MinuteEarth Explains: Cats vs Dogs

In this collection of classic MinuteEarth videos, we learn more about the planet’s two favorite pets.

We originally created the videos in the “MinuteEarth Explains” series for another project. But we know that lots of people right now are looking for really good online educational content - and something to take their mind off current events - so we decided to release them here as well. We’d love to know what you think, so leave us a comment below!

These are the episodes featured in this compilation:

0:19 - Why Pets Have Surprisingly Small Brains

2:02 - How Cats Became our Feline Overlords (ft. It's Okay To Be Smart)

4:57 - How Different Are Different Types of Dogs?

6:56 - How Your Dog Can Protect You Before You're Born

[MinuteEarth]

⬇️ Get the new "MinuteEarth Explains" BOOK ⬇️

[namensklauer]

I can also feel my brain shrinking when getting involved with humans

[rejikegford]

6:00 I love how you sneak Pokémons into the video.

[TheRealGuywithoutaMustache]

These puns are literally raining down on us like cats and dogs

[Flowerbarrel]

I taught my three cats to shake and sit! The shake command I used is “paw”, and sit was a little harder, but they still picked it up quickly. One of our boys learned it in a day. I taught them mostly the same way as our dogs. They love it if it means they get treats.

[MrThatguyuknow]

The reduction of brain volume is something that is actually found in human evolution as well. In general our brains grew a lot over the last two million years, but it went through a very similar shrinkage as we started to learn how to cooperate more. It happened at least twice as we began to build bigger tribes and when farming/trade began to emerge. We just lost a lot of the more sociopath/antisocial circuitry once we saw how much more beneficial it was to trust people instead of immediately beating them to death with rocks. It's still a work in process, but humanity technically domesticated itself and that's not a bad thing.

[HECKproductions]

dogs: the give me food and shelter they must be gods


cats: they give me food and shelter i must be god

[dangductran]

I like how she called cats overlords but called dogs underlings

[sugarycandybar]

2:29 the writers probably high-fived themselves for that pun

[NightWatchUnite]

Kate: hey this is Kate from minuteearth, and this is my cat yardly.
Me: that’s not yardly, that’s ravenpaw

[possumsinatrenchcoat]

"spotify horses"
well at least they aren't getting face tattoos en masse yet...

[FGHTSNG]

2:32
Others: that’s just a cat.
Me: *THAT’S PUSHEEN I KNOW HIM/HER*

[DailyFunFactsYt]

Fact of the day:

German chocolate cake was named after a guy named Sam German, not the country.

- Daily Fun Facts

[anaalina]

Just because dogs brains got smaller, doesn't mean they got dumber.

[gunther]

Cat: I’m the best hunter. Cat domesticate itself: Im better hunter Cat brain shrinks: Im still the best hunter Also that growlithe was adorable ♥️

[robburgess]

I'm really enjoying seeing real Emily rather than cartoon Emily, it makes the videos feel a little more real. Like there are actual people making them 😊

[icythot]

1:28 I like how the pig and the duck are like colored and detailed and then there’s just stick cat 😂😂

[sephirothjc]

I don't get the whole 'do cats even like us?' joke, I've had 3 cats and they obviously like me, they hang out with me most of the time and often want to play.

[emmu]

Ah yes, I'm glad my favorite dog, growlithe, was featured here

[jaivetz]

My dog zeus allways protected me, no matter how old i was, microscopic, or 4 feet tall. I miss him because he passed away. But ill allways remember him in my heart