Gordaen’s Blog

People tend to favor whichever type of pet they grew up with and hold complete ignorance of the other type. Cat owners think dogs bark excessively. Dog owners think you can’t play with cats. Both are true in some circumstances, so I thought I’d go through a short list of differences.

Noise
Personally, I prefer a meow over a bark. Most dogs are bigger than most cats, which means most dogs are noisier. Cats +1

Food
Cats eat less than dogs, which is a plus, but many dogs will eat the extras off your dinner plate (assuming they wait until you are actually finished, that’s a good thing), so that can save you money. Tie

Hygiene
Cats are constantly cleaning themselves, which means you generally don’t have sayings like “you smell like a wet cat” or “yuck, cat breath!” The downside can be hairballs, but that depends on the cat and whether you brush it regularly. Dogs generally end up stinking, which means you have to (unless you like the stench) wash them. Dogs can be taken out walking so they can “do their business” whereas cats have litter boxes. If you’re a good dog owner, you clean up after your dog, just as a good cat owner cleans the litter box regularly. Tie

Play
This has to be the biggest point that people who have never owned a cat make. “You can’t play with a cat,” they say. If it’s a 15-year-old cat, I agree; however, you can definitely play with younger cats. Cats love to play with balls, strings, feathers, and just about anything else (just add some catnip!). Dog owners often don’t think of that as “playing” with a cat (yet standing around throwing a stick and having the dog bring it back is “playing?”), so that’s when you break out the laser pointer. Cats go absolutely nuts chasing the dot around.

The dog version of playing is generally one of three things: fetch, tearing apart a toy, or wrestling. A lot of dogs will lock their jaw on any toy they have so you can play tug-o’-war and some dogs will wrestle with you. I have to say that either animal can play; it’s just a matter of what kind of playing you prefer. Tie

Cost
This is one of those points that cats generally win just because of their size. It’s usually cheaper to adopt and to own a cat than it is to own a dog. Breed is also less of an issue. Cats +1

Training
Both animals can be a pain to train depending on the behavior of the particular pet, but neither is better or worse. Most people know how to train a dog and cats are trained with a squirt gun or water bottle. Tie

Trouble
If you don’t train a cat early on, it will think it can scratch anything. Fortunately, it’s easy to get a scratching post and some catnip (and spray the cat with water if it scratches anything else). Dogs can be quite a bit more trouble. They like to tear up shoes and other similar-sized objects. One of my previous roommates had a dog that actually chewed up some of my tubes of acrylic paints. Size also comes into this one because a dog is more likely to knock something over. Both animals are usually good with kids, but a cat is more likely to be gentle or run away, whereas some dogs will attack children (it’s not often that you hear about a cat attacking a neighbor for no reason). Some dogs also bark excessively, which can get you in trouble with neighbors. Cats +1

Intelligence
I love to hear pet owners trying to say how smart their pets are. “My cat pushed the box over and then used it to jump to the table.” “My dog brings me my slippers in the morning.” “I taught my bird how to swear!” Let’s go outside the box for a minute. Do you regard people (in general) as intelligent? Personally, I think the average person is dumb. Half of everyone you meet is below average. Animals are less intelligent than people. No matter how smart your animal is, it is still not intelligent. Tie

Jobs
Dogs can actually have jobs (seeing-eye dogs for instance), but cats are pretty satisfied killing mice and bugs and that’s about it. Not all dogs have jobs, but I’m still giving them a point for it. Dogs +1

Other thoughts
Cats tend to be softer than dogs, which may or may not be worth a point to you. Maintenance level depends on the pet itself. You can leave either kind for a few days without trouble, but beyond that depends on the pet (and perhaps the size of the litter bucket!).

Overall, cats win 3 to 1, but it really depends on what you want from a pet. If you like taking walks with a pet, then that might make dogs a better choice, but if you don’t like doing that, then you might be leaning toward cats. If you want a pet that can replace your garbage disposal, a dog might be a better choice. If you want a self-cleaning pet, go with a cat.