I stuck my foot in my mouth

I was talking to a guy, who is nice and he has dogs. And I made the mistake of saying cats are smarter than dogs. Now he is all offended.

Are you serious?? He is offended by something so small?
Why not tell him he can believe dogs are smarter if he wants to, but it won't change your mind...
Honestly the intelligence of different animals is so subjective. The only way us humans define intelligence of an animal is by comparing its behavior to ourselves- which isn't exactly fair, in fact it's condescending....
Lol, why not try to have a debate about it It might spice things up

Tell him its a matter of opinion, and maybe you can point out facts on why you think cats are smarter, and he can respond with why he thinks dogs are. Like ut0pia mentioned, make it a lil spicy debate

He sounds a bit too sensitive to me. Unless he is a very close friend, I wouldn't loose too much sleep over it.

If you judge intelligence by an animals independence, then cats would win hands down. If you judge it by ability to follow commands, then dogs win.

But I like what one expert said: "Dogs and cats are equally intelligent, which is to say, both are just smart enough to be a cat or dog and do what a cat or dog does."

Cats smarter than dogs???? Well..aren't they? Really sweetie, I wouldn't get stressed out about that. Some of the opinions people have of cats -vs- dogs aren't favorable to cats. You were just sharing a good opinion about cats for a change. We need to let certain things roll off our backs
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I consider myself a "dog person"

I've had dog my whole life & only recently (last 5 yrs) have I had cats. I can see myself living without a cat, but not without a dog. A dog will be a part of my family for as long as I live.

That being said, I've also had other pets, including a 2 ferrets (at different times, not together) All of my animals have been, what I consider, smart.

Yes, they have different attitudes & behaviors, but they have all amazed me with their intellligence at one point or another.

I feel that the interaction between us & our pets is what brings out the intelligence of the pet. We talk & pay attention to our pets behavior & although they can not talk, they do communicate. You just have to know how to listen.

There was some program like that comparing dogs to cats in different categories. Cats won by one point, IIRC.

Cats are smart enough to not waste valuable sleeping time by doing stupid dog tricks.

Oh dear, well if everyones opinions were the same things would be boring Is he a close friend? x

Offended that you have a different opinion? You didn't stick your foot in your mouth just by having an opinion!

I just figure if he is too upset about it then he wasn't that great of a friend to begin with.

Overly sensitive, for sure!