10 Reasons Why Dogs Are Better Than Cats: Science-Backed Benefits of Canine Companionship

The age-old debate of dogs versus cats often sparks passionate arguments. While both pets offer unique joys, dogs hold distinct advantages rooted in their evolutionary history, social nature, and ability to enhance human well-being. This article explores 10 science-backed reasons why dogs are better than cats, addresses common questions, and provides insights for prospective pet owners.

Dogs have evolved alongside humans for over 15,000 years, developing an unparalleled ability to read human emotions and gestures. Studies show they can interpret facial expressions, understand pointing cues, and even sense mood changes—traits cats lack. Their social intelligence makes them ideal companions for emotional support and therapy.

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that cat also took over my intended-study room.
I was busy setting up a large room (about 300 sq ft) to be my study. because it was in a cool spot. I had made mama cat and her five kitties a nice cat house on the back porch.
while we were fixing up the room, in comes mama cat carrying one of her kits. she places the kit in a nice comfy recessed spot and looks up and meows at me. then she walks out again. I figured the kittie belonged with mama so I gently picked it up and was about to carry it out to the patio cathouse when mama cat came in carrying little kittie number 2. and so it went. she moved her entire family indoors. I did try removing them all together back to their cat house on the porch but to no avail, mama cat just started carrying her tiny little kitties inside again.
she raised her kitties in the study room. she trained them from the start (not one kittie ever went to the bathroom on the floor, she had them using the litter box right away). she was training them how to defend themselves. when they were big enough, she showed them how to jump up to the cat door we had installed for her to go in and out. soon, all five kitties were assembled with mama cat on the patio and she was training them about the outside world. the lay of the land. how to go back indoors. more self-defense. what a field mouse was. what a bird was. what the neighbor’s big dog was. and so it went, we had the privilege of watching this home-schooling enterprise for about 7 months. then, mamacat started hissing at her kitties. she had taught them everything they needed to know. it was time for kitties to leave the nest and set up territories, homes of their own. the kitties were confused.. why didn’t mamacat like them anymore. but gradually, 3 left. the last 2 decided to stay and would NOT let mamacat chase them away (as she was then trying to do). I guess the turkey and chicken and $43 fancy kibble and tunafish and salmon here were just too good to give up. Chances were they could not do better anywhere else. So, they stayed. And eventually mamacat came up and said goodbye and left. Her kitties needed to be independent of her. Since they wouldn’t leave, she did. Alas, the world is so damned unfair.
Mamacat stayed local, though. She would visit the kitties here for I think it was a year or so. 3 times a week, then eventually only once a week. She would come close enough to meow reassurances to them. But if they got any closer she would go back into hiss mode — you little ones still need to be independent cats, don’t try cozying up to mama anymore. I am just visiting (and refilling my gullet with another serving of tunafish...)

One day we noticed that mamacat didn’t come anymore. We scoured the neighborhood for her, to no avail. We kept walking the area and calling out to her for months, no mamacat.

A couple years passed. Then we got a call from the local cat shelter. Mamacat was chipped here and some guy had brought mamacat in. He thought that they would provide vet medical care. They don’t, alas. But they did take a look at her and reassure him that she was basically OK. I was on my way to pick her up when they said the man had taken her away again. We would have been overjoyed, happy to have her back but if the guy really cared for her then we were prepared to let him keep her so long as we could arrange visitation rights for her kitties. The shelter knew who took her but would not tell us. All we could learn that he was a Chinese fellow who drove a Japanese car and that he seemed to care about her and had taken her to become an indoor cat. So, she no longer had the liberty of visiting her kitties. The limited description could’ve applied to about half the men in a mile radius of us. So, we never found our mamacat again.

Life is so unfair. But at least mamacat had found a home where the guy reportedly did care for her.

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