Why are dogs and cats called domestic animals?

Answer 1

Domestic means that the animal is used to humans and have lived with them for so long dogs were one of the first domestic animals. They call cats and dogs domestic animals because they are tamed as pets.

Answer 2

1. Dogs are clearly more tame (more predictable, but no less powerful, strong, agile, swift, intelligent, cunning, aggressive, and voracious) than their wild ancestors -- wolves. Contrast cats which simply find us useful.

2. Dogs can live with us and not be vermin. (Cats qualify on that ground).

3. Dogs can interact with us in unstereotyped ways (like cats -- but unlike tropical fish).

4. Dogs can do complicated behavior on our behalf (like horses but unlike cats who do complicated behavior for its own sake and not for ours).

So what is the secret? Dogs did better than wolves. All that they had to do was to recognize that small children are not meat. Wolf packs and human families have similar structures, and they mesh well. Dogs got more reliable food, got to reproduce more frequently, and got into fewer fights than wolves. They derived benefits from the presence of a reliable ally with a bipedal gait (better range of vision) and color vision (better discrimination of color that allowed humans to spot dangerous cats and snakes before dogs could with their vision. Dogs got advantages from being around fires that scare off most beasts.

Dogs of course made human hunts more successful and scared off many predators (including humans with malign intentions). Dogs have far-superior scent to that of humans and far-better night-time vision. Dogs and humans became peers at the top of the food chain in much of the world.