Why so much variability among dogs but not cats?

[BvBPL]

'cause cats droll and dogs rule.

 

[The_J]

I don't know if this would be helpful or not, it's about the domestication of silver foxes. One thing that might be of interest is that the domesticated foxes behave like dogs and started to show physical traits found in dogs such as a curled up tail.

http://www.wildlifeonline.me.uk/red_fox.html#domestication

That's interesting within the context that foxes are closer related to dog than to cats. Their genetic makeup might be as "simple" and easily manipulable (inbreeding) as it is for dogs (but I guess this is not a focus of research, but would actually be interesting).

 

[Valka D'Ur]

There's probably a genuine truth to that. Until they became pets, which was quite recent in the grand scheme of things, cats were mousers, and nature had almost perfected them in that role. We expected dogs, in contrast, to perform a wide range of quite specific jobs, even within the dog's natural domains of "hunting" and "yelling at stuff", so we had to go tinkering with them to get the results we wanted.

My family has had three beagles, and they were all different. The first was scared of loud noises, and my dad gave up in disgust at teaching him anything. The second was an extremely gentle dog, and got along well with the other family pets. He and my Siamese cat were best friends. The third? She'd hunt anything. She was an excellent mouser, and thank goodness the neighbor who had a hobby farm never realized that it was my dog killing his small birds, and not bobcats and coyotes.

We had a terrypoo (terrier/poodle cross) who basically decided to become a "hearing-ear" dog, both for his first owner (my great-uncle) and for the aforementioned beagle we had who got along with everyone. As Snoopy aged, he basically went deaf (could only hear short, sharp sounds) and Tuffy would tag along with him outside to give him a nudge when we wanted Snoopy to stop barking. Snoopy couldn't hear us, but he knew that when Tuffy nudged him, it was time to shut up and go back inside.

 

[Zardnaar]

Dogs are more prone to mutation and have been domesticated a lot longer than cats (perhaps 100 000 years vs 10 000).

 

[caketastydelish]

'cause cats droll and dogs rule.

Dogs literally do droll. Cat's don't. Cat's pee and poop in a litter box. Dogs don't. Dogs have been much more known to kill people, or at least seriously hurt them.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

That's interesting within the context that foxes are closer related to dog than to cats. Their genetic makeup might be as "simple" and easily manipulable (inbreeding) as it is for dogs (but I guess this is not a focus of research, but would actually be interesting).

Their breeding was done in a tightly controlled scientific experiment. As far as I know, the only trait they were attempting to breed in was friendliness and the other traits sort of came as a side effect. This was the effect I was alluding when I mentioned that domesticating large cats probably wouldn't result in particularly dangerous animals.

I don't know though how universal it is with mammals to retain juvenile traits after domestication. It may be canine specific but I thought I read an argument somewhere that humans show many juvenile hominid characteristics - in other words we may have domesticated ourselves.

 

[Traitorfish]

Wait, does that mean that beards are just nature's consolation prize?

...Honestly, yeah, when you look at a silverback gorilla, who's built like two c.1975 Schwarzeneggers welded together but his workout routine consists of sitting and frowning at things for sixteen hours a day, I've got believe that's true.

 

[Lohrenswald]

No offense but I feel like this may be a mental disorder.

If you're serious I take offense to it

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I hate dogs and cats

the kind of pets you hold in cages I feel are kinda boring and kinda unethically held

Birds aren't boring, especially small parrots. You can keep them locked in a cage if you want, but in my experience it is generally better to leave the cage open most of the day. If you keep the cage closed all the time then they will probably try to escape at the first opportunity, but if you keep it open a lot they don't feel captive and lose interest in leaving their homes.

 

[Oerdin]

Cats are much more awesome than dogs too. It's hard to improve upon cats.

How about a cat that doesn't infect humans with brain control paracites? That would be a major improvement. Don't believe me? Google toxoplasmosis.

 

[Broken_Erika]

Dogs literally do droll. Cat's don't. ......

My cat drools, scratch her just in the right spot and she slobbers all over the place.

 

[Oerdin]

When I was a teenager a girl I dated had a cat that drooled. It is a kitten behavior (kittens drool as they nurse milk from theor mothers) which shouldn't normallt be found in an adult cat.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Cats do drool, but rarely like dogs. It generally takes special circumstances. We've had a few over many years.

 

[Zkribbler]

... or a 50lb 4 foot long lapcat?

How about a 500-pound lion or a 70mph cheetah?

 

[Berzerker]

bad news for cats, new study says up to 2 billion people are infected with a feline parasite via feces that may cause all sorts of diseases

 

[MilesGregarius]

...a 50lb 4 foot long lapcat?

Wouldn't that simply be a domesticated lynx?

 

[Berzerker]

I think a cougar jumped on my truck... I was up in the Sierra Nevadas and had a blanket over the cab for insulation (wow, that worked great) so I couldn't see out, but something big landed on top of the cab. It walked down the windshield and I hit the glass with my fist a few times to let him know the cave was occupied

 

[Valka D'Ur]

How about a cat that doesn't infect humans with brain control paracites? That would be a major improvement. Don't believe me? Google toxoplasmosis.

You pretty much have to take deep breaths over the litter box or allow your cat to go just anywhere, for this to be a serious problem. Pregnant women have to be extra careful, and other people should just use common sense.

bad news for cats, new study says up to 2 billion people are infected with a feline parasite via feces that may cause all sorts of diseases

How about a link?

If people take appropriate precautions - such as not actually handling the feces with their bare hands, allowing the cat to go just anywhere it wants, or breathing in big gulps of air over the litter box - they should be safe. Pregnant women should not clean litter boxes.

I always wear gloves when I clean the litter box, and wash very thoroughly afterward. The litter is kept sealed, and I replace the litter boxes themselves periodically.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

Also dogs are much smarter than cats and can be trained.

Cats and Dogs have very similiar cognitive abilities, saying one is inherently smarter is, well, dumb. Both are capable of episodic memory, and for both is does not go any farther. Some scientists say that episodic memory is essentially the root of introspection, implying Cats and Dogs could, given the time, even develop consciousness.

The reason why people think dogs are smarter is because they are easily trained, which of course is a false equivalency. There was a recent study on this if you are interested:

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38665057

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/25/cats-dogs-equally-intelligent-new-research/

probably cus you can't teach cats to be docile and to follow your commands that well, so it'd be too dangerous to bread huge versions of them. They'd probably kill you at some point out of boredom or spite. Or pee in your bed and drown you cus they got mad you ignored them. Or something.

Meanwhile we can have gigantic great danes and they are perfectly passive. Or vicious but insanely loyal other breads. Dogs have the physical tools to be dangerous but the temperaments to be controlled.

Come on, man. You are just anthropomorphising (spelling?) cats here, no cat has ever killed out of "boredom or spite", because cats don't know spite. They do have feelings, but they do not share these concepts with us.

In most cases where pets kill their owners. it's the owners that screwed up really, really bad. There are oh so many cases of lethal Pitbull or Rottweiler attacks in the states, so your theory about dogs being more docile is hardly right. If anything dogs are more lethal, because those types of dogs mentioned earlier have often been trained to go right for the throat while a big cat has different defensive measures. It would probably maul you to death or something, I'm not an expert.

In the end animals are still animals.. A family dog that has been loyal for ten years can snap in an instant if it feels really threatened or stressed out, or both. Same goes for cats.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

It's probably a paradox.