; so did humans, and it's our own fundamental dependence on approval by others etc from birth that leads to language and all the other remarkable things humans have developed -- and a relationship with a dog can eventually border on having its own little language of gestures, approvals, etc. Sociality is the very birth of everything we know as intellect.

I've always said that if it was made illegal to house pets, cat's would slot seamlessly back into nature, whilst dogs would be dying in the gutters and biting children.

Yes, and a human infant, without being raised carefully for years, would also be absolutely helpless in the wild; and yet that is the most intelligent creature of them all. Independence in the wild just means that an animal relies more on (blind) instinct than on any more complex social engagement.

A cat.

Why would I want to be annoying to everyone but my owner? Instead of liked by everyone, and allowed to sleep as often as I wanted.

@warioswoofs: So I like cats more than dogs, no biggie. My opinions tend to be rooted but nice try.

@Machu

Warioswoofs! Nice

I'm fine with you preferring cats, I just have an aversion to arguments about intelligence (in any context but it comes up particularly in cat / dog discussions) where a creature's independence is seen as a mark of its intelligence, when in fact the most intelligent creatures tend to be fairly helpless on their own, and can only exist in social contexts. Look at how primates function, and again look at how the human infant is the most helpless creature of all, for the longest period before being able to do a damn thing for itself. But during that time of utter dependence, a child absorbs an unbelievable amount of information from observing those around it, and enters into a language, a way of thinking, etc.

Everyone on my street hates the local moggie

Why not a Clanger or a Womble? but out of cats & dogs I prefer cats.

Okay, probably you're right here. I just don't like dogs. But of course this is only my opinion. I don't wanted to offend any dog(s)-/owners. Don't worry.

I think gamers generally tend to like cats for some reason. I think we have a lot in common with cats. I just think dogs are stupid. There are some very smart breeds of dogs out there, but on the whole cats are smarter. You're just a dog with a small brain; it's science.

Even that claim is highly suspect; although intelligence does vary drastically across breeds, I've not seen a bit of evidence for advanced intelligence in any cats that goes beyond erroneously conflating independence, stand-off-ishness, etc with intellect. With dogs, on the other hand, you have a whole range that not only includes complex social interactions, reading of subtle social cues, learning a whole vocabulary of signs and words from their owners, but also the remarkable employment of dogs in complex roles ranging from hunting to sheepherding to aiding the disabled.

Covering their tracks is not evidence that they have anything fancy going on in their heads. Now if they showed signs of guilt that would be something else. But that's merely the recognition of association. They learn through repetition that lying on the bed is pleasurable, but being found on the bed is displeasurable. You can train mice similarly with electrified buttons and food-dispensing buttons and stuff.

We can all trade stories of cats and dogs we've known, but what's the point. Dogs have been proven to have longer short-term memories than cats, whereas cats have been proven to have long-term memories that surpass dogs and orangutans. Cats learn by imitation, which is the same way babies learn, and which most other animals do not do. Imitative learning is what has made us so successful at using tools, communicating in languages, and building civilisations. Apparently it didn't work out quite as good for cats.

My reason for thinking cat's are smarter, comes from the fact that dogs have become somewhat reliant on human's, where as cat's remain entirely independent. The cat/dog discussion could go on forever, but really, I just don't like dogs, regardless of their intelligence. I honestly don't want to offend dog-owners, EVEN THOUGH I am offended by them daily (a minority admittedly), what with the lack of a lead whilst I walk with my young nieces, or one barking late at night, or the poop upon our streets (which a human would be arrested for). Meow!

Just because cats are independent doesn't mean they're cold and uncaring or standoffish. Cats are highly attuned to their owners' emotions. The more intelligent breeds of cats get 'offended' when their owners don't pay attention to them, and will follow their owners around like that little annoying snot-nosed brat at the beginning of Wind Waker. They can even exhibit signs of grief over the death of an owner or fellow pet. I know one cat who apparently "died of sorrow" when its fellow cat died. It circled the body for hours and would not stop until its heart did.

I also know a dog that adopted an abandoned kitten. When the kitten died, the she kept searching all over for the kitten trying to find it.