Google Sheets Array sum not working? where am I going wrong?

Question

I know this is a super beginner thing, but this is my first time using google sheets and I cannot understand their built-in assistance for what I need.

I have 2 columns. I am needing to find the totals for each category.

Ex: Dogs = 6, Cats = 2

Please let me know where I went wrong in my formula.

Answer 1

try:

=QUERY(A2:A9, "select A,count(A) group by A label count(A)''")

Answer 2

try this:

={UNIQUE(A2:A9), ARRAYFORMULA(COUNTIF(A2:A9, UNIQUE(A2:A9)))}