There’s good evidence that cats are the only self-domesticated animal we have. Coupled with the very strong evidence that stupidity, complacency and obedience were the traits selected for in man-directed domestication efforts, it’s no surprise that cats are both more willful and more clever than most other domestic animals.
They can still be an enormous pain in the ass, just in different ways than dogs, so pick your poison. Cats, for me.
There is some evidence that dogs self-domesticated, at least to a certain degree, although they’re also some evidence that they were domesticated as food, so who knows? Stefan Milo did a recent video on the subject.
There is some evidence, but there is also a lot of evidence to dogs having a lot of selection pressure put on them by humans, even before all the relatively modern breeds. Dogs have more expressive faces than cats (or wild dogs), use expressions that are easily read by humans, and can read human expressions. Cats still often look like their wild cousins.
There is also good evidence that cats were domesticated during the Neolithic revolution, while dogs were domesticated much earlier, while hunter-gatherers were the norm. So it could be that their domestication just hasn’t progressed as much as dogs’ and other animals’ have.
There’s good evidence that cats are the only self-domesticated animal we have. Coupled with the very strong evidence that stupidity, complacency and obedience were the traits selected for in man-directed domestication efforts, it’s no surprise that cats are both more willful and more clever than most other domestic animals.
They can still be an enormous pain in the ass, just in different ways than dogs, so pick your poison. Cats, for me.
There is some evidence that dogs self-domesticated, at least to a certain degree, although they’re also some evidence that they were domesticated as food, so who knows? Stefan Milo did a recent video on the subject.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0D3tfZERCE
There is some evidence, but there is also a lot of evidence to dogs having a lot of selection pressure put on them by humans, even before all the relatively modern breeds. Dogs have more expressive faces than cats (or wild dogs), use expressions that are easily read by humans, and can read human expressions. Cats still often look like their wild cousins.
There is also good evidence that cats were domesticated during the Neolithic revolution, while dogs were domesticated much earlier, while hunter-gatherers were the norm. So it could be that their domestication just hasn’t progressed as much as dogs’ and other animals’ have.