Reading 5

You may have noticed that cats and dogs learn differently. For example, you can train dogs to roll over for a piece of food. It is a lot harder to train cats to do tricks. But that does not mean that cats are not as smart as dogs. It also does not mean that dogs learn faster than cats. Dogs and cats simply learn differently. Their learning styles influence the types of things that you can teach these animals to do. For example, it takes no time for cats to learn to use a special box for their bathroom. However, dogs take more time to learn where and when they should go to the bathroom. Why are these animals different? You have to think about how these animals act in the wild. If something is natural for an animal to do, it is easier for the animal to learn. But why can people teach dogs to sit but not cats? Cats and dogs both sit in the wild, after all. This actually has to do with how dogs live in groups in the wild, but cats live alone. In a group of wild dogs, there is one male that is the boss. All of the other dogs work to please this "boss." When a dog comes into a person's house to live, the person in the house becomes the boss. Your dog naturally wants to please you so that you will let it live with you. Cats are different. Cats do not live in groups with a boss. When a cat comes to live at your house, it sees you as an equal. Therefore, it will not try so hard to please you. So, cats and dogs have different reasons to learn the things they do.