Wednesday's Question of the Day: June 13

Are dogs smarter than cats?

An Oxford University study says they are, since dogs have socialized with people more and have bigger brains. But how do you define "smart"? Is it based on survival (like Darwin said), or following commands and trainability, or does understanding human language make an animal smart? If it's brain size, what about little dogs and big cats? What do you think?

I think dogs are smarter at being dogs, and cats are smarter at being cats. Dogs have developed to be closer to humans, to be more responsive to humans, etc. Cats have developed to be mousers in the fileds and grain bins, without close human contact.

I think some people think dogs are smarter than cats because they are more trainable. BUT dogs are, by instinct, pack animals and want to please the Alpha, so if you are the Alpha in your household the dogs want to make you happy and will try to do what you say, hence trainable. Cats are not pack animals and therefore think of themselves and their own survival and generally couldn't care less about what their human wants them to do. I'm not saying this is a negative thing, it's just the way they are hardwired.

For example, if Snickers (our Lab) was bothering me when I was trying to make dinner, I could tell her to go lay down, and she would slink away with her tail between her legs because she knew I was annoyed with her. On the other hand, if LittleOne was bothering me, I could tell her to go lay down, and she would look at me as if I was an alien, walk off and disappear....only to show up 10 minutes later on top of the refrigerator ready to pounce on the chicken as soon as I turned my back. So, which is smarter? The dog that just listened to her human, or the cat that came up with an alternate plan? To me, the cat...although the dog is a little easier to deal with.

Now, I do believe that some cats are willing to be trained and some dogs are too stupid or stubborn to be trained (like our pug who is more stubborn than stupid), but overall I think cats are smarter (as in thinking for themselves) and dogs are more trainable (wanting to please their humans). 

I think that cats & dogs, just like people, have DIFFERENT forms of intelligence. They are each smart in their own ways. It's the same as people, I know some who haven't even finished high school who are much "smarter" in many ways than those with university degrees.
 

There are smart/dumb dogs and smart/well just smart cats I think they are both extremely intelligent, in fact, maybe it is the cat who is smarter. As the saying goes - Dogs have masters, Cats have staff........ NOW who is the smart/dumb one :scratch: