<p>I’ve never the understood the gulf that exists between cat and dog lovers. Both have their good and bad points. People find it easier to personify dogs because dog behaviors are social and look more human to us - though dogs don’t think like people and much of what people think their dogs do is totally wrong. Cat behaviors are more of a small predator. As I remind people, our cats are great because we’re bigger than them. If they were bigger than us, they’d eat us. </p>
<p>My favorite animals to spend time with used to be goats but I don’t have access to a farm any more. Goats are a mix of individual and herd animal that are very curious and friendly. The worst negative is they’ll eat anything - even the lining out of your pocket if they find a scrap of food in there - and thus are pretty darned destructive.</p>
<p>We have cats because they can stay by themselves and don’t smell bad. Dogs like to roll in dead stuff and, while some breeds of dog don’t shed as much as cats, we don’t like our hands and clothes smelling of dog all the time.</p>
<p>I am more dog person than cat person – for whatever reason, dogs trust me and like to do what I ask them to, even dogs belonging to other people. But I have spent many years with both in the house, and cats are pretty fine, too. I have to admit that I have always believed that cat IQ was a little higher, although not nearly as useful to me.</p>
<p>I currently have one of each. The cat worships the dog. She has taken to coming with us on walks, too (neither on a leash). And it has taken awhile, but she has finally gotten the idea that when it’s bedtime and I call her to come in, she should.</p>
<p>One cognitive difference I have noticed: The dog does not react to anything on TV, clearly does not follow TV images with her eyes, and does not distinguish between a TV that is on and one that is off. (She will, however, react strongly to decent-quality recordings of a dog barking.) The cat does follow images on TV (and in mirrors). She has stopped trying to play with TV cats, or her own reflection, but it’s clear that she can distinguish among images.</p>
<p>Cats also catch a lot more prey than dogs do. This is not limited to domestic rodents (which generally make themselves scarce if a cat is around anyway). My dog is fast as lightning, and loves chasing small animals, but rarely actually catches one. The cat catches a lot of animals.</p>
<p>My cat tries to catch the cursor when I move it around on the screen. </p>
<p>I’ve heard of dogs killing cats. It’s hard to imagine how they could catch them, but I know it happens. My dogs seem to like the cat okay. She’ll play with them if she’s in the mood. She’ll also bathe my lab’s face from time to time, though she’d never attempt that on our younger dog.</p>
<p>My neighbor lent me a DVD of a “cat DVD.” I popped it in wondering what could be in it. It turned out to be a couple hours of gerbils running around and birds hopping around a bird feeder. My cats were FASCINATED. They kept running around to the back of the TV to see if there was a way “inside” to get the birds.</p>
<p>They also like watching Bambi. I’m not sure if that means they have a secret desire to stalk deer or what.</p>
<p>My cats love “The Life of Birds” and “The Animal Planet”. One of my cats was completely “glued” to the TV screen when we watched figure skating.</p>
<p>It’s gotta be dogs for us. Dogs are so loyal and loving with no strings attached or ulterior motives…just total devotion.<br>
Our dog is smarter than lots of humans I know.</p>
<p>While the same is true for my dogs, it’s also true for my cat. That cat is completely affectionate, no “ulterior motives.” She’s every bit as sweet as our two dogs. </p>
<p>As far as this thread goes, I’ve never gotten why there is a sense that we must prefer one over the other. I appreciate the qualities of both animals. It’s when you expect one to behave like the other that I think we can get into trouble.</p>
<p>JHS, my new dog watches t.v. I’ve never had a t.v. watching dog before, but this one does and it’s a hoot, because she gets agitated when she sees dogs or other animals on t.v. or on commercials. It’s not a reaction to the sound, she sometimes gets really upset and starts barking even when the t.v. dog is just sitting quietly in the background. She does not like the dog that sits on the pier with Sally Field in the Boniva commercial, for example. And she went nuts over the episode of Monk where he had the shaggy dog move in with him - I think it was less stressful for Monk to clean up after his pet than it was for my dog to watch him doing it. If I really want to get a rise out of my dog, I can turn on Animal Planet. </p>
<p>If she’s excited about a dog onscreen, and then the dog goes away – she’ll use her pet door to run outside and around to the back of the house to see where the dog might have gone.</p>
<p>Over the weekend, I flipped on the t.v. and Brokeback Mountain was on – well, my dog just went nuts over all those SHEEP. She was standing in front of the t.v. barking and barking and trying to get those sheep to move… and I had to explain to her, “honey, you’re a terrier, not a sheepdog!”</p>
<p>My dog also will bark at her own reflection in the window at night. (Cognitive challenge: she can’t figure out that she’s looking at herself, even though she obviously knows she’s looking at a dog. But the more agitated and bouncy she gets, the more the dog in the window bounces around, and that excites her even more).</p>
<p>It isn’t consistent, sometimes she will ignore what is on t.v. I think the saving grace is that she has a very short attention span, so after 5-10 minutes she will give up and go look for other trouble to get into instead. Occasionally she gets upset with people on t.v. as well. She’s not fond of cop shows – maybe its the pushing and shoving when the SVU cops arrest a suspect that upsets her. But its pretty clear that she is recognizing the images she sees and it means a lot more than moving lights to her. </p>
<p>I don’t really know why this is – I never thought dogs had the ability to recognize or respond to t.v., but I guess it depends on the breed. It has been my observation that terriers are more cat-like in many ways – my dog is a Bichon/terrier mix – and my dog also engages in some cat like play. For example, she likes tossing wadded up pieces of paper about and pouncing on it. Since terriers are bred to do the same thing cats do naturally – catch & kill rats – some of the behaviors might just go hand in hand with the skills needed to be a good predator for fast moving, small creatures.</p>
<p>A good book, a cup of tea, a cat purring on my lap. That’s what I like. I’m a cat person.</p>
<p>Dogs don’t really appeal to me–their hyper eagerness, their jumping, barking, licking, slobbering, sniffing, mating with my leg, their doggy smell, their poop everywhere (and their doomed-to-hell owners who can’t be bothered to use a leash, stop the barking or clean up the poop–yet think everyone would just love to come and bring a gourmet doggy treat to precious Poopsie’s birthday party. . .Gag!)–Spare me all that.</p>
<p>I just love it when my cat walks by and ignores me. We understand each other.</p>
I was wondering if someone would say something.</p>