# Is there a psychological difference between a Cat person and a Dog person? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 3, 2006, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-difference-between-a-cat-person-and-a-dog-person/351069 "2006-04-03T14:33:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-difference-between-a-cat-person-and-a-dog-person/351069/41 "2006-04-04T18:53:57Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > The sudden left turn here cracked me up. Yeah, that was quite a segue I made. I think it was b/c I was just reading [this article](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4491310.stm) about a woman who took sleeping pills, went insensibly unconscious, then had her face half eated off by her dog. So much for loyalty, eh? This woman was the recipient of the first face transplant (no, it wan’t Nic Cage or John Travolta). It makes me want to be more careful how much Nyquil I take tonight… :eek: Also, I agree with **fetus** : if someone bit or hit me during “play,” I’d have to “play” kick their ass into next Tuesday. Who goes around biting their friends? My dog has better manners than that. The cats, not as much, though… another stereotype blown. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-difference-between-a-cat-person-and-a-dog-person/351069/42 "2006-04-04T19:26:41Z")
I don’t think it’s a _type_ of animal as much as it’s a size thing. Small animals generally require (or just get) more physical kissey, huggy treatment (though some large dog owners do this as well). But people with big dogs like the big physical interaction thing: frisbees, throwing the stick, etc. I enjoy that (more when I was younger than now), but don’t want the responsibility that goes along with it. “A cat on my head” is more where I want to be these days. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-difference-between-a-cat-person-and-a-dog-person/351069/43 "2006-04-04T19:27:04Z")
Take it from someone who lies both: the basic difference between cat and dog owners is that cat owners like cats and dog owners like dogs. Almost every other alleged characteristic of one or the other I’ve read in this thread I have seen in owners of both types of animals. ---
**Author:** ![nevermore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a587f6/32.png) [@nevermore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nevermore)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-difference-between-a-cat-person-and-a-dog-person/351069/44 "2006-04-04T23:15:37Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > See, what you call “a difference of philosophy between cat lovers and dog lovers”, I call “assault”, or, alternatively, “a lack of respect for personal boundaries and who decides what injurious actions are taken against a person’s body”. This is the kind of thing that makes me ignore people for life–or, if they keep hitting/biting me when I ask them to stop, sock them in the face in self-defense. note that I never referred to this behavior as a difference of philosophy between cat and dog lovers. however, I’d still bet you’re a cat person. also, I don’t do this to random strangers. it’s just an extension of affection for me, and what I do hurts people about as much as tickling them (which I also do on occasion). trust me, if someone seems as grumpy about it as you, I steer clear. ---
**Author:** ![SCSimmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@SCSimmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCSimmons)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-difference-between-a-cat-person-and-a-dog-person/351069/45 "2006-04-05T03:22:01Z")
> [@interface2x](#): > > My cat is _very_ attentive. In fact, sometimes she gets to downright overbearing. Indeed-cats are as different as people. Our elder cat (12 years) as always been the aloof type; the ‘kitten’, as we still call her after three years, is one of the most affectionate creatures I’ve ever seen. The amusing bit is, after spending time around the kitten, the older sister has gotten extremely affectionate. I’m not sure if she’s just mellowing in her old age, or if she wants to make sure that the interloper doesn’t get more attention than she does. 😃 But my joke these days is that I can’t sit down in this house without getting a cat on my lap. ---
**Author:** ![Shasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Shasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shasta)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-difference-between-a-cat-person-and-a-dog-person/351069/46 "2006-04-05T13:01:06Z")
Cat people are lazy, dog people have dogs as substitute kids. Of course then there is me who has all three AND a husband :smack: Shasta ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-difference-between-a-cat-person-and-a-dog-person/351069/47 "2006-04-05T16:40:14Z")
> [@nevermore](#): > > note that I never referred to this behavior as a difference of philosophy between cat and dog lovers. however, I’d still bet you’re a cat person. > > also, I don’t do this to random strangers. it’s just an extension of affection for me, and what I do hurts people about as much as tickling them (which I also do on occasion). trust me, if someone seems as grumpy about it as you, I steer clear. Not so much “grumpy” as “having personal boundaries which exclude assault”. If your friends like being assaulted, that’s fine, but it bugs me personally because for someone to assume I like being hit and bitten shows that they have such a fundamental lack of respect for me that they wouldn’t even think about whether or not I want to be attacked by my “friends”. I’m not the type to get worked up over things, nor am I the type to hit people; I can only ever remember hitting two people in my life, and both were in self-defense and both were after what I considered to be grave physical offenses (one was in eighth grade when someone tried to blow bubbles in my ear–I gave him the news across the chin, once, and neither of us wanted nor needed to fuck with the other again–the other in boot camp when someone threw a bottle of baby lotion at my nuts while I was asleep–I threw it right back at him and we were even). In fact, I’ve taken my share of hits without retribution. I’d let it slide with a “please don’t do that with me, it bothers me” but if it continued I would have to forcibly end it. ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2006, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-difference-between-a-cat-person-and-a-dog-person/351069/48 "2006-04-05T23:12:22Z")
I love 'em both, and own a cat. I’d have a dog, but my living situation isn’t really appropriate for the kind of dog I would want (I’ve no interest in “lap dogs”). My brother & his family, who live up in Maine near where I grew up, just got a new puppy. Oh, man, when I first met little Willow I just about lost my mind over puppy luv. I fell down on the floor and wrastled with her for about half-an-hour straight, let her chew on me, lap me, jump all over me, etc. etc. My brother go pretty irritated with me, after a while, as I was clearly being an incredibly bad influence on her, but I couldn’t help it. I turn into a blabbering joy idiot around puppies. I may lean toward dogs, if I totally had my way. Around people I tend to take a while to warm up, and I’m not much of one for smalltalk with strangers. With good friends you can’t shut me up, and I’m quite animated, but I have few good friends. Animals I instantly gravitate toward, so I seem to trust them more than people. I don’t seem to fit the stereotype of a “dog person” at all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-psychological-difference-between-a-cat-person-and-a-dog-person/351069.md?page=2)