Do Cats Really Love You Less Than Dogs

The age-old question. Do cats really love you less than dogs? Find out what I think in this video. Are you looking to learn more about natural pet health and wellness? You've come to the right place. Click the link to subscribe to Veterinary Secrets. Tula, the dog, she's man's best friend, right? But cats, they make awesome companions. Cassian, he's an awesome cat. But who really loves who more? Let's look at the science behind it, what's been studied with our dogs, with our cats. Give you an answer. People, us, humans and dogs, we have been literally living together for thousands of years and we've co-evolved different ways to interact and bond. We domesticated wolves, dogs evolved from wolves, and we've trained these dogs or have these dogs been key part of our lives. Dogs for guarding and protection, dogs for herding, dogs for hunting. For dogs, they've been able to just observe, what are we doing? Maybe what are we feeling? Literally, it's evolved over hundreds and hundreds, if not thousands of years. Then it allows them to better understand us, better ways to read us and connect with us. Then they know, okay, I want to please that person a certain way. He's asking me to protect his sheep and by doing that, he's going to give me attention. He's going to give me food, like more wired in. But how's his dog expressing his love, like where he's saying like, I'm actually bonded to you? Tula, what do you do? Well, he's sure to lean on me a whole bunch. There's a whole lot of physical contact. We go to bed, Tula goes to bed. Tula's in our bed. Tula's feeling like, oh, kind of warm and affectionate. She'll go ahead and lick me. Yeah, all of that physical contact. She's like, oh, I like you. I'm going to lick you. Oh, what a nice doggy. Ever felt like your dog has been staring at you, Tula? Hello? Are you trying to say something to me? Oh, what a good, yes, what a nice doggy. Tula does a great job of like seeking me out, direct, direct eye contact, especially when I'm not filming her, because as you guys may or may not know, she's not crazy about the camera. There's a whole lot of eye contact. It may just be that I think you're the best person ever, which yes, I am. Tula, she demonstrates her affection and love in a number of different ways. Eye contact, it is a key sign of affection. You like to give eye contact. So some of the more common signs of affection when your dog really loves you. Tail wagging, just so happy to see you. He's showing his emotions and it's coming out on his tail. Licking as the poodle likes to do. Cuddling and sleeping near you. She really likes to play with me. One of her favorite toys, it is a lamb chop and I see lamb chop often. Tula brings me lamb chop. But what about the elusive cat? I mean, look at this guy here, Cassian. Turns out science, it's pretty quickly catching up with what many cat parents already know. They're cats. They form strong human animal bonds. A 2017 study and they wanted to see, you know, with cats choosing to interact. Did they want to play with a toy? Did they want food? Or would they choose people? Turned out that the majority of cats, they have their option. They're choosing us versus that toy or that mousy looking thing or even the food. There was a 2019 study and they went to more detail and they're actually able to look at different cats, their relationship with people and they rank them based on a certain attachment style. And they found that the majority of the cats, almost two thirds, they have secure attachments to their people or their person, but one third had insecure attachments. They weren't as feeling as secure and safe for that person. But the point in that is that there can be, you know, trust built along the way, i.e. being consistent, i.e. showing and returning affection, you know, pairing that, you know, attention up with some type of treat, you know, increasing the chance that you're getting an endorphin, a positive association in the brain. But the conclusion was that in many, many instances, in fact, probably the majority of the time, these are cats that are deeply bonded to their people and they have these secure attachments. Some of the signs of a cat that is bonded to you. If you hear him, he's purring, purring. You can look into your cat's eyes. Many cats will stare at you and they'll blink really slowly as Cassian did just there. And they say that slow blink, that's a big sign of affection. Oh, do you kitty cat? Yes, kitty cat. When he's really happy, he gets on to this blanket, especially when we're up here petting him and he's feeling pretty good. He will start, he's only going to start to knead. He's like, oh, I'm feeling so nice and cozy and happy and loving where my life is. I'm going to like knead this blanket or he'll head butt up against you. He's like, give me affection and you're the one I want affection from because I'm bonded to you. Yeah. Yeah. Makes a lot of physical contact. Cassian, he'll roll on his side and show his belly. It's, you know, a very vulnerable position to be in, which means like, I fully trust you. He also likes to follow us around. I go to the bathroom. In comes Cassian. Go into the bedroom. In comes Cassian. Where does Cassian want to sleep? He's sleeping up against us. Hmm. And Cassian, he talks a lot. Hello. Goodbye. I'm over here. Give me some food. I'm pretty happy. I'm going to do a whole lot of communicating. He displays a number of different signs of a cat that is like seriously bonded to his people. Hmm. There's one pretty interesting piece of science that goes further into reinforcing this. So number one with cats, when they're showing signs of affection, they're with their people, the people that they like and trust. They release a specific hormone called oxytocin, also known as the love hormone. Kitty. Is that true, kitty cat? And with our dogs, i.e. little Tula, it's much the same thing. She's also producing oxytocin. They both have the science behind this. When they're feeling this like deep bond, this connection, both of them are cats, are dogs. They're releasing oxytocin, i.e. the love hormone. They both are forming some pretty deep connections. Hmm. Oh, come here, poodle. So do cats love you less than dogs? Well, they're clearly different. Yes. Tula thinks I'm great. Cassian thinks I'm pretty good. I don't know. But Cassian the cat here, he follows us around. He sleeps in our bed. He greets us when we come home. They're very much like a dog, kitty cat. Tula, she always greets us. You come home, you go anywhere. I call Tula my little shadow. She thinks I'm the greatest. It's always nice to have one person think you're the greatest, especially if it's your dog. Hmm. I would say it's different. Has it always been this way? No, I've had other cats clearly more aloof. They're like, OK, give me what I want. I like you, but maybe not necessarily that much. Cassian seems to be on the extreme. I love my people. And but he is here. He's a cat. And that's how he feels. So he asked me the big question, who loves who more? I would say it's not a clear winner. It's more it's different with the cat versus a dog. Yeah, especially with Cassian. My experience is a cat that can be really bonded to us and our dogs. No question. They make awesome, awesome companions. So the age old question, who loves who more? Well, I'd say it's different. There isn't one clear winner. Dogs, cats, they love us in many cases, a whole bunch, and they just show it differently. Where does it peak at? 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