Cats or Dogs?

[Just Willow]

i loove them both, but all in all, i'm a dog person. I am not allowed to own any pets, but once i'm old enough to move out and i get settled, i plan on eventually having four Australian Shepherds

[Wyndam]

You have to be careful with Australian Shepherds, or other herding dogs like English Shepherds. They aren't exactly suited for suburban home life, and are better living on a farm. They can be very protective over the smallest things (i.e. a toy) and can attack people when they get into this defensive mode. We had an English Shepherd that we had to put down because she got too territorial and mean, and even attacked me. The same thing happened to an Australian Shepherd my cousins had. Real shame since they are beautiful, smart dogs, they just aren't suited as traditional house pets.

[Just Willow]

Feb 15, 2010 22:12:53 GMT -5 Wyndam said:

You have to be careful with Australian Shepherds, or other herding dogs like English Shepherds. They aren't exactly suited for suburban home life, and are better living on a farm. They can be very protective over the smallest things (i.e. a toy) and can attack people when they get into this defensive mode. We had an English Shepherd that we had to put down because she got too territorial and mean, and even attacked me. The same thing happened to an Australian Shepherd my cousins had. Real shame since they are beautiful, smart dogs, they just aren't suited as traditional house pets.

yeah, i've heard of stuff like that, but I've worked as a dog trainer for a while and done quite a bit of research, so i think i'll be prepared.

[wenxina]

Mine's a German Shepherd/Chow mix (as far as I can tell), and she's perfectly adapted to life in an apartment with no real issues.
She hogs couches and has no qualms about hopping into beds. She's also very gentle with my roomie's cat.
However, she is very protective of her "people", and has the scariest bark I've ever heard from a dog.
She also hates other dogs. Which doesn't bother me too much... considering she was an abused animal when I got her, she's adjusted well enough.

[Jsebold87]

Here are my babies.

Buffy (just turned 11 yesterday)





Moony (he's 4 and a half)



Scooby (he's about 2 years old)



While I love all of them to death, if I had to choose between dogs and cats, I would have to choose dogs, they are much more lovey-dovey, and friendly to you 24/7. Cats on the other hand are only lovey-dovey when they want to be, and can get into quite pissy moods, lol. Dogs are more cuddly and friendly animals.

[Tea - Total]

Dogs rock.

[Eric]

I don't know why people always say dogs are more affectionate than cats. My little kitty cat loves me, but the dog, eh, not so much.

[Jsebold87]

My cats are affectionate, when they want to be, lol. But my dog is constantly affectionate. I'm sure it just depends on the animal.

[wenxina]

Litter boxes are the worst! With dogs, it's a quick bag-and-trash experience. With cats, it's litter everywhere coz they kick, and clumps and clumps of really foul-smelling kitty muck. Ack!

[BenTaylor3907]

Feb 17, 2010 2:06:13 GMT -5 wenxina said:

Litter boxes are the worst! With dogs, it's a quick bag-and-trash experience. With cats, it's litter everywhere coz they kick, and clumps and clumps of really foul-smelling kitty muck. Ack!

That's why you buy a cover/dome with filters for your litter box. ;D

[Jsebold87]

I've trained my cats to go to the bathroom outside. One is totally dependent on going outside, he never uses the litter box any more. The other one uses both outside and the litter box. But it makes for an easier job of cleaning the litter box.

[wenxina]

Feb 17, 2010 2:27:27 GMT -5 BenTaylor3907 said:

Feb 17, 2010 2:06:13 GMT -5 wenxina said:

Litter boxes are the worst! With dogs, it's a quick bag-and-trash experience. With cats, it's litter everywhere coz they kick, and clumps and clumps of really foul-smelling kitty muck. Ack!

That's why you buy a cover/dome with filters for your litter box. ;D

You tell my roomie that. I catsit whenever she's out of town, and that cat pees and poops more than I've ever seen my dog go. And it's the cleaning out the box part that sucks... I can kinda hold my breath for a while, so that's what I usually do.

[Wyndam]

My cat is pretty old now (15 years), and she used to go outside fine, but in the last 2 years or so she'd just start going in our garage (especially in the winter when we store our large potted plants), so we bought her a litterbox. Thing is though...she eats soft food now and her digestion isn't exactly stellar. I'll just say that cleaning her litterbox is one of the low, looooow points of my week.

[hitnrun017]

Thank god both my cats are outdoor cats then, cuz blegh. They just go in and out my window. Always petrified when I see them cross the street though, one of my worst fears is for them to get hit. One of them even goes on walks with my dogs and I at night, They can be fun sometimes.

[wenxina]

Just in case this got lost in my first post... I'm not like death to all cats. I won't even be mean to one. I just don't like them as much. They're sweet when they want to be... but mean little buggers at the drop of a hat. Same can probably be said about some dogs, but I've never had a bad encounter with a dog yet. I have been bitten and clawed by cats.

[hitnrun017]

Why can't dogs and cats just be accepted equally?



Note: After I took this picture she latched onto his skull and bit his face... but still, it's pretty damn symbolic.

[BenTaylor3907]

I was attacked by a Pitbull once. Tore my side up pretty good. I needed stitches and whatnot. I didn't blame him (Norton the Pitbull) though. He belonged to my friend's grandparents and my friend pushed me toward him and Norton got scared and attacked. Norton was put down a couple years later for supposedly attacking a little kid.

[SlayerLV]

It's hard for me to decide since I've grown up with both cats and dogs at the same time.

[Beaumonde]

I've only ever had one bad experience with a dog. A big german shepherd decided to attach itself to one of my dogs necks so I had to kick it off. The owners didn't even do anything.

I took one of my sisters dogs because her neighbours threw hot oil over the fence and it scarred his side, and they absolutely hated him for no reason. He was aggressive to strangers and protective of us at first, but now he's grown out of it. Although he's still really protective when we're in the house.

Atleast cats aren't as ferocious or scary when they're clawing your arms to shreds.

[Jsebold87]

Feb 17, 2010 14:30:09 GMT -5 hitnrun017 said:

Thank god both my cats are outdoor cats then, cuz blegh. They just go in and out my window. Always petrified when I see them cross the street though, one of my worst fears is for them to get hit. One of them even goes on walks with my dogs and I at night, They can be fun sometimes.

I get the same way. Luckily our street is pretty light on traffic, and one of my cats stays in the yard mostly (he pretty much just sits on the fence and goes about as far as our neighbours yard. The other one, I know goes much further though, and it really worries me. Once when we going to the store we saw him cross the road right in front of us about 6 blocks away from home. God did that ever scare the hell out of me. He's not fixed (or whatever it's called for boy cats), but he's getting that done this year so hopefully he will quit roaming so far.

My dog will also run across the street if she ever gets out of the backyard without a leash. About 3 years ago she darted across the street after another dog, and a car was coming and the car barely stopped in time, the bumper nudged her slightly, but she kept running towards the dog, it didn't seem to scare her at all. Me on the other hand, was running towards her to try to catch her, and stopped when I saw the car coming (I was still far away), and covered my mouth with both my hands because I thought she was a goner. If that driver hadn't been watching the road she would have been killed. That is one of the scariest experiences I've ever had.