r/cats vs r/dogs
Side-by-side using public descriptions, members, growth and rule titles from SubMouse. Missing fields show as n/a. Adult communities are excluded.
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Related to r/cats
Related to r/dogs
Cat media room vs dog ownership discussion room
r/cats’ public description covers pictures, videos, questions and articles about cats. r/dogs describes a room for dog owners of all experience levels to discuss responsible dog ownership.
In our directory, cats is much larger (about 9.5M, rank #82) than dogs (about 2.9M, rank #377). Activity samples diverge sharply: cats posts far more often (~608 posts/day vs ~73). cats’ sample is image-, gallery- and video-heavy with flairs such as cat picture OC, advice and medical questions; dogs’ sample is essentially all text with flairs such as misc help, behavior problems, health and training foundations.
Rule titles underline the split: cats bans spam/memes/ads and NSFW/abuse and limits name-my-cat posts; dogs requires good-faith posts, LIMA training advice and bans dangerous or ESA/service-dog fraud talk. SubMouse already compares dogs with Dogtraining; this pair is specifically cat media versus dog ownership discussion.
- Choose r/cats for cat pictures, videos and light questions under its OC and anti-spam rules.
- Choose r/dogs for responsible ownership, behavior and training discussion under its LIMA and good-faith rules.
- cats is inside the current Top 100 live window; dogs opens via the info tool. dogs-vs-dogtraining is a separate curated page.
Written comparison based on public descriptions and rule titles · updated 2026-11-07.
r/cats
Cats
Pictures, videos, questions, and articles featuring/about cats.
- Members
- 9.5M
- 7-day growth
- +10.8K
- Posts/day
- 607.5
- Directory rank
- #82
- Created
- Apr 14, 2008
- Submissions
- Text or links
Sample mix: images 38%, galleries 29%, videos 18%
Topics: Cats
Rule titles (short names we collected)
- Respect other users
- Spam, memes, ads, self-promotion, karma farming
- Recent/Egregious repost
- Disallowed topics
- 'Name my cat/kitten' posts are allowed, but require the correct flair + verification to ensure OC.
Open r/cats on SubMouse
r/dogs
/r/dogs: Woof
/r/dogs is a place for dog owners of all levels of knowledge, skill, and experience to discuss various topics related to responsible dog ownership. This subreddit is a great starting point for a lot of information, but …
- Members
- 2.9M
- 7-day growth
- +1.7K
- Posts/day
- 73.3
- Directory rank
- #377
- Created
- Mar 14, 2008
- Submissions
- Text posts
Sample mix: text posts 100%
Topics: Dogs
Rule titles (short names we collected)
- Minimize Antagonism
- Prohibited Content
- Posts must be made in Good Faith
- Minimize Antagonism outside of r/dogs
- Training Advice must follow Least Intrusive, Minimally Aversive methods (LIMA)
- Dangerous, Unethical or Illegal Advice is not tolerated
- ESA/SD Fraud or Misrepresentation is Prohibited
- Asking or Providing Medical Advice is Prohibited
- Avoid Low Effort Posts
- Breed or Breed Group Misinformation or Hate is Not Welcome
- Vet Medicine Misinformation is Prohibited
- Posts must be On-Topic
Open r/dogs on SubMouse
Supported differences
| Aspect | r/cats | r/dogs |
|---|
| Public focus (from each community’s public description) |
Pictures, videos, questions, and articles featuring/about cats. |
/r/dogs is a place for dog owners of all levels of knowledge, skill, and experience to discuss various topics related to responsible dog ownership. This subreddit is a great starting point for a lot of information, but … |
| Size r/cats is larger in our directory (about 3.2×). |
9.5M members |
2.9M members |
| Posting activity (our sample) |
607.5/day |
73.3/day |
| Common post types in our sample |
images 38%, galleries 29%, videos 18% |
text posts 100% |
| Allowed submission type (meta) |
Text or links |
Text posts |
| Topic tags on SubMouse |
Cats |
Dogs |
| Selected rule titles (short names we collected) |
Respect other users; Spam, memes, ads, self-promotion, karma farming; Recent/Egregious repost; Disallowed topics; 'Name my cat/kitten' posts are allowed, but require the correct flair + verification to ensure OC. |
Minimize Antagonism; Prohibited Content; Posts must be made in Good Faith; Minimize Antagonism outside of r/dogs; Training Advice must follow Least Intrusive, Minimally Aversive methods (LIMA) |
Rules and posting patterns we can verify
cats short titles include: respect other users; spam, memes, ads, self-promotion, karma farming; no NSFW, animal abuse, or cruelty; recent/egregious repost; disallowed topics; name-my-cat/kitten posts need correct flair and OC verification. Our sample flairs include cat picture OC, advice, video OC, humor, medical questions and mourning/loss.
dogs: minimize antagonism; prohibited content; posts must be made in good faith; LIMA training advice; dangerous/unethical/illegal advice not tolerated; ESA/SD fraud prohibited. Our sample is text-forward with help, behavior, health and training flairs.
Where this comparison comes from
Public descriptions and member counts from SubMouse’s safe-for-work directory. Short rule titles and activity samples SubMouse collected. Short titles only. Related curated page: dogs-vs-dogtraining.
Members and public descriptions come from SubMouse's safe-for-work directory (as of 2026-11-02 UTC); 7-day growth measured from 2026-10-26. Posts/day and post-type mixes appear when we have an activity sample. Rule lines are short titles, not the full sidebar. Directory rank is listing order — communities outside the current Top 100 open in the info tool instead of a full community page.