Knowing more about your cat's body language will help you better understand some of the things he's trying to express, and it will also help you better respond to his needs. Discover the feline that arches its back when facing a dog.
Cats and dogs don't always get along. Within the same household, they can get used to the presence of the other. If a dog and a cat don't know each other and meet on the street, the feline may behave curiously. Only the two races have fundamentally different habits.
Differences between cats and dogs
And yet, cats and dogs have something in common. They both have good hearing and smell as well as excellent eyesight. Only the cat has slightly more developed senses than the dog. The dog grew up with the man and this, long before the cat. The canine has been with humans for over 30,000 years, while the cat has been domesticated for around 10,000 years.
The rivalry between the cat and the dog is probably ancestral. The main difference is that the dog is a pack animal while the cat is more of a loner.
How do cats and dogs hunt?
This difference also manifests itself in homes. Therefore, it is difficult to give orders to a cat because its independent nature prevents it from obeying them. The dog, on the other hand, is much easier to tame. Its nature leads it to a greater understanding of man.
Another commonality between cats and dogs is that they are both hunters. The dog hunts in packs, and its method is, therefore, rather that of encirclement under the leader's command. The canine species prefer to hunt in packs with others. On the other hand, the feline goes in search of its prey alone. The hunt for the latter is more complicated and requires different tactics.
Many imagine that the cat arches its back out of fear, but few people really know why a cat has this behavior when meeting a dog.
When the cat and the dog see each other for the first time, instinct kicks in. The cat sees that the dog is more significant. What cats avoid doing, but not always, is running away. They know that they automatically become prey for the dog by running away.
If the encounter is sudden, you may see the cat arch its back. This is a defensive behavior but also a bit of fear. There is another reason why the cat arches its back. It tries to look bigger when the dog is bigger to scare it. It often raises its hair and stands upright on its feet to increase its size.
You will have understood it: the cat tries to increase its size to show that it is also an animal to be feared. If the dog approaches and tries to attack it, the cat then rears up on its two hind legs in front of it. Its front paws claw out and go directly to the dog's nose, a susceptible dog area. This gesture often succeeds in scaring it away.