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?
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?
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!
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.