Of the millions of cats in America, a few indulge in a kind of tug-of-war with their owners, and if one does a survey of the video record on the internet one can find such offerings. These are excellent examples of comparative behavior between cats and dogs as a means of understanding the phenomenon of Temperament and as an excellent visual representation of prey instinct (cats) versus prey drive (dogs). It also disproves behaviorism’s argument that behavior is a function of genes, instincts and learning according to reinforcements because there should be just as many cats playing tug as dogs, and with the same intensity and vigor. Cats have the same reflex to chase, bite, grab, tug and shake a prey-like acting object, cats can get just as hungry as dogs, and yet they can’t manifest the same volume of ENERGY in such an engagement with a human being so that the behavior can elaborate into a more sophisticated expression of DRIVE and which unites dog and owner into one “emotional body.” My point is that through Temperament, the dog enters a state of emotional suspension and thus, the vigor of the owner ends up triggering and releasing the unresolved emotion in the dog so that there is more energy in the equation than the dog could otherwise realize. The dog’s stress runs through Temperament as enabled by dog and owner being in a state of synchronization, so that it becomes INFORMATION (an emotional bond) rather than overloading the dog as it will quickly do in the cat. So the significant difference between dogs and cats is their emotional capacity, not their genes, fixed action patterns or the current definition of prey drive as in the urge to seize that which is moving, and/or to satisfy a state of hunger. There actually isn’t a prey drive per se, there is only the Drive To Make Contact, and since pure emotion is only attracted to a preyful aspect (pure unformed essence, i.e. energy) it looks like there is a prey drive, but more accurately that’s only because energy always runs to “ground,” i.e. by moving toward a preyful aspect.
Very nicely done.
It’s interesting that there’s also very little variance in cat morphology as compared to dogs, where the differences in breed types and sizes, etc., is unparalleled.
LCK
Right, the phenomenon of play is about “flipping polarities” for the purpose of syncing up in order to make new energy (turn unresolved emotion into resolved emotion by focusing collective energies onto common object of resistance). So this poly-emotional morphism, I believe is the template on which the genes and physical morphology is based and hence the diversity of body types in dogs unlike cats.
Not sure if this cat would agree that it lacks emotional capacity:
http://jeffwise.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/crazy-cat.gif
I stand corrected.
how do big cats fare out in this debate, a pride of lions for example, pack hunters who take on bigger prey than themselves,live in the family unit like wolves, not solitary like the common moggie,any thought,,,thanks
Great question, it’s a question Lee got into on his Psyche Today blog several articles ago, and there was a spirited discussion about it. For me the discussion ended far too early and so I’ve been working on an article to more completely develop my view of the matter, which involves the notion of “emotional capacity.” So that will be coming soon.
[…] Dogs and Cats Playing Tug https://naturaldogtraining.com/blog/dogs-and-cats-playing-tug … […]