Dogs vs. Cats

Assuming that the first round of this debate is for agreement of terms, then I suppose I will be debating in favor of cats. Meaning the next round my opponent will state her beliefs and reasons that support the superiority of dogs and I will refute them in my final post in round two. Best wishes for this debate.

Two of the most common pets that seem to be in almost every household are in fact, both dogs and cats. I am here to try to convince you why dogs are better than cats. I have many reasons, and here they are/is that dogs protect your house, the will love you no matter what and understand you when sad, they greet you when you come home, and can be trained as service animals I now would to define a specific term, DOG. According to the dictionary, a dog is a domesticated carnivorous mammal that typically has a long snout, an acute sense of smell, and a barking, howling, or whining voice. Now I am going to defend my points. My first point was that dogs protect you house. If a robber was to break into your home a dog would bark to alert you or scare the robber away. While a cat would just ignore him and walk away. You see, dogs are very lovable and will stand up for its family, which leads me to my next contention, which was that dogs comfort you and love you like it is part of your pack. "Dogs think your the best person in the world even if you are grumpy, when you come home from school or work your Dogs will be there licking your face and jumping around and they cant wait to see you, while cats don't notice if you are there or not as long as they get their food." When me and my family leave, my puppy waits at the window for us to come home and stays there until we come back. Its like she does not spend enough time with her. :) Anyways, my third and final contention is that dogs can be trained as service animals. Service animals, help the blind, people with hearing problems, and have other disabilities. For these reasons, I believe that dogs are better than cats.
Thank You

I thank my opponent for her prompt response. I will first state my own contentions then I will attack my opponents.

Contention 1: Cats are accomodating and polite to guests.

Dogs are typically excited and eager to greet guests. Unfortunately, this behavior is more often than not unappreciated by said guest. The larger, more popular dogs are capable of physically harming humans by jumping on them, especially small children. A cat is less social which is actually a good thing. A cat will not randomly jump on a guest with malicious intent or even good intent and be capable of severely harming said guest while a dog could.

Contention 2: There are no recorded cases of non-disease related deaths caused by cats.

While both dogs and cats can spread disease, there is no record of a person being completely mauled to death by a cat. While listed here (http://en.wikipedia.org...) are fatal attacks by dogs that have resulted in deaths.

Contention 3: Cats are quieter.

It is physically impossible for a cat to be louder than a dog. While dogs can be deafeningly loud and impossible to shut up without muzzling, cats can only mew so loud and won't be heard mewing more often than not.

Contention 4: Cats take up less room.

Dogs make bigger feces, take more room, take more maintenance, and cost more to own.

Now to address my opponent's arguments:

My opponent's first contention was that a dog protects your house, but an alarm can do just the same and even better. A dog only alerts you of an intrusion while an alarm not only alerts you but the police, so a dog is more a liability when one could just buy an alarm for that purpose.

Secondly, my opponent states that dogs are more affectionate and 'will be there licking your face and jumping around and they cant wait to see you.' Most people would not find having a large animal jump on them pleasant or safe, and an animal licking your face is not at all sanitary and can spread disease. Also, if a dog were to do that to a small child, the child would be harmed. However, a cat offers the same contentment as a dog when being pet only it will not be able to maul you in the process.

Lastly, my opponent states that dogs can be service animals. However, cats can be too, so this point is invalid (http://affluent.net...).

I thoroughly enjoyed this debate and congratulate my opponent for her great arguments.