I know many will beg to differ, but cats are better than dogs, and I have proof.
Almost anything you can teach a dog to do, you can teach a cat to as well. I have done such so-called unrealistic tasks and taught my cat, after almost 10 years of having him, to sit, stand, roll over, lay down, follow my point and stay.
I would not be surprised if many of you would like to call my bluff, so the cover photo is him standing.
This training all started when my sister or I would go out to water our garden, and he would find a way to tag along (no matter how hard we tried to stop him). Eventually this led to me unintentionally training him to stay and follow my point and command to go inside, and he would do just that.
After being inspired by this, I wanted to train him to do other things, although my parents wouldn’t let me. They were under the common belief that cats couldn’t be trained.
Two months ago, I said too bad to my dad and began training my wonderful baby boy, Percy, giving cat gogurt as a reward.
After just two days of fairly inconsistent practice, I decided to try it without a reward. He did so well, I started showing it off to my parents (my dad was shocked, but not impressed).
What changed my dad’s stance was when I showed him the stay and go inside commands.
He was never a fan of Percy going outside, since he was declawed when he chose us and has since been an exclusively indoor cat, and so when my sister and I would “accidently” let him out, we would keep it a secret. However, after seeing his responsiveness my dad began to care less about Percy going outside.
In addition to spectacular tricks, cats are proven to be more intelligent through studies from Britannica, yet “cats are rarely studied in behavioral labs.” They also are shown to care less.
Dogs, on the other hand, will always obey what you ask, having a higher social intelligence than cats. They also don’t take up a lot of room, can withstand separation and clean themselves.
Cats have 200 million scent receptors, way more than dogs who on average have about 100 million, can interpret more smells and distinguish them. This helps cats smell when their human is stressed, in addition to their ability to understand facial expressions, as noted by the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Physiology and Behavior Unit at University of Bari, Italy.
Did I mention they poop IN A BOX??