Why Dogs Have Much Greater Differences In Breed Sizes Than Cats Do

Cats are generally cat-sized, but dogs come in sizes from XS to XXXL

Kylin

• Published in Animals
• August 8, 2022

Dogs and cats seem to be seen as “opposites” by society. Dogs are thought of as friendly, thriving in a family/pack unit, ready to please their owners, and easy to train.

While cats are considered to be unloving, aloof, uppity, and impossible to train. And the biggest difference of all: is the range of the size that domesticated dogs come in vs domesticated cats.

While cats and dogs aren’t actually opposites, they’re just different from one another, and all the positives/negatives are really dependent on the animal itself, the size differences are an actual thing. Dog breeds come in all varieties of sizes, from “tea-cup” to “extra-large”, while cats are overall the same shape/size across breeds (with some general exceptions, of course).

One Redditor was curious as to *why* there is such a vast difference between these two animals and their breed sizes, so they turned to the r/explainlikeimfive community to get a simple answer. While they DID receive some simple answers, they also got some really cool and slightly in-depth answers too.

We collected some of the top answers to the question “Why do we have dog breeds that vary greatly in size but cats tend to be about the same size?” Keep scrolling to see what we found.

Why do we have dog breeds that vary greatly in size but cats tend to be about the same size?

A good amount of the answers pointed out the obvious:

If cats were any bigger, they'd definitely kill us

Technically, there IS a wide variety of cat sizes, but not within the domesticated breeds

Cats CAN vary in size, just not as signifcantly as dogs

Bigger the cat, the bigger the trouble

Volkodavy makes a good point, Maine Coons are ridiculously huge

Like, really, REALLY big

Outside the few exceptions, it was beneficial to keep cats small for hunting rodents

Also, bigger the cat, the bigger the nuisance

For now...

An interesting counter question

But other Redditors made an effort to give an actual explanation

Another suggestion was that dogs are easier to contain when in heat, while cats are wiley

A lot suggested the usefulness of selective breeding for dogs

With some providing sources

I'd trust catdoctor to know what they're talking about

Household pest control doesn't lend to needing different sized kitties

Another suggestion about the benefit of cats small size, with a helpful correction

Plus, dogs have been domesticated for a significantly longer time than cats

n0tcreatlve gave a good example via dachshunds

Found the cat-hater

Humans and dogs both have the widest ranges observed

One user strayed away from "layman terms" going into genetic specifics

Masterofice5 had the best comment overall, and referenced a more detailed explaination

The r/askscience explanation linked the response from Masterofice5

What do you think? Are we better off keeping cats in a small and relatively manageable size?

Would you want to own a massive cat? Or, on the other side of the size-spectrum, would you own a forever kitten-sized cat?

I definitely would be interested in a tiger-sized house cat. Anyone who knows me knows that death by big cat mauling would be worth it to pet them.

Kylin