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Are Dogs Smarter Than Cats?

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Laura:

I always love to toss this one out because I'm just a confirmed dog and horse person... though I can tolerate cats to some extent.


--- Quote ---
Dogs are smarter than cats, research shows

Cats are not as clever as we think, scientists claim.

By Murray Wardrop
Published: 6:55AM BST 17 Jun 2009
The thought processes of 15 cats were tested by attaching food to the end of lengths of string and observing whether they could figure out that pulling the line brought the treats closer.

The cats had no problem with tackling single pieces of string. However, when faced with two options, experts discovered that unlike their canine counterparts, cats were unable to consistently pick a baited string over a dummy.

Psychology lecturer Britta Osthaus, who conducted the study, said the findings shatter the myth that cats are smarter than dogs.

Mrs Osthaus, of Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, said: "This finding is somehow surprising as cats regularly use their paws and claws to pull things towards them during play and hunting.

"They performed even worse than dogs, which can at least solve the parallel string task."

She added that the results show that cats do not understand cause-and-effect connections between objects.

The experiments involved attaching fish and biscuit treats to one end of a piece of string, placing them under a plastic screen to make them unreachable.

They were tested in three ways, using a single baited string, two parallel strings where only one was baited, and two crossed strings where only one was baited.

With two crossed strings, one cat always made the wrong choice and others succeeded no more than might be expected by chance.

Mrs Osthaus added: "If we know their limits we won't expect too much of them, which in turn is important for their welfare.

"I am not trying to say cats are stupid, just they are different. We are so anthropomorphic we can't see the world through their eyes."
--- End quote ---



--- Quote --- Dogs are smarter than toddlers, IQ tests show
Border collies and other bright canines can learn up to 250 words

By Jeanna Bryner
updated 11:45 a.m. ET Aug. 9, 2009

The canine IQ test results are in: Even the average dog has the mental abilities of a 2-year-old child.

The finding is based on a language development test, revealing average dogs can learn 165 words (similar to a 2-year-old child), including signals and gestures, and dogs in the top 20 percent in intelligence can learn 250 words.

And the smartest?

Border collies, poodles, and German shepherds, in that order, says Stanley Coren, a canine expert and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Those breeds have been created recently compared with other dog breeds and may be smarter in part because we've trained and bred them to be so, Coren said. The dogs at the top of the pack are on par with a 2.5-year-old.

Better at math and socializing

While dogs ranked with the 2-year-olds in language, they would trump a 3- or 4-year-old in basic arithmetic, Coren found. In terms of social smarts, our drooling furballs fare even better.

"The social life of dogs is much more complex, much more like human teenagers at that stage, interested in who is moving up in the pack and who is sleeping with who and that sort of thing," Coren told LiveScience.

Coren, who has written more than a half-dozen books on dogs and dog behavior, will present an overview of various studies on dog smarts at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in Toronto.

"We all want insight into how our furry companions think, and we want to understand the silly, quirky and apparently irrational behaviors [that] Lassie or Rover demonstrate," Coren said. "Their stunning flashes of brilliance and creativity are reminders that they may not be Einsteins but are sure closer to humans than we thought."

Math test

To get inside the noggin of man's best friend, scientists are modifying tests for dogs that were originally developed to measure skills in children.

Here's one: In an arithmetic test, dogs watch as one treat and then another treat are lowered down behind a screen. When the screen gets lifted, the dogs, if they get arithmetic (1+1=2), will expect to see two treats. (For toddlers, other objects would be used.)

But say the scientist swipes one of the treats, or adds another so the end result is one, or three treats, respectively. "Now we're giving him the wrong equation which is 1+1=1, or 1+1=3," Coren said. Sure enough, studies show the dogs get it. "The dog acts surprised and stares at it for a longer period of time, just like a human kid would," he said.

These studies suggest dogs have a basic understanding of arithmetic, and they can count to four or five.

Basic emotions

Other studies Coren notes have found that dogs show spatial problem-solving skills. For instance, they can locate valued items, such as treats, find better routes in the environment, such as the fastest way to a favorite chair, and figure out how to operate latches and simple machines.

Like human toddlers, dogs also show some basic emotions, such as happiness, anger and disgust. But more complex emotions, such as guilt, are not in a dog's toolbox. (What humans once thought was guilt was found to be doggy fear, Coren noted.)

And while dogs know whether they're being treated fairly, they don't grasp the concept of equity. Coren recalls a study in which dogs get a treat for "giving a paw."

When one dog gets a treat and the other doesn't, the unrewarded dog stops performing the trick and avoids making eye contact with the trainer. But if one dog, say, gets rewarded with a juicy steak while the other snags a measly piece of bread, on average the dogs don't care about the inequality of the treats.

Top dogs

To find out which dogs had the top school smarts, Coren collected data from more than 200 dog obedience judges from the United States and Canada.

He found the top dogs, in order of their doggy IQ are:

   1. Border collies
   2. Poodles
   3. German shepherds
   4. Golden retrievers
   5. Dobermans
   6. Shetland sheepdogs
   7. Labrador retrievers

At the bottom of the intelligence barrel, Coren would include many of the hounds, such as the bassett hound and the Afghan hound, along with the bulldog, beagle and basenji (a hunting dog).

"It's important to note that these breeds which don't do as well tend to be considerably older breeds," he said. "They were developed when the task of a hound was to find something by smell or sight." These dogs might fare better on tests of so-called instinctive intelligence, which measure how well dogs do what they are bred to do.

"The dogs that are the brightest dogs in terms of school learning ability tend to be the dogs that are much more recently developed," Coren said. He added that there's a "high probability that we've been breeding dogs so they're more responsive to human beings and human signals." So the most recently bred dogs would be more human-friendly and rank higher on school smarts.

Many of these smarty-pants are also the most popular pets. "We like dogs that understand us," Coren said.

We also love the beagle, which made it to the top 10 list of most popular dog breeds in 2008 by the American Kennel Club. That's because they are so sweet and sociable, Coren said. "Sometimes people love the dumb blonde," Coren said.

And sometimes the dim-wits make better pets. While a smart dog will figure out everything you want it to know, your super pet will also learn everything it can get away with, Coren warns. 
--- End quote ---

Even though Shelties made the list, and we raise shelties, I think my collie is smarter and much more affectionate.

voyageur:
That’s great Laura; besides our dogs, we have had cats forever too. Now I know why my cat never listens, can’t make him sit, ignores me constantly unless it suits his desires. They do have a knack for finding heat, as mine lays between my writing desk and a crake against the wall where heat rises up. This is tolerated, even though his hair is drawn to the computer screen like a magnet.

Our cat Shadow (13 yrs) seems to have this other side (as the his name implies),  something along the lines of “High Strangeness”; living in the country, he for the last year,  has been hunting squirrels at night and bring back headless bodies, not only that, my wife and I sometimes find these bodies devoid of internal organs as they are splayed out beside the body in a scene reminiscent of a type of necromancy – this has us a beside ourselves in eerie concern.

Remembered reading something about cats in ancient Egypt, all residents were made to have one; the cats were said to leave the houses at night as spy’s, reporting on their masters, or some such lore.

All this being said, can’t see us not having a cat, however, I will put away the flash cards and try training no more.

Thanks.

Odyssey:
I do think dogs are smarter than cats and I'm an avowed "cat person".  They are more personable and interactive and seem to actually learn things.  All the cats I've had just like to lie about and get petted, some more than others.  I do love cats though but I think a small part of that is due to their being easier to take care of than dogs. 

I hope my cat doesn't read this.   :/

Helle:
You can teach a dog alot more than a cat, but I can't say if that makes the dog 'smarter'.
Different for sure I'd say.

I only have cats, because we have no room for dogs at the moment. My 4 cats have VERY varying degrees of 'intelligence', as I'm guessing is the case with dogs too.

I bet you can find a certain cat being 'smarter' than a certain dog, because a dog is not 'just' a dog, and neither is a cat. (same with humans actually).Depends how far along the animal in question is on his/her path towards 3D maybe.

But generally speaking, yes, a dog seems to be smarter than a cat.

mkrnhr:
I like both dogs and cats though I never possessed neither. However, even if cats seem to possess more Independence, more presence, or consciousness, they are completely selfish and sadistic with small animals. A cat of one of my neighbours, even well fed and treated better then the average human beings, kills bunnies  :O

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