this post was submitted on 19 Jul 2024
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It really sounds like your problems are with dog owners and not the animal itself. It also sounds like your dog sucks or you're a bad owner yourself...The majority of them are VERY easy to train as millenias of domestication has made them people-pleasers.
This puppy is the first dog I've had that I've been fully responsible for training and he learned to not do all those things in the first two weeks with minimal effort. He shits in the same spot outside, doesn't pull on the leash, and only barks when he can't get to me (like if he falls asleep in the hallway and I close the door). The biggest struggle has been getting him to stop chewing on the rugs. Meanwhile, you'll never train a cat to not rip up your furniture, chew wires, or knock stuff off shelves - you just have to take steps to mitigate and live with it.
That's an insane take on their nature, too. Cats are equally "implicitly aggressive" (they famously kill birds just for fun). Do you live somewhere with only junkyards and drug dealers or something? Dogs are inherently friendly animals. Mine has met 5 cats now (introducing him early so he'll be excited when I adopt one next year) and 100% of the aggression came from the cats.
I won't try to convince anyone to get a dog - they're not for everyone - but as someone with a ton of experience with both and who loves both equally, you're wrong about what "fundamentally make[s] them dogs".
Since we're throwing shade, I should let you know that no matter how often you change the litter box, your house smells. You might not notice it but your guests do
Tbf, cat kills a bird, it's just "oh no, poor bird." But when a dog mauls a kid seems like it's sorta worse.
Also, good, be a little hunter kitty. She kills all the palmetto bugs that get in for me, she does a good job! And when she's not doing that she's laying in my lap purring like right now.
No....not good
Yes good. If you don't want to die get the fuck out of my house without permission, and them roaches didn't knock they just snuck in and made themselves at home. They can get mauled by my house tiger idgaf.
A lot of them, yes.
Yes, he's a Covid puppy who never got socialized until he was like 2.
You are on crack
Moreso than dogs I would say, but a cat can't bite my fingers off or maul kids to death. There are 5 million reported dog bites in the US per year. Do you know how bad a dog bite has to be for it to actually be reported??
When I lived with a cat I always noticed that. Bothered me a lot. If I were to get another cat I would put a lot of money and time into smell reduction, but I don't think that's going to happen because kids are in my future and Toxoplasma is real.
I'm not on crack. I volunteered at a shelter (cats/dogs) for 6 years and another shelter (cats/dogs/rabbits) for 2 more. I have a lot of experience with animals even outside of having at least one pet in my home for 95% of my life. Very few dogs are untrainable and even fewer from birth... It's usually the result of abuse or years of neglect. (ETA: only having experience with bad neighbors and one dog of your own doesn't really give you "a means to judge")
Likewise, there's very few "bad" cats - though I'd wager the percentage is higher given the prevalence of feral cats. They are MUCH less domesticated and will "revert" to being completely feral in one generation. Not a bad thing, just pointing it out.
The majority of dogs don't need to be trained to not rip a toddler's fade off and those that do are usually from breeds that were bred for aggression. Pitbulls, as much as I love them, are in that category. Golden Retrievers are not.
Hang on now, stray cats are not "bad cats," they're just wild and free, abiding by their own rules and slow to trust strangers. If you try to put them in a situation they don't like they may defend themselves, but defense != aggression nor is it "bad," it's a natural reaction to aggression like say capturing the wild kitty.
If you know what you're doing, you can even make friends with some strays, but some just don't want anything to do with you and that's ok too, I respect them.
Dogs OTOH if I see a stray I'm like "fuck am I gonna have to mace this dude?" I would rather run into a stray cat than a stray dog any day, because worst case with the cat is "it won't let me pet it" and worst case with the dog is "it tries to fight me and I have to hit it with the hot sauce."
I like some (owned) dogs fwiw, if it's cool and not half my size and jumping on me with wet ass feet, but strays and my pets it's no contest I prefer cats.
I said "bad" cats - as in "hard to train/untrainable" in the context of my comment.
The rest of your comment is also about aggression towards humans even though in my previous reply I was speaking about aggression in general but I'll respond to it anyway: Of course a tiny feral cat is less likely to square up with a human...they know they're one kick from death. Towards smaller animals, stray cats are absolutely more aggressive. Even house cats kill for fun.
None of this is admonishment (except toward owners who let their cats roam the neighborhood), by the way. I love cats. I'm just not into the toxoplasmosis-driven defending them as perfect little creatures who do no wrong
Sure cats can do wrong, but let's be real that whole "aggressive towards humans" thing isn't so easily hand waved away by saying "well cats kill small stuff." Yeah they do, but "small stuff" and "humans" are of differing levels of importance, at least to me. You may value the life of the cockroach my cat kills the same as a human a dog mauls, but imo one is clearly worse.
All right, you've moved the goalposts pretty far. A feral dog being more dangerous to humans than a cat doesn't mean they're a more inherently aggressive animal like the person I was replying to said.
I'm just saying that "aggressive" in terms of a cat vs in terms of a dog are two wildly different things. Idgaf if a cat eats a bird or a bug but I do care about people being mauled by dogs.
Hell, I eat birds too, can't get that mad at it. I don't maul people though.
Yeah...so you've moved the goalposts to counter a point I didn't make...
You're moving it again with the "I eat birds too" part. You SHOULD give a fuck about what cats do to wildlife. And to be clear, they aren't eating the birds. They're killing for fun.
Depends, owned cats kill for fun because their food needs are met, but again, if a bird gets in my house, somehow, "Get it! And don't eat it it could have parasites." It's usually bugs though. And you shouldn't let cats out that you own. Strays absolutely eat the birds, they're not pulling heists on kibble trucks, they hunt for their food. Strays however are wild animals, owls also hunt mice, it's how wild carnivores survive, it's the circle of life. Survival != aggression. And again, the point I'm making, is that even when cats are aggressive the consequences are less severe than dogs. You can refuse to acknowledge why that is relevant to the conversation all you wish but that doesn't change the fact that it is relevant.
I don't think this conversation warrants any further discussion as we just keep repeating the same things due to your refusal to accept the relevance of my point, and am declining to continue, this will be the last time I repeat myself. Good day.