Cats vs Dogs

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We're down from 2 dogs (the Pug ran away and the Brittany died of old age) and two sister cats (both of them also expired) to one psychotic cat that used to belong to my Dad. 

Bri
 
I've owned both, i like having both around. I don't have either at the moment unfortunately.

If I had to choose, I'm more of a dog than a cat person I think
 
2 dogs - Lola and Woody (both Pit Mixes)
2 Cats - Mulder (Hairball Logo Cat) and Phoebe (Both Old as dirt)

Not really a cat person.  Got them 16 years ago...probably our last cats then we'll move to fostering for our local dog rescue.
 

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Cats bury their own $hit

If a cat isn't fed it will hunt its own prey. A dog will starve.

Cats are meticulously clean. Most dogs stink.

Game over.
 
I find other people's dogs and cats both irritating, while I have never been chased by a cat while jogging,  8)

I have never been chased by a dog I couldn't make back down, once away from his home property. A couple years back I had an extended passive-agressive relationship with a dog from a few houses up the road, who would be very aggressive when I ran past his house, but would cut a wide berth around my property when he was running loose through the neighborhood.  Dogs are pretty territorial, while my neighbor's cats seem to think my yard is their yard, or just don't care. I am more worried about young, dumb, dogs following me out onto the road surface after I jog past and getting hit by a car, which would make the car driver feel bad. I have lost count of how many dead dogs I've seen in the road side ditches while jogging.

A few decades ago, I had a dog that my parents pretty much coerced me into taking off their hands. He was too much for them to handle, resulting in expensive fines from the local dog catcher every time he got loose. They were going to put him down, if I didn't take him.
sampix.jpg


Being a big softy, i had him for the last 10 years of his life. I did not replace him when his time expired. There was a stray kitten crying in my car port for almost two days before figuring out that i wasn't going to feed it, and moving on. If you feed them they won't leave. duh...

A good strategy, when approached by an aggressive dog... shush them... yell at them to shut up and be quiet... It confuses the hell out of them, because that is what their master always yells at them, so they are conditioned to reflexively react as if you might be the alpha dog. Doesn't always work but works more often than it doesn't.   

JR
 
JohnRoberts said:
A good strategy, when approached by an aggressive dog... shush them... yell at them to shut up and be quiet... It confuses the hell out of them, because that is what their master always yells at them, so they are conditioned to reflexively react as if you might be the alpha dog. Doesn't always work but works more often than it doesn't.   

As someone who has spent years in dog behavior and training environments I can tell you the best thing to do is ignore the dog completely.
 
  Love both, own a cat due to living in rental situations. She's 15 and I'll be heartbroken when she goes.
  Used to live in the wilderness above LA and once saw a coyote licking his chops and looking at her thru a fence from about 30 feet. She's very well camouflaged, and can't be seen easily when laying still on dirt or leaves. She adopted me after a roomie  got her to deal with the rodents in the cabin. They were too much for one cat.
  Living in the city now and she's convinced she can take my landlords' miniature poodle. It's too fast for her, tho.
  The great thing about living in the Angeles Nat'l Forest was you didn't need a dog. Everybody else had one, and when you went hiking, you usually took along a pack of at least 3 or more. They all had distinct personalities, and complex relationships between friends and enemies. Many funny stories there.

Bruno-
Love that image of the dog havin' a smoke!
 
For many years, referring to someone as a 'cat' has been a reflection of admiration, i.e. a 'cool cat', or a great musician who's one of the 'cats'. 

Referring to someone as a 'dog' always has negative connotations...

I love dogs as well, but a dog is never going to win this argument - cats are too independent and cool  ;D
 
Echo North said:
JohnRoberts said:
A good strategy, when approached by an aggressive dog... shush them... yell at them to shut up and be quiet... It confuses the hell out of them, because that is what their master always yells at them, so they are conditioned to reflexively react as if you might be the alpha dog. Doesn't always work but works more often than it doesn't.   

As someone who has spent years in dog behavior and training environments I can tell you the best thing to do is ignore the dog completely.
Trust me, I only deal with the ones who do not ignore me back. I haven't been bitten by a dog, since I was kid (on my paper route), and that time I was trying to run away. I learned to channel my inner alpha dog and stand my ground when it comes to confrontation, but I don't look for a fight. I have better results in close encounters if I back away while facing the dog, rather than turning and running. I can't out run a dog, so just deal with them. 

I guess I do not want to be responsible for more dead dogs in local roadside ditches. I have seen way too many. While it should not be an unexpected outcome for any owner who lets their dogs run loose, it makes the vehicle operator feel bad. 

My personal observations of dog behavior WRT stranger encounters is limited to me jogging past "their" property, generally on the opposite side of the road to reduce any perceived threat or violation of their territory. Some dogs, like my old Dalmatian, that were cultivated as coach dogs to clear livestock off of roads, are natural chasers.

I find that dogs in groups will be more excitable than when alone, and young adult dogs are far more aggressive than older dogs. Very young dogs that are still in "everybody is a friend" mode, present a different problem. These puppies, will often try to follow me, to play with me I guess... I discourage them from following me so they don't end up miles away from their home.

Young adult dogs can get violently aggressive, but this is proportionate with proximity to their perceived property borders. I ignore them as long as they stay off the road surface...  Often they will want to go out into the road surface after I pass, to bark at me in victory over my perceived retreat.. but while they do this they are not paying any attention to possible traffic coming from behind them.  If there is traffic coming either way while I am jogging past I will stop running and cross over to their side of the road to keep them in their yard and out of danger.  After traffic has passed, I can jog away and they generally stop following at their property line. 

Most dogs figure out who I am after years of my regular running past and generally don't chase me, but if their owner is around and in the yard they will put on a special show to impress their owner. In many cases a young dog will stir up older dogs to get involved, against their better instincts.

I have one particular pair of little yippee dogs that I find very irritating (used to be three of them, but one got run over by the husband in the driveway,, not very smart even for dogs). The older woman who likes to work in her yard in a wheelchair lets the dogs run loose, and the smallest lap dog chases me the hardest, with the second dog along for the ride, because I always stop and walk back to the lady so she can pick up and hold the lap dog, which is his reward for chasing me. If I just kept running the dogs would follow me beyond the property line and cause distress for the owner who can't easily chase or control them. They don't seem to understand why their dogs always chase me, but the dogs are getting rewarded with love every time they chase me, duh. I could make them stop chasing me in the blink of an eye with small switch cut from a tree branch. My Dalmatian which could have been difficult, learned quickly to respond to just he sound of the switch branch whipping through the air. My parents had trouble with him running away, but I managed to walk him without a leash for years. I think he took off on me just one time when he saw another loose dog that was too much temptation for him, and figured once he was off the reservation he was going to get disciplined anyway, so he might as well make the most of it.

I perceive a huge difference between cats and dogs but don't want to offend cat lovers. 

JR

 
Two small dogs here. My son has asthma so they don't shed. One has cancer so he'll be leaving us soon. He has been a great dog though and they're both always very happy whenever I come home so they tend to make me smile.

Ciao,
jb
 
I've had both. Now we have two cats.

For the longest time, we had two dogs (a samoyed and a cattle dog) and two cats (a tabby and a black cat) and they all got along real well. Then the tabby got taken by a coyote about four years ago. He was nearly 10 years old. Then about a year later, the samoyed, who was pushing 13, got on a downward spiral and at some point she knew she wanted to go. The cattle dog and the black cat remained best of friends (I have several pictures of the cat curled up with the dog). Two years ago the dog started having all sorts of issues and also got on that downward spiral and she realized it was time to go. She was my dog, I adopted her as a puppy and she was the most loyal and smart animal ever. She's now chasing tennis balls wherever it is that Good Dogs go.

So we were down to the one black cat, who was about 12 or 13 too.  Since the dogs were gone and the other cat was gone, the neighborhood feral cats were more aggressive about visiting our yard, so our cat decided it was simpler just to stay in the house and sleep on the couch or the nearest lap.

And on the Thanksgiving is a longhaired black cat who as a tiny feral kitten wandered into the car port. He let me feed him and pick him up, so I brought him inside and my wife's heart melted so he stayed on my lap that whole night. The old cat, who'd been declining, was suddenly perked up and was genuinely happy to have another kitten to play with. So the two of them were together until last February when one night the old cat went to sleep on his favorite chair and didn't wake up. (This presented an excellent "teachable moment" for our son, who was three at the time.)

And we had one cat for a few months. A friend had four kittens. Apparently, a mom cat wandered into our friend's yard and had four kittens. Momcat nursed the kittens until they were weaned and promptly disappeared. Our friend kept the cats in the house and socialized them and tried to find homes, including sending my wife pictures of the kittens. Finally my wife thought it would be fine to get another cat, so we let our son pick out one of the four. He picked the cat that jumped on his lap, of course. And now we have two young cats who love to chase each other and then will sit on my lap.

We are going to get another dog when our son is a little older. Dogs are fun too.
 

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