The Ben 10 Affleck-Out: I feel like fame is wasted on me.

[Ikusagami]

Dogs were domesticated long before cats were
Experts may disagree about when either were actually domesticated, but it is pretty much accepted that dogs came first. By a huge margin.
Good for hunting, protecting people, other animals and property.

Yeah, cats are good for controlling vermin (of the small kind). But they aren't as clean as you think, they carry many diseases.
But of course, so can dogs.

Not all dogs need to be cleaned, many like the water and will clean their own paws etc.
Short hair is best, little need for grooming.

Well, written history only dates to what, like 7000 years? And both were used as domesticated tools lubby dubby adowableness before that. Common sense does dictate dogs would be domesticated first, even without records, because early civilizations didn't bother with pest control. They didn't even bother with houses for how long, never mind palaces. Lazy cuddly things would serve no purpose to early societies.
--Hell, if you believe Frazer/Freud, people didn't even figure out incest was bad until extremely late in human evolution (the Japanese are a bit behind )--
But behavioral evolution doesn't necessarily require thousands of years; my cat is a mixed Maine Coon (he ain't no ordinary coon, bitches, he da MAIN coon, yo!). . .

whose ancestors were used mostly to catch mice on ships in New England dating back only a few hundred years, yet he retains the hereditary habit of sleeping in closed-in, dark spaces, and avoiding venturing outside his usual perimeter (contrary to most cats, who love to explore). Likewise, the Chartreux I mentioned earlier were only domesticated after the Crusades--mountain cats brought back to monasteries by Templars.

As for disease, any creature can carry those. Just ask Peter Griffin.

I simply meant that dogs, overall, aren't as clean, as they lack cleaning agents in their tongues that they use on themselves obsessively AT ALL FUCKING TIMES. (seriously, wake up with a cat licking itself while staring at you. . . CREEEEPY!
But many diseases are spread more by fleas than the hosts themselves, who serve as carriers, whether infected or not.
--fun fact on that topic: commonly accepted (if unprovable) theory is that the Bubonic plague was able to spread in large part because of the overabundance of disease carrying (flea infested) rats. . . which had a direct causal relation to the Catholic church trying to purge the world of cats.

--yeah, I'm pretty bad when you get me started on nerdy topics. . . sorry.