Do cats and dogs have a dominant front paw, left or right? Bonus question: If so, are the statistics for dominance similar to that of humans?
I actually just listened to a podcast about this!
Even plants have a dominate side! It’s usually the right side and there are reasons for that. I won’t try to explain it here. I’m not good at that kind of thing but I’ll link to the podcast below. It’s less than 30 minutes too!
Why are there lefties and righties? - Unexplainable 26m
Molecular Genetic Analysis of Left-Handedness in Plants by Takashi Hasimoto
Also, I have two male dogs. I noticed that one always lifts his left leg to pee and the other lifts his right.
There is actually some research on this and yes cats and dogs often have a preference for which side they favor. The distribution is far more even than it is with humans and many more are ambilateral and work well with either side without showing a strong preference.
More interesting than cats and dogs are chickens and pigs. Most chickens don’t have a strong preference but those that do have a dominant eye tend to react to visual stimuli faster than other chickens. Pigs often have a dominant side of their about and it often corresponds with the direction their tails spiral.
I think people who do sports with their dogs are likely to be able to see these preferences easier. I do agility with mine and there’s a lot of time spent watching their feet and seeing where and how they start and land jumps and such. He tends to favor his left and will typically lead with it. When we’re doing scentwork he also raises his left paw to signal as well. He uses both paws for all sorts of things, but I believe he does favor his left!
Pigs often have a dominant side … and it often corresponds with the direction their tails spiral.
Wat. There’s some kind of cosmic message there but I don’t know what it is.
Just wanted to say that “ambilateral” is an awesome word.
Mice are known to display paw preference. Primates are generally preferentially handed. I’d think many mammalian species are as well, given these observations.
I guess this also brings up eye dominance.
Here is a study that suggests they do.
Tl;dr: Around 3 out of 4 cats show a preference to a specific paw. Additionally, they found that female cats are more likely to prefer their right paw than male cats do.
Around 2 in 3 dogs seem to prefer a specific paw. Dogs’ sex does not seem to influence laterality.
Here’s some anecdotal data. I am on a Flyball team with my 3 year old cattle dog mix (really fun relay dog sport!) and when starting to train we test which way the dogs will turn after getting the ball. Most of our team dogs will turn to the right, but we have a few that turn to the left. We call them righties and lefties! For us it’s all good so long as they can do a safe turn on the box.
My dog is a leftie, for sure. Anytime he touches his face, raises a paw to ask for pets, or pees, he favors using his left paw.
Same with my cat. Sometimes when he’s lying on my chest, he tries to “pet” me on the face, which is not fun as he has claws, so I pin down his left paw but he never ever uses his right for this.
My cat does the same thing, but uses both paws like the little troll he is.
Bipedalism is what drives “handedness”
Kangaroos are infamously left handed, and that may have to do with why they never developed language. That’s really the only thing stopping Tank Girl from becoming reality.
However so far no one has been approved for a grant to breed right handed kangaroos to see if they really do sound like Ice T.
But while a quadruped may favor one side or the other, it’s not the same.
Okay we need to start that crowdfunding, these are the changes science needs to see today
I mean, it’s not really that easy there’d have to be some other changes.
But there is a pretty serious theory that if kangaroos had evolved to be right handed those other changes would have came about naturally until they eventually reached a state capable of advanced language.
Like, rather than the two hemispheres being connected the whole length, it’s only connected in the prefrontal cortex.
But if we never try to get talking kangaroos, it’ll never happen
Fuck AI or a robot butler, just get me a talking kangaroo buddy
I don’t know about front paws, but dogs definitely have less control over their hind legs. During agility training, my dog can easily lift one front paw at a time to jump over something, but she’ll never lift one hind leg at a time. She can do it, but not smoothly while running. I guess it’s similar with the way we can’t seperately control our pinky finger very well. If you move it, the ring finger wants to move as well.
I noticed this last night with my cat.
I taught him a few years ago to reach out with his paw to ask for pets and he always seems to use his right paw even though I taught him on both paws. He reaches out his right paw and taps my hand or me elsewhere and brings my hand to his chin to get some pets.
Just noticed it is almost always the right but sometimes he will use the left, but he seems to prefer the right.
Edit: added a word to make this more clear
it is always the right but sometimes he will use the left, but he seems to prefer the right.
so, it’s NOT always the right?
Not always, but generally his right more times than not. I was playing with him specifically last night to get him to use the left but he kept using the right.
I think it depends on his position to me, where he may be comfortable to use his left at some times and that’s when he chooses his left.
It’s something I just noticed last night so I’m still new to recognizing it as well.
Edit: ah I see what you mean. I was writing and changing my sentence mid-sentence. Bleh. Sorry for the confusion.
If you ask my dog to give paw, he’ll give his right by default unless you say / indicate otherwise. When my cat eats his food, he picks it up in his left paw. So, maybe?
They probably do.
I think there was a study that found polar bears do.
Elephants seem to have a preferred tusk
