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just because they cant see red the way WE do doesnt mean theres no differentiate between shades of whatever colors they do see he knows the difference between his red mouse and his blue mouse even if the colors do not look to him as they look to me...
i simpley dont belive INTELIGENCE can be detirmined by how an animal reacts to HUMAN based stimuli or judgment....
heck even a goldfish can be taught tricks if you spend enough time with it...does that make it any ore or less inteligent than a sparrow?! NO because your comparing apples to porcupines...
WE as a race are basing inteligence on OUR parameters...bsing them on what we see as inteligence in our own race...
i dont belive cats are smarter than dogs, but i dont belive dogs are sarter than cats, i belive they both have an equal inteligence as based o their own race and parameters, i just thing dogs are more trainable due to their esire to please and we as humans associate trainability with inteligence...
for example compring apples to apples...
the standard poodle, a "highly inteligent" breed...
why is it "inteligent", because its highly trainable, eager to please and perform on command
the afghan hound a "dumb" breed...
why is it "dumb" because they can be difficult to train they hve no desie to "perform" and realy dont care if your pleased...
the "INGELIGENCE" is based on what we as humans find "attraftive" and desireable...yet ive worked with many an afghan who while "playing dumb" outthinks even the best TRAINED poodle...
not because theyve learnt better tricks or understand commands but becaue they actually THINK thorough what our asking of them THEN decide if its worth their while...
i dont belive the afghan is any smarter or dumber than a poodle and visa versa, i just elive they have completly different motivations, and that OUR level of measuring inteligence as humans isnt even remotly complex enough to comprehend inteligence in animals of the same species let along trying to compre them to other species.
My parrot for example is likely "smarter" than your border collie, not only does he understand human word but can USE them, and use them correctly in a sentence...by human inteligence being able to communicate is huge. he can also use nd manipulate TOOLS another measure of inteligence
Jack doesnt Mimic, he actually communicates he tells me what he wants, and forms simple sentence structure....
Deos this realy mean hes MORE inteligent thn dog?! NO...
it ust means he has a different type of inteligence...
Well lets hope spelling ability does not correlate....
Anyway, just because intelligence can be measured and defined different ways does not mean that it cannot be compared. When intelligence is defined as problem solving ability, ability to understand language and the ability to use logic and reasoning it cannot be denied that dogs are "smarter" by those measures.
You can "believe" otherwise all you like, but you are still wrong.
Seriously, read the research done on the BCs Chaser or Betsy, in empirical test both have the ability to find a new unseen object based on a name they have never heard before. That ability to use deduction is exceptional among almost all animals, including many primates.
Again, I don't think you can say either is smarter, just smart in different ways. But if dogs are so definitively smarter than cats, why is it that most cats can make most dogs look like complete fools? Neighbors' wandering cats love nothing better than to sit outside our window and taunt the dogs, who obligingly act like idiots for them. (I tell them "That cat is laughing at you!" But they let them yank their chain every time. ) My female cat loves to control hallways, and all the 50-80 pound dogs I've had with her are/were afraid to pass until I pick her up. And it's not that she actually does anything to hurt them. She just has an attitude of superiority. No, I don't really think that makes them stupid. But it's not exactly smart, either. They're just lucky my other two cats like them, or their lives would be really difficult with 3 cats around!
Maybe its the scientist in me but all the anecdotes, as cute and meaningful as they maybe to the owner, are not going to discount empirically derived data.
I agree, intelligence can be defined in more than one way, but in the ways I mentioned, dogs scored higher. This includes other ideas like object permanence. Additionally, cats do less well at problem based cause and effect than dogs.
I have yet to find in the lit a type of measurable intelligence where cats out perform dogs but I suspect there might be some.
We can't even define intelligence when it comes to human beings.
Now we're going to try to define animal intelligence and do a side-by-side experiment of TWO DIFFERENT SPECIES?
That's like saying dogs are dumb because I am smarter than a dog. You can't compare humans and dogs (though my dogs seem like they have way more common sense than some people I have met). Just like you can't compare dogs and cats.
Which has nothing to do with cats. You just prefer one over the other - that's all. I bet you never owned a cat, or if you did, it was an outdoor cat you never related to.
Why do people make this assumption when someone doesn't care for their personal choice of pet? I see posts like this by dog and cat owners all the time. If you don't care for one or the other, they assume you "just don't know" that you like a particular pet because you've never had one on whatever terms they mention.
It's like someone telling me I'd like peas if I just tried them the way they like them prepared. No, I would not. I would still dislike peas in any form you could create. Just like I would dislike being a cat owner and others would dislike being a dog owner on any terms you could suggest. Why do some people feel the need to push their choices on others?
I don't like peas or cats.
Not cuz they're not smarter/as smart.
Just because they don't relate to me the way I expect my domestic animals/family members to relate to me.
I feel the same way about my wife's two teacup chihuahuas. Might as well be cats.
Is this threat a gag??? Everybody knows dogs are smarter. A study of Scientists at Oxford, the Scientific American, along with a bunch of newspapers like the Wall Street Journal, not to mention dozens of television documentaries and books have reems of satistics, tests, mazes, commands, reaction time, the whole nine yards, that PROVE dogs are smarter than cats. This is not just an opinion. And the measurements used have improved not only for people over the years, but also for animals. Now, the confusion MAY come from domestication, dogs have been with human beings thousands of years before cats. Cats were all over Egyptian carvings becaue they kept their enormous graineries free of rats and mice. And then there's common sense. If you fell in a lake and didn't know how to swim, and both your cat and dog knew how to swim, which one would come get you? And if you put a dog's food and cat's food down in new locations, who would be not only eating their own food within minutes, but also the other's, it would be the dog. I've owned both creatures, rabbits, fish, and birds, and I'd have to say that the possums living under my houe are the smartest ones. SMILE.
Cats can't be trained to do that because it's not what cats do. They hunt small animals ALONE. They don't take down deer or wild pigs in cat-packs. Also, kittens are on their own at much younger ages than dogs who remain in the pack and have months to learn to hunt from the others. Kittens have to learn to feed themselves in mere weeks, they don't reply on older pack members to feed them.
Not quite true, none of the above applies to lions, the only feline that has a social structure somewhat similar to the canine pack. Prides hunt very large extremely dangerous prey such as Cape buffalo bulls in cordinated group attacks, and cubs are fed by experienced adult hunters until they are almost adults and ready to join in the hunting.
Which has nothing to do with cats. You just prefer one over the other - that's all. I bet you never owned a cat, or if you did, it was an outdoor cat you never related to.
You assume wrong. I've had quite a few cats in my past. Have picked up a couple strays as well. I love all animals and loved my cats.
As I've gotten older, I much rather have an animal that will acknowledge me and that actually enjoys being taught new things.
Seriously we need to be careful this doesn't turn into a thread about a kind of pet being better or an owner with a specific preference being in some way superior to another.
I mean, come on. Let's bring fish into this, why don't we? Is anyone going to argue that a fish has an intelligence even vaguely close to even the dumbest cat or dog? I would hope not. So does that mean that people who prefer aquariums full of fish are in some way inferior to someone with a cat or dog? What a silly premise! They like their choice for completely different and no less legit reasons.
Now objectively, although I vastly prefer cats as my personal companion creatures of choice, I think that the top examples of intelligence among dogs are orders of magnitude smarter than any cat, probably including the big cats. Because we, humans, the brain-monkeys of planet earth, have engineered and trained them to be. But a dog will never realize its potential without that training. Which is one of the biggest reasons I prefer a cat...I don't want to spend my time working with and training an animal. The only training my cat needed was to stay off of my countertops, and that's been quite easy.
My cat is probably not as smart as most dogs. But as he's not going to have to face off against one in a chess tournament any time soon, and I feel no need to consult him on the finer points of my own philosophical conundrums...I think we're both OK with it. He brings me tremendous happiness and is adored in return, so really...why does it matter?
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) My female cat loves to control hallways, and all the 50-80 pound dogs I've had with her are/were afraid to pass until I pick her up. And it's not that she actually does anything to hurt them. She just has an attitude of superiority. No, I don't really think that makes them stupid. But it's not exactly smart, either. They're just lucky my other two cats like them, or their lives would be really difficult with 3 cats around!
