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I don't know about that. Dogs are easier to train than cats and that seems to make some people think that means they are smarter. Which it doesn't. It just means they are more cooperative.
I've had both dogs and cats. I've had smart dogs and dumb dogs, and smart cats and dumb cats. It's extremely difficult to compare the intelligence of completely different species. Unless the difference is enormous. For example, I assure you that a cat is smarter than a chicken. But even chickens are smarter than most people give them credit for.
Humans tend to think that whatever thinks the most like a human thinks is the smartest. I don't think that is true, either. Different types of animals use different thought processes. That does not make them dumb, just different.
Cats can train humans- they must be pretty smart.
I too have had smart ones and dumb ones for both cats and dogs.
I find that between the two, the cats are smarter. The cat I have now accidentally learned that sitting, or walking across the keyboard of an asleep computer will make noise and wake us up. It took her one time doing this to do it again many months later so we would stop ignoring her and let her out.
I also use a large bell attached to a cord hanging from the door knob on the back door.
My animals learn to ring the bell when they want out. I don't 'train' them to do this. The cats learn by playing with it and then being let out. The dogs eventually figure it out too. But the cats have been quicker at figuring it out.
I don't know which species is smarter but what is important(To me anyway) is which species can actually be utilized when it comes to training. A dog can be useful with farm work, law enforcement, guard duty and wars. Dogs just make better companions IMO. Smarter? Maybe not. But let me know when cats start taking down criminals, serve as sentries, detect mines and then show affection whenever it's needed from them.
..............I also use a large bell attached to a cord hanging from the door knob on the back door.
My animals learn to ring the bell when they want out. I don't 'train' them to do this. The cats learn by playing with it and then being let out. The dogs eventually figure it out too. But the cats have been quicker at figuring it out.
Which does not mean that cats are smarter. All it means is that cats have an instinct to bat at dangling objects and dogs don't. Instinctive behavior does not necessarily indicate clever thought.
I, too, use a bell for the dogs. My older dog would go and ring the bell when the young dogs were bothering her with rowdy play. I would open the door, the pups would run outside, and the older dog would go back to bed.
She also tried ringing the bell when the young dog had a nice chewie. She would ring the bell, I would open the door, and the young dogs would drop the chewie and go outside. The old dog would get the chewie and take it to her bed.
But that only worked about 6 times. After that, the older dog would ring the bell, the young one would run to me and push the chewie into my hand and she would get it back from me when she came back inside. I suspect that is reasoning and not instinct.
i dont belive Either species is smarter, i belive they are both equally inteligent nd that we as humans are the dumb ones for trying to interpret animal inteligence by how "trainable" the animal is overall and how that so called "inteligence" fits with out own desires and needs...
Humans tend to think that whatever thinks the most like a human thinks is the smartest. I don't think that is true, either. Different types of animals use different thought processes. That does not make them dumb, just different.
BRAVO! Comparing cat's intelligence to dogs or horses or pigs or the smarts of apes to monkeys and chickens is crazy, yet people tend to do it all the time. Each animal has the intelligence needed for it to survive. Indeed some cats may be "smarter" than other cats, learn faster perhaps, just as in human beings, but that is about all.
I don't know which species is smarter but what is important(To me anyway) is which species can actually be utilized when it comes to training. A dog can be useful with farm work, law enforcement, guard duty and wars. Dogs just make better companions IMO. Smarter? Maybe not. But let me know when cats start taking down criminals, serve as sentries, detect mines and then show affection whenever it's needed from them.
That's not what cats do so why try and compare them? You're trying to compare apples with oranges. They are totally different fruit. Intelligence is not involved. Dogs naturally live in packs and take down larger animals. Therefore it's easy to train many of them to take down a criminal, or even without training, some will attack and kill people, especially children. Don't you read the papers? Watch the News on TV? You call that "intelligence?"
When was the last time you saw a pack of cats take down and kill a human being for the sheer hell of it? Because of prey-drive and instinct?
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. One day the kitten, around 9 to 12 weeks old, wakes up to find it's mother gone - it's feed itself or die. Not so with the dog. Does that make the kitten more intelligent than the puppy? Of course not.
You're trying to compare the wrong animals. Don't compare cats with dogs.
Different animals have different abilities, even within species. Some cats are dumb, some cats are smart. Some dogs are dumb, some dogs are smart.
See how it works?
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Comparing cat's intelligence to dogs or horses or pigs or the smarts of apes to monkeys and chickens is crazy, yet people tend to do it all the time. Each animal has the intelligence needed for it to survive. Indeed some cats may be "smarter" than other cats, learn faster perhaps, just as in human beings, but that is about all. 
