translated from Spanish: Why do we think cats are less affectionate and friendly than dogs?

Dogs seem almost biologically unable to hide their emotions: they shake, snoosal or move the tail giving us a hint of whether they are happy, nervous or just happy.
Dogs would be terrible poker players. We can read their signals very easily.
Cats also have sophisticated body language: they show their mood by wagging their tails, bristling their fur, or with the movement of their whiskers and ears.
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A purr usually shows (though not always) that he is friendly and happy.
It is a reliable sign to realize if the cat is in friendly mode or if it is better to leave it alone.
Even though they were domesticated thousands of years ago, cats still have a bad image.
Its independence, which is seen by many as an advantage, is regarded by others as selfishness and indifference.
His detractors say he only shows affection when his plate of food is empty.
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Those who have cats say, of course, that this makes no sense, and that their bond with them is as strong as a relationship with a dog.
But why does this image of the indifferent cat persist? And how much is true of you?
The key is their domestication
A key to the image of cats can come, in the first instance, from how they were tamed.
Their detractors say they only show up affectionate when they need food. It was a much more gradual process compared to the domestication of dogs, and it was the cats who led the process.
The first domesticated cats began to appear in Neolithic populations in the Middle East about 10,000 years ago.
They did not depend on humans for their food, but they encouraged them to look for them themselves, and to protect crops and food stores from rats and other pests.
Our relationship with them was, from the beginning, more distant than with dogs, who helped us hunt and who depended on the humans who shared with them the hunting loot.
Dogs understand what we say and how we say it, but how do they do it?
The cat that you can see curled up on a sofa or above the library shares many of its instincts with our pre-domesticated ancestors (the desire to hunt, to monitor a territory, to protect it from other cats).
They’re closer than they were before the dogs.
Our domestication has only kept them apart in part of their wildlife.
“For the most part, it’s humans who haven’t understood the species well,” says Karen Hiestran, veterinarian and administrator of International Cat Care.
“Dogs and humans are very similar and have lived together for a long time. Somehow, there was a coevolution. With cats, it’s much newer. They come from a solitary ancestor that is not a social species.”
The domestication process of cats was very different from that of dogs. The African wild cat from which we tame our cats, the Felis lybica, tends to lead a solitary life, in which he only meets with others when it is time to procreate.
“Cats are the only social animals that have been domesticated. All the other animals we have tamed have a social bond with other members of their species.”
Problem of understanding
Since cats are so atypical among the animals we live with, it’s no wonder we’ve misunderstood their signals.
“Because they are so determined and can take care of themselves, cats are becoming increasingly popular,” says Hiestand.
“But if that lifestyle suits you, it’s another matter. Humans expect cats to be like us and dogs. And they’re not.”
Research on the emotions and sociability of cats has not progressed as much as dogs, but in recent times more research has been done.
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Some have already shown that the sociability of cats with humans is a rather complicated subject.
“It’s very variable, it’s marked by genetics, and the social side may depend on the experiences of the first six or eight weeks.”
“If you had positive experiences in the first stage of your life, you’re likely to like humans and want to spend time with them.”
Even the domestication of the cat itself is complex.
Wild stray cats often hide or flee from humans, behaving much more like their wild ancestors.
Part of the problem is that we have misunderstood the signals of cats. In places like the Mediterranean and Japan, “community” cat colonies thrive in fishing villages. These cats are friendly enough to please the locals who give them food.
In Istanbul, for example, semi-street cats are fed and cared for by locals, and have become part of the city’s identity.
Then there are the cats that live with us, but even this subset has a wide range; some maintain a relative distance, while others develop positively with human companionship.
Evolutionary trick
So, if we want to create a strong bond with our cat, what things should we take into account?
Like dogs, cats communicate a lot with their body, rather than sound.
“I think it’s harder for people to read their body language, compared to dogs,” says cat behavior researcher Kristyn Vitale.
That’s not necessarily the cat’s fault.
A fundamental feature could have given dogs an advantage in terms of our relationship of affection.
Thanks to evolution, dogs have learned to mimic the expression of babies, something cats cannot physically do. A study from the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom found that dogs learned to mimic the expression of babies, which awakens in humans the desire to protect them.
The change resulted in the development of a muscle that allows them to raise the inside of the eyebrow (something their ancestors, wolves) could not do.
This is an evolutionary trick that has allowed the bond between people and dogs to be strengthened.
What’s the bad news for cats? They don’t have that muscle. As a result, a cat’s gaze may seem cold and unfriendly.
But a slow flicker – one your cat probably does from across the room – is something entirely different: it’s his way of expressing love.
Even when you turn your head to one side, that doesn’t necessarily mean a gesture of disdain, but a sign of relaxation.
Vitale mentions a study he conducted at Oregon State University, USA, in which an owner left dogs and cats in a room, to suddenly return a little later.
“One interesting thing is that most cats who were safe with their owners, when they returned, greeted them and then re-explored the room and returned with them from time to time.”
“Dogs did something similar,” Vitale says.
“If the dog ran around the room, entertained himself with toys and occasionally went back to the owner, we didn’t worry much.”
Researchers call this “safe attachment” (the state of calm with the return of the owner), which would indicate a strong emotional bond.
“Human expectation has an impact on animal behavior,” Vitale says.
By trying to force cats to behave more like dogs – looking for them to show their affection – we are trying to keep them away from their natural behavior.
Friendly gestures
To maintain a better relationship with cats, it is crucial to learn to read their behavior better. Hiestand says that our historical inability to understand the temperament of cats as different from that of dogs is part of the problem.
Even experts with years of training are not immune to this.
“I went to a conference in 2007 and I felt like an idiot,” she says.
“All this basic information about cats I didn’t know, like the one they like to have food and water in different places. These researches are quite new, but once you have the humility to recognize that what you thought about them is wrong, you learn new things that are interesting.”
Take, for example, the way cats rub against their owners. It was thought that this was to mark territory, as feral cats do with trees or other things that are in their territory.
But when they do it with people, it’s usually a sign of their affiliation. They’re transferring their smell to another skin, and at the same time transferring the smell of your skin to theirs.
This is what feral cats do with other cats they partner with. It’s a way to create a “common smell” that allows them to distinguish friends from enemies.
Ultimately, says Hiestand, one thing is key: relaxed cats are more likely to make friends.
“They want their water, their food, their place to sleep and their place to defecate to be ok, and when they are, they are ready to explore social bonds.”
So the next time you come back to the house and see your cat staring at you quietly from the couch, or yawning as you approach the aisle, don’t get discouraged.
In his own way, he’s deciding he’s happy to see you.

Original source in Spanish

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