Over the Thanksgiving break I was playing around with my dogs just like I’m sure most of you also did the same thing. Or some of you may have been playing around with your cat. Owning pets all my life had me thinking which pet would be the smarter one. As I died deeper into researching the brains of a dog I also wondered about cats. The results regarding the two different pets and which one was smarter had some different results but in the end I think you all know who the winner would be…or do you?
When comparing dogs to cats we have to understand that different breeds of dogs and cats may play a huge part into judging which one is smarter. However I wanted results as a whole. Science is backing up who I thought would win. In 2013 the Wall Street Journal published an essay also wondering the same exact question. The results in the end leaned more to the dogs being the winner. Many arguments for the dogs involved them having the ability to show more reasoning, understanding of human languages, and having the ability to use the process of elimination to figure things out. As for cats the main argument looked at the pure independence that a cat always displays.
Having science to back up any argument is worth believing so lets start with some facts. Looking at the two different brains of these animals we need to look at body mass. A cat’s brain is only 0.9% of its body mass whereas a dogs is 1.2% Science though may not agree that this matters though. Instead they look at the neurons in their bodies and say that this is what matters. Our cerebral cortex is responsible for problem solving and even perception. The numbers speak for themselves here. Cats have 300 million when dogs only have 160 million. Now we hear about studies working with dogs are for more common. The main reason for this is because cats are hard to work with. The study that was done involved whether a cat can place objects into categories just like dogs. As well as to figure out what a human is thinking.
A psychologist named Christian Agrillo put the cats to the test. The test showed that cats can be trained to this task but it does not come easy to them like other animals. He also stated that in another study they could also have the ability to read gestures as well. Also conducted was a study between the two and found that when a dog couldn’t figure out a piece to puzzle when dealing with food, the dog seemed to be more relying on its owner unlike the cat.
What we need to know is that dogs have been involved in our lives much longer than cats. Dogs simply have more interaction with humans which makes them understand us better. Does this make them smarter than cats? I believe this study showed that there is no real winner here. Personally if I had to take a guess i would guess that a dog would be much smarter. After reading about the different types of tests being done it shows that cats may carry some of the same abilities. You be the judge.
http://www.pawnation.com/2013/02/11/are-dogs-smarter-than-cats
http://www.livescience.com/45730-cats-dogs-intelligence.html
Having tons of pets through my life, majority being cats and dogs, I have to say I honestly think the two are better at certain areas.. Dogs are a lot easier to train and condition since they seem to understand human interaction a lot better, but I’ve noticed personally that cats are just as intelligent, they just don’t take interest or understanding maybe to humans the way a dog might. Here -> this article talks about how it’s hard to study cats because they aren’t too often willing to participate, http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2014/04/cat_intelligence_and_cognition_are_cats_smarter_than_dogs.html. Perhaps it could be because cats haven’t been domesticated for as long as dogs? Maybe they’re just too independent of an animal to care about the actions of a human. I don’t think trying to train cats in the same way one would do a dog will work when comparing them.
Ever since I was a young kid, it has been no secret that I am not a cat fan. I have always felt like cats simply don’t do anything and aren’t fun like dogs. Maybe my opinion is the way it is because most dogs have reasonably outgoing natures just like myself. I think it would be really hard to find a study that could accurately tell us which animal is smarter. Even for humans it is very difficult to be able to say someone is “smarter” than someone else. We are all knowledgable in different things, some people are just better test takers than others, etc. There are so many third variables that are present making it hard to be able to accurately tell which animal is really smarter. Maybe some types of dogs are less intelligent than others? In my opinion, it is impossible to know.
The study might have been well conducted but we don’t know how many cats and dogs were in that experiment. A third variable could be involved too which would lead to say that the dog is the smartest one where in fact it’s the cat. Maybe the dog was really concentrated, in a good mood, younger.. etc, many characteristics could be involved with that result.