Sunday, November 24, 2024
Are You a Cat Person or a Dog Person?
Published: Mar 31, 2015
Category: Intelligence
As I write this, I'm surrounded. An elderly Welsh corgi sleeps at my feet, legs poking straight up as he snores. A middle-aged boxer drowses in an easy chair. And a young(ish) boxer sits on the window seat, looking at me reproachfully because I haven't thrown him a toy for at least 45 minutes.
I am a dog person, which is why some recent research I stumbled across has been bugging me: A psychology researcher at Carroll University in Wisconsin looked at the differences between cat and dog owners and found that—ouch!—cat people are more intelligent. They're also more likely to be nonconformist, open-minded and sensitive. Dog people, while livelier, more energetic and outgoing, are also more prone to follow the rules than to be free thinkers.
It's not that I don't like cats—I do. I grew up with cats, and even adopted a couple, until one of my kids developed allergies. But as someone who spends more time than I care to admit talking to my dogs (it's both the curse and joy of working from home) I have to admit that I much prefer their boisterous clatter, and the way they rush to greet me when I walk in the door, whether I've been gone for a whole day or just ran out for the mail.
Dogs are, more or less, my life change mascots. My kids are college-age now, young adults out living their own lives. And I suppose that in some ways, the dogs are their replacements. But not really. What makes dogs so great is that they're very unlike people. They adore me endlessly, as opposed to cats, who only occasionally find me interesting.
In case you're keeping score, dogs are slightly ahead in the numbers: the American Veterinary Medical Association reports that 36.5% of American households are dog people, owning an average of 1.6 dogs. And while fewer families have felines—30.4%—they're more inclined to own a clowder of cats (or a pounce of kittens) with an average of 2.1 per household.
It makes me wonder: If cat people are indeed smarter than us dog people, are cats smarter than dogs? It's hard to say. Cats are about the least cooperative research animals out there (which may prove that they are even brainier than we think).
But for me, I keep clinging to one of my favorite lines from Fargo last season, when a character referred to two exceptionally stupid thugs as "dumb as a dog's foot."
I get it. It's the thing I may love most about them.
I am a dog person, which is why some recent research I stumbled across has been bugging me: A psychology researcher at Carroll University in Wisconsin looked at the differences between cat and dog owners and found that—ouch!—cat people are more intelligent. They're also more likely to be nonconformist, open-minded and sensitive. Dog people, while livelier, more energetic and outgoing, are also more prone to follow the rules than to be free thinkers.
It's not that I don't like cats—I do. I grew up with cats, and even adopted a couple, until one of my kids developed allergies. But as someone who spends more time than I care to admit talking to my dogs (it's both the curse and joy of working from home) I have to admit that I much prefer their boisterous clatter, and the way they rush to greet me when I walk in the door, whether I've been gone for a whole day or just ran out for the mail.
Dogs are, more or less, my life change mascots. My kids are college-age now, young adults out living their own lives. And I suppose that in some ways, the dogs are their replacements. But not really. What makes dogs so great is that they're very unlike people. They adore me endlessly, as opposed to cats, who only occasionally find me interesting.
In case you're keeping score, dogs are slightly ahead in the numbers: the American Veterinary Medical Association reports that 36.5% of American households are dog people, owning an average of 1.6 dogs. And while fewer families have felines—30.4%—they're more inclined to own a clowder of cats (or a pounce of kittens) with an average of 2.1 per household.
It makes me wonder: If cat people are indeed smarter than us dog people, are cats smarter than dogs? It's hard to say. Cats are about the least cooperative research animals out there (which may prove that they are even brainier than we think).
But for me, I keep clinging to one of my favorite lines from Fargo last season, when a character referred to two exceptionally stupid thugs as "dumb as a dog's foot."
I get it. It's the thing I may love most about them.