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Why don’t dogs like cats? You asked Google – here’s the answer

Do dogs not like cats? maybe it should be “cats don’t like dogs” since it’s usually the cat that ends up running away (not always, there are some cowardly dogs out there). but both statements are generally true: most cats don’t seem to have much time for dogs and dogs are generally happy to chase anything that runs away, be it a cat or a squirrel. That’s not to say that a cat and dog can’t make friends or become part of each other’s extended “family,” but they would have to work at it. or rather, we (their owners) would.

There must be some truth to the phrase “fight like cat and dog.” it has certainly been in common use for over a century, and may be much older than that. nowadays it’s rare to see a real cat and a real dog engage in more than a brief skirmish, so how did the phrase come to be?

like so many aphorisms, it’s something of an anachronism. even as recently as the 19th century, dogs and especially cats were not as well cared for as they are today. both were allowed to roam the streets, and in considerable numbers, as there was little control over the rate at which they spawned (other than the river/shadow sack lore).

Competition over scarce food scraps would have led to frequent fights. A dispute between two dogs is often resolved without an actual fight, as dogs have inherited a sophisticated set of signals from their pack-dwelling ancestor, the wolf, that allows them to signal their intention to back off if they feel their opponent it’s too scary. Descended from solitary predators with little need for face-to-face communication, cats lack such abilities and are generally much more circumspect than dogs when deciding whether or not to join a fight. evolution hasn’t given either species the ability to communicate with each other, so hand-to-hand fighting is more or less inevitable when neither is prepared to flee.

their fighting styles are also completely different: cats prefer to use their sharp claws (which stay that way because they are sheathed when not needed), while dogs, who continually blunt their claws using them for traction when running , they persistently try to bring their teeth and powerful jaws into play. they both like to intimidate their opponent verbally, barking (dog), meowing, hissing and spitting (cat), and growling (both). as a result, once a feud has started between the two, they are often loud and protracted affairs that can attract a lot of attention.

so cats and dogs are natural enemies? well, they probably were once. in terms of their relationship to humanity, cats are the interlopers. Dogs were originally domesticated by our hunter-gatherer ancestors at least 15,000 years ago, possibly longer. No one knows if they were “man’s best friends” in those early days, but by the time cats appeared, they already had an important role in our lives, hunting alongside us, guarding our homes, herding our flocks, and even keeping us warm at night.

Cats started hanging around our homes around 10,000 years ago, but that was pure opportunism: by that point in (pre)history, our habit of storing food had led to the emergence of the house mouse as a serious pest. there is little evidence that humans actually like cats (other than, presumably, appreciating the benefits of a mouse-free barn) for another 4,000 years, when the ancient Egyptians began leaving tangible evidence of their affection, e.g. providing elaborate burials, complete with a symbolic bowl of milk, for favorite cats. before that, dogs would have had the upper hand for thousands of years, cared for by their owners to an extent that very few cats would have enjoyed.

So, there’s no level playing field for cats, but what would the consequences have been? In the first place, the competition for edible garbage might have been quite one-sided, with dogs having the upper hand when people were around. the cats would have had to rely on their natural agility to stay out of trouble, as I saw when I was studying wild cats in a Turkish village. one year, cats were everywhere, making a good living cajoling gullible tourists (myself included). the following year a pack of dogs roamed the streets and the cats seemed to have vanished, or so I thought until I was able to survey the town from above and saw that the cats had simply moved into the main part. flat roofs, and presumably ventured out for food at night, when the dogs were sleeping.

More seriously (and skip this part if you have a sensitive disposition), the dogs would have posed a significant risk to the kitties. mother cats have to leave their nests to go hunting, and a hungry dog ​​is not picky about what he eats. therefore, the cats would have gone to great lengths to not only hide their kittens as safely as possible, but also to instill as much fear as possible in the neighborhood dogs.

Therefore, cats and dogs have a grim evolutionary backstory, one that even today hasn’t been fully shaken. the dogs keep chasing the cats and given the right motivation, the cats will turn and try to fight them.

The good news is that such enmity is far from inevitable, given the way cats and dogs learn the difference between friend and foe. this is part, and possibly no more than a side effect, of the way domestication has changed the way their brains develop. Both puppies and kittens go through what is called a “socialization period,” when they learn not only who their mothers are and how to behave around other members of their own species, but also that humans are not to be feared. it’s just the lack of (gentle) contact with people during the first formative months of their lives that leads feral cats (and dogs) to develop a lifelong distrust of humans.

It’s fairly easy to hijack this process so that a dog is included on a kitten’s good company list and vice versa for a puppy. you’ll need a dog-friendly cat for the latter, or a cat-friendly dog ​​for the former. simply being around other species, without unpleasant consequences, during the sensitive period (4-8 weeks for kittens, 5-12 weeks for puppies) is usually enough. I’ve had cats and dogs together all my life with no adverse consequences to either, and some have become best friends: I’ll never forget the sight of two kittens, brother and sister, vying for a snuggle position against my Labrador

Unfortunately, once a cat has decided it hates dogs, or a dog has come to enjoy chasing every cat it sees (especially greyhound racing), these habits will require very patient training to reverse.

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