Although not as apparent as in humans, cats and dogs are known to show a natural paw preference.
Which paw the pet leads with when descending stairs can be a clue to preference.
The leading paw when stepping over an object may indicate paw preference too.
It may take a while to notice the paw preference of a pet and a minority show no preference at all.
Studies on paw preference have been carried out and provided some interesting findings.
1. Male cats and dogs have been shown to favor the left paw over the right one.
Interestingly, human males are more likely to be left-handed than females.
2. One study highlighted that around 75% of cats showed a paw preference.
3. A study has shown that left-pawed and ambidextrous dogs are more fearful and stressed than right-pawed dogs.
4. Guide dog training studies showed that right-pawed dogs were twice as likely to pass their training than left-pawed dogs.
This could be a sign of the extra fearfulness indicated in their left-pawed counterparts as mentioned in point .3