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cats or dogs?


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  1. 1. cats or dogs?



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Dogs are alright, but I like cats more. Meowing sounds cuter, and I just prefer the way the look.

Also, according to this article, cats CAN show affection, so there IS reason to understand why people like cats.

http://pets.thenest.com/cats-feel-affection-owners-like-dogs-do-5092.html

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Cats. I mean, cats have almost twice as many neurons as dogs within their cerebral cortex. Don't you want the smarter animal at your side?! Ignoring the fact that cats use their smarts for evil and are notoriously hard to get to co-operate.

Once humans and cats have been bonded as long as we have with dogs, we will be able to train them to be unstoppable forces.

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Cats. I mean, cats have almost twice as many neurons as dogs within their cerebral cortex. Don't you want the smarter animal at your side?! Ignoring the fact that cats use their smarts for evil and are notoriously hard to get to co-operate.

Once humans and cats have been bonded as long as we have with dogs, we will be able to train them to be unstoppable forces.

I'm going with dogs then. I want to feel as intelligent as I can be compared to my pet. I want to own them to flaunt my superiority and keep em under my thumb.
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I looove dogs so much. They're so playful, gentle, caring, obedient, and just generally awesome! I like that they're needy cause you never feel alone with a dog in the house.

I don't get cats. And they all seem to hate me... My boyfriend's mom's cat stayed with us for a week last month & I thought things were going pretty well. Then while I was petting her one day, she just randomly bit me really hard. It kinda hurt my feelings. Cats just aren't my thing, I guess... *sigh* :sob:

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Cats. I mean, cats have almost twice as many neurons as dogs within their cerebral cortex. Don't you want the smarter animal at your side?! Ignoring the fact that cats use their smarts for evil and are notoriously hard to get to co-operate.

Once humans and cats have been bonded as long as we have with dogs, we will be able to train them to be unstoppable forces.

actually dogs are smarter than cats

and to answer the question I prefer dogs; I'd rather have something that loves me over something that treats me like a slave

although birds are better than both

so breegulls I guess?

Edited by FrostyFireMage
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I looove dogs so much. They're so playful, gentle, caring, obedient, and just generally awesome! I like that they're needy cause you never feel alone with a dog in the house.

I don't get cats. And they all seem to hate me... My boyfriend's mom's cat stayed with us for a week last month & I thought things were going pretty well. Then while I was petting her one day, she just randomly bit me really hard. It kinda hurt my feelings. Cats just aren't my thing, I guess... *sigh* :sob:

Cats, as a general rule, don't like strangers or have a much lower "attention" threshold for them. There are exceptions of course, but it's not uncommon for people who don't own cats to think they're unfriendly lol.

Any animal will nip you if you bother them for longer than they'd like, or touch them where they don't want to be touched.

actually dogs are smarter than cats

and to answer the question I prefer dogs; I'd rather have something that loves me over something that treats me like a slave

although birds are better than both

so breegulls I guess?

I had a response typed up, but I mean, it's pretty clear you dislike cats considering you'd imply something as ignorant as cats not loving their owners or treating them like slaves, so there's almost no point replying with anything factual. Just don't justify it with misinformation next time!

Edited by Tangerine
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I don't know Tangerine, it's hard to objectively say which kind of animal is smarter, it's just like trying to generalize which race/sex/ethnicity etc of human is smarter. I may be a little biased, I'm a dog person (we've always owned dogs) and I have a dog I'll ball my eyes out when she passes and I never cry. We've had both very smart dogs and really stupid ones, it's so dependent on breed and disposition; I would assume cats are the same. Big dogs are smarter than little dogs, at least in my experience, are cats smarter than breeds of dogs we've trained for more than several millenniums to do complex tasks like hunt or shepherd.

Though to answer the question, I like dogs, I'm needy and I like to feel needed and dogs have always made me feel that way.

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I don't know Tangerine, it's hard to objectively say which kind of animal is smarter, it's just like trying to generalize which race/sex/ethnicity etc of human is smarter. I may be a little biased, I'm a dog person (we've always owned dogs) and I have a dog I'll ball my eyes out when she passes and I never cry. We've had both very smart dogs and really stupid ones, it's so dependent on breed and disposition; I would assume cats are the same. Big dogs are smarter than little dogs, at least in my experience, are cats smarter than breeds of dogs we've trained for more than several millenniums to do complex tasks like hunt or shepherd.

Though to answer the question, I like dogs, I'm needy and I like to feel needed and dogs have always made me feel that way.

Well that part of my first post was obviously a joke, I thought the "evil" part should have implied that well enough. I was criticizing him for saying cats don't love their owners/treat them like slaves lol. Only people who have never owned a cat or who treat them badly could ever think that. Cats have incredible longterm memories and research has shown that if you show them kindness they will remember it and try to repay you in some way later, like a running tally so they remain "even" with you lol. They're one of the only animals that do this.

As for any actual discussion of intelligence, it's impossible to say based on what we currently know. The only actual facts we know are that dogs have bigger brains for their mass, but domestic cats have twice as many neurons in their cerebral cortex (160 million vs 300 million). Big cats (tigers are the smartest cat), obviously, one up them both. Theoretically this makes cats better in the fields of perception, problem solving, processing information, etc. Their memory spans are also significantly better at 16 hours vs a dog's 5 minutes. But dogs have the benefit of having been domesticated 20-30,000 years before cats, and so they've begun to evolve alongside humans and have developed skills and talents based off of it, whereas cats have been domesticated for a relatively short period of time and have not seen that benefit yet.

The only scientists who have actually succeeded in doing any significant research in a professional setting on cats have proven that they're capable of the same basic feats of intelligence as dogs, with the major difference being that dogs will look to humans for help if presented with a difficult situation and cats will keep trying until they figure it out on their own or move on. Which can be attributed to the length of time dogs have been domesticated compared to cats. Cats are considered among the hardest animals in the world to research in such a setting because they refuse to participate and are uninterested in the process, but dogs are very easy to research because they're so obedient, hence why we know so much about what they're capable of and why the cat's brain is still a question mark. This is why cats are often believed to be selfish, they won't do something if they don't see a reason to; research on their brains has proven that they're emotionally similar to humans, they understand what we want them to do and that they are capable of doing it, but won't unless they see a purpose in it. It's just the difference between an extroverted species and an introverted one. The fact that all animals are individuals complicates it further, because some dogs won't do certain tricks and some cats actually will allow you to train them and will do anything you'd expect a dog to.

We know they're smart in different ways, but the cat's brain is still not very well understood. At a base level neurons and brain vs mass are all we have to go on because of how little real-world research has been done. It depends on what belief you subscribe to, because science sure doesn't have a concrete answer yet. On average with the way we live now, a dog should be smarter than a cat, because not only are cats less receptive to training, but owners often choose to own a cat because they don't need to be trained at all; they're entirely self sufficient, while dogs need to be taught even basic things like where it's not okay to pee. The longer we live with cats and the more owners train them, the more we'll see them change and develop new skills (as well as lose old ones).

So there's your actual serious reply on my stance lol.

Edited by Tangerine
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Guinea Pigs

Cats. My family has a cat and she's the best. Dogs are too meddlesome and servile. Cats are more like people and don't need as much attention as dogs.

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If you're interested in learning more about animal behaviour, you could look up some of the work of top behaviour researchers. Adam Miklosi is a good start, a lot of his research is on dogs, but he has information on several animals' cognitive abilities. He did some research on cats as well, and some of my post is based on what I read of his findings.

There are lots of fun animal videos that show just how intelligent animals are too!

[spoiler=Cats doing stuff]

The second video shows how some of his tricks from the first video evolved

If you "train" a cat properly there isn't much they can't do that a dog can as long as it doesn't require a physical attribute it doesn't have. The interesting part is that she "trains" her cat by rewarding them for doing stuff on their own and they eventually build on those things through positive reinforcement and create their own tricks that they do when rewarded, saying that she found it impossible to make them do something purely because she wanted them to do it (which sounds exactly like the wall people run into when trying to test cats). This video shows them capable of performing multiple commands at the same time, complicated tasks that prove they can learn words, and it even obeys when told not to eat the treat (its motivation for doing the tricks). And that's keeping in mind that cats aren't bred for this type of thing like dogs are. She has some even better videos up, but this one doesn't have any music so it's better to show what she's saying/doing to get them to do it. I actually love this user and they're one of my favorite people on youtube and it's rare that I get a chance to plug them lol. They have a bunch of awesome animal videos.

(ps i watch tons of animal videos dont judge me)

Edited by Tangerine
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