Could your dog or cat be a southpaw?

Vets and owners agree that pets, including horses, have right and left preferences.

Researchers are studying right brain-left brain connections, genetics and sexual orientation that may one day change the way dogs and cats are bred, raised, trained and used, says Dr. Stefanie Schwartz of the Veterinary Neurology Center in Tustin, Calif., and a member of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists.

Some horses have to be ambidextrous, says Dr. Sharon Crowell-Davis, a behavior and anatomy professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Georgia.

A 1991 study at Ataturk University in Turkey showed 50 percent of cats were right-pawed, 40 percent were left-pawed and 10 percent were ambidextrous. A 2006 study from the University of Manchester in England showed dogs were split half-and-half.

About 90 percent of humans are right-handed and 10 percent are left-handed.

Laterality — the textbook term meaning one side of the brain is dominant — may someday help breeders predict which puppies will make the best military, service and therapy dogs, Schwartz says, and that could be lifesaving.

But for now, here are a few simple tests you can do to determine your pet’s preference, she says. Doing it 100 times (over several days) should give you an answer.

• If you teach a dog to shake, which paw does it offer you first and most often?

• Fill a toy with something delicious and put it in the center of the dog’s visual field. Which paw does it use to touch the toy first? Which paw does the dog use to hold the toy?

• Put something sticky on a dog or cat’s nose. Which paw does the animal use to remove it?

• Place a treat or a piece of cheese under a sofa, just beyond a dog or cat’s reach. Which paw does it use to try and get it out?

• Dangle a toy over a cat’s head. Which paw does it lift to bat it?

• Put a treat under a bowl. Which paw does the cat or dog use to move it?

• When a dog wants in the backdoor, which paw does it “knock” with?

If a dog has arthritis or an injury in a shoulder or leg, it could use the other to compensate, Schwartz says. And wen a cat really wants something, tests show it uses its dominant paw, but when it’s just fooling around, it may use either or both.

The well-being of dogs and cats doesn’t depend on preference, but the same cannot be says for horses, Crowell-Davis says.

In U.S. racing, horses only have to lean left because all races are run counterclockwise on tracks, but in some competitions and in some other countries, horses have to race and canter both ways.

“They have to be able to circle right and left. If not, they can trip,” Crowell-Davis says. “You have to work to get them to take the lead they prefer less.”

Robin A.F. Olson of Newtown, Conn., founder and president of the Kitten Associates rescue organization, says her cats are always reaching for toys or treats with one paw or another.

Olson says she was born left-handed, but her mother didn’t want her growing up left-handed in a world of right-handed people. “She always handed things to me close to my right hand. She always put the crayons in my right hand.”

There won’t be any such lessons for her cats, she says. “I try not to be judgmental of my cats’ abilities or lack thereof. We will never worry about the anti-paw.”

It appears that Nora, an internationally acclaimed 8-year-old piano-playing tabby from Philadelphia, owned by piano teacher Betsy Alexander, is right-pawed. In videos, “she appears to lead with her right paw, then follow with her left,” Alexander says.

But she has her ambidextrous, headstrong moments.

“She uses both paws to reach for specific notes, even black notes … and she uses her head to roll a series of multiple notes.”