PunBB

My dog Willow asked me to conduct a poll of hipbasers to find out if the cat clan has replaced the dog clan as mans best friend.

Now I had a cat which sadly died (poisoned we think) and while my defences were down I somehow ended up agreeing to getting a dog from a friend of a friend who couldn't look after it any more ( I was on nightshifts that weeks, so was sleep deprived..)

We now have an 18 month Midget Labrador retriever who seems to have forgotten about the whole retriever thing unless you remind him. He also has a knack of sitting on train tracks, toy cars, scaelextric tracks, plates and cups, feet, the baby and basically anywhere that will trip you up. The fact that he is jet black has caused some potentially lethal toilet trips in the middle of the night.

So as a result. I am a cat person.

D
(and every coat I now own has dog biscuits and poo bags in the pocket. Didn't need that for a cat!!)

Used to like cats when I was 10 years old. Then I began being allergic to them. Now I can't stand them. I've actually come to hate them - but then again, I'm a little mental.

Dogs all the way.

I dont hate cats, but I would never own one.

Dogs rule, especially mine.

(see avatar)

:thumb:

I don't dislike dogs, but having lots of cats in the family I've become more of a cat person. At one point, our family had seven cats living with us. Dogs are great for walks and rough-housing with, but cats are great for cuddling!

It's all about the dogs
(I've never heard of a guard cat, or a seeing eye cat)

farmerdan69 Wrote:It's all about the dogs
(I've never heard of a guard cat, or a seeing eye cat)

Then again, cats won't piss and shit all over the carpet if you aren't there to let them out. They function just fine independantly, with little maintenance. Dogs require constant attention and interaction....kind of like a petulant child.

And the neighbor's cats don't keep me awake at night and disrupt my reading or TV viewing.

And most cats, themselves, are odorless, while many dogs just plain stink, and leave that stink all over you and your furniture.

And rarely, if ever, does a cat soil your clothes by jumping on you against your wishes. Dogs do so with regularity.

And I have never seen my cat, or any other cat, for that matter, "hump" a houseguest.

And cats don't upend the garbage can and and drag its contents all over the house.

And if a housecat "begs" for the food you are eating, it's usually much less annoying than a dog, who will often just "take" your food if you aren't watching.

A cat in the room can often go unnoticed, while a dog insists upon making his presence known.

~~~~~

I guess the upshot of all of this is: cats make far better indoor pets, yet still do little to menace your neighbors outside the house.



"I'm the shit, bitches"

The Horrible Esthete Wrote:

farmerdan69 Wrote:It's all about the dogs
(I've never heard of a guard cat, or a seeing eye cat)

Then again, cats won't piss and shit all over the carpet if you aren't there to let them out. They function just fine independantly, with little maintenance. Dogs require constant attention and interaction....kind of like a petulant child.

And the neighbor's cats don't keep me awake at night and disrupt my reading or TV viewing.

And most cats, themselves, are odorless, while many dogs just plain stink, and leave that stink all over you and your furniture.

And rarely, if ever, does a cat soil your clothes by jumping on you against your wishes. Dogs do so with regularity.

And I have never seen my cat, or any other cat, for that matter, "hump" a houseguest.

And cats don't upend the garbage can and and drag its contents all over the house.

And if a housecat "begs" for the food you are eating, it's usually much less annoying than a dog, who will often just "take" your food if you aren't watching.

A cat in the room can often go unnoticed, while a dog insists upon making his presence known.

lol, thats funny

my dogs don't piss and shit all over the carpets, they can go all day without someone letting them out. They can hold it until someone comes home.

My buddy was telling me yesterday that his neighbors cat caused him to only get 45 minutes of sleep 2 nights ago.

The smell, maybe, I don't notice it, maybe to someone without dogs, you can pick it up.

If you train a dog (like my 3) you wouldnt have a problem of them jumping on you/your guests.

My dogs don't hump anything (even though only 1 is male)
If that's a problem, get them fixed.

The garbage thing, I've heard that problem before, but here's a simple trick. Have a lid for the garbage can. It seems simple enough, but works really well.

Begging, my dogs know better, and if they even come close to me while I'm eating, a simple look will get them to go lie down somewhere else. This is also due to proper training.

As for wanting to be the centre of attention, my two Sheltie (females) could care less about guests in our house.
The male on the other hand, is an attention whore, but that's a trait that most dogs of his breed have(golden retriever).

Anyways, maybe the dogs you've come into contact with, haven't been trained properly, I don't know. But don't generalize all dogs because of some of the misconceptions you may have.

Esthete, every single negative canine behaviour trait you describe is easily dealt with by proper training.

The problem is not with dogs in general, but with owners who don't train them properly.

The only negative thing I can say about dogs is that they're a lot of work, because you have to continually attend to their training. But a properly trained dog is a better companion than a cat, which is essentially an intractable eating machine whose filthy, litter-box paws can't be kept off the kitchen counter when you're out of the house.

The Horrible Esthete Wrote:I guess the upshot of all of this is: cats make far better indoor pets, yet still do little to menace your neighbors outside the house.

Nah, the upshot is that if you've taken the time to properly train your dog, dogs are the far better pets, period. Of all the things you've listed, my 7 year old yellow lab hasn't done one of them since she was a pup.

I just don't understand the point of cats.

farmerdan69 Wrote:My dogs don't hump anything (even though only 1 is male)
If that's a problem, get them fixed.

This is a dominance behaviour, which is why your properly-trained dogs don't display it. A dog that humps your leg is asserting that he's the boss of you -- which is why female dogs do it, too.

I suppose i should chime in on this one... The past couple of weeks, the neighbours have been calling my place telling us to keep our black lab "Nimby" out of their yards. Apparently he had been jumping on little kids, and there were threats of lawsuits and shooting the dog in our front yard. So as an alternative we were forced to call the animal control man, and have him take away Nimby from us this afternoon (he puts them in a kennel or sells them to other families without retarded neighbours). Luckily we had only had this dog for about 4 months, so I hadn't grown attached to him very much, as my only contact with him was attempting to escape his nasty leglock, or jump out of the way to avoid a nip in the pants...
My family has had at least one cat from the time I was 7 (sometimes our cat totals have been up to 22 at a time (all outdoor though)). We have had some very nice cats in the past that we have grown very close to namely "Chinstrap" who was a lovely black n' white cat who jumped for bologna when dangled above his head...
I voted as being more of a cat guy, because cats do not give as much hassle as dogs, and for the fact that I have been around cats all of my life.

farmerdan69 Wrote:Anyways, maybe the dogs you've come into contact with, haven't been trained properly, I don't know. But don't generalize all dogs because of some of the misconceptions you may have.

Of course they are generalizations, but they are not misconceptions. ALL dogs aren't GOOD dogs. I like certain dogs, but in general, I don't like dogs as much as I like cats, for the reasons I mentioned, plus others.

Y'all are right that, with proper training, many poor dog behaviors can be eliminated. But we can only control our own pets, not those of anyone else.

It's that same old issue of personal responsibility in our society. Some people are responsible; they live an honest life, raise good children, and do things like train their pets and keep their property in good keep. Others just don't give a shit, and these jackasses are the ones who are responsible for why I have a general distaste for "dogs", beyond my personal bias towards cats as pets.

I am indifferent towards other people's cats. This factors into why I like cats so much -- they require little maintenance and no schooling. They don't rely upon humans to develop their behavior, which is good, because many humans can't exhibit good behavior either. Cats with negligent owners have no impact on my life.

Of course, growing up in a rural area I never was annoyed by other's dogs. But in my current neighborhood -- and every other "neighborhood" in which I've ever lived -- the dogs are the noisemakers, not the cats. Sure, we've all heard a cat growling or shrieking late at night, but please.....I'm going to laugh at any claim which states that cats annoy neighbors to the level that dogs do.

I never find myself mowing through piles of cat shit in my yard. It's always dog shit that's pressed into my shoe treads. It's a smelly pain in my ass, and enrages me against it's anonymous owner. I don't care if it wasn't your dog. -- it was someones dog.

We all have personal reasons why we prefer one over the other, but beyond that, there are some general truths which have further influnced me....

I have a cat. Not because I like cats, but because my wife likes dogs, but couldn't have a dog because she lived in a small apartment, so she got a cat. Now I have a cat. I like my cat (in fact, despite what follows, I love my cat), but I don't really like cats per se. In general, cats are cold and self-absorbed. They are also nasty motherfuckers with retractable claws and skin-piercing teeth. My cat is the exception to this rule, except for all the pejorative parts.

I don't have a dog because, well, why would I own something that I'm scared to death of.

Here's a tip for dog people when non-dog people come over to your house -- This applies if your dog is anything other than a purse-sized mini-dog: we don't care that he's just being friendly, please don't let him jump on us, because there is a chance we will shit our pants in your foyer.

ct

The Horrible Esthete Wrote:I never find myself mowing through piles of cat shit in my yard.

You're obviously not a gardener. In my old condo, the garden was continually full of cat shit. My neighbour took to trapping people's cats in a live trap and turning them in to the pound. Two doors down, two kids got seriously sick as a result of cat shit in their sand box.

I like cats, but I have no time for other people's cats in my yard. I nail them with a squirt from the hose whenever I can. They learn.