Dogs vs Cats - Which is smarter?

[The Snark]

Rainy day. The cats queue on the upstairs landing: 'meeeeeeOUT!'
Sigh. I start talking to myself: 'You don't want to go out. You don't want to go out. You don't want to go out.' repeat, repeat.
MeeeeeeeeeeeOUT!!!!
You don't want to go out. You don't want to go out. You don't want to go out.
meeeeOUT meeeOUT meOUT? meeeeeeeee.... out?
You don't want to go out. You don't want to go out. You don't want to go out.
Gnarly gets up a head of steam: meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!
Screw it. I open the door. Both cats are horrified: We do NOT want to go out there!! You horrible person! How dare you??
2 minutes later: MeeeOUT!
That's IT! I shove her out the door with my foot.
Siren mode from the roof hip. Meeow meeow meeow meeow meeow meeow meeow.
I bring her in. Soggy, she goes to curse out me and the world. 3 minutes later it's Sea Cow: meeep! (Her version of a strident demand for attention). I'm getting fed up and ignore them.
meeep! meeep! meeep! MeeeeOUT! Gnarly is back.
I foot shove them both out and retreat downstairs where I can't hear the chorus for rescue. A few minutes later I relent. They both go off to sulk.
10 minutes later: MeeeeOUT! MeeeOUT! meeep! meep!

I have to go to the store. Resisting the urge to leave them both out on the porch I go down, get my rain togs on and go out into the carport. The dog comes out from under the jeep, stretching and yawning: "So like, where are we going?"
I get out my bike as I tell him: You don't want to go out there.
He looks down the driveway at the drizzle for a few moments then turns around: 'You're right. Have a nice ride. I'll be sleeping under the jeep. Wake me for dinner.'

 

[Chris LXXIX]

I always owned both for my entire life (sadly, not today anymore dogs, due to a lot of reasons) and i say: cats. Cats are a bit smarter. And they are very sensitive animals.
Like dogs as well. The key factor is, how you consider, and "train" them (train in the right way i mean, not like ignorants do here with Pitbulls).
Just that with dogs is obviously IMO more an easy task unlike with cats. When cats let "you" enter their world of play and games, you are just half the road.

 

[BobGrill]

Cats are more independent animals. To quote Robert De Niro " Cats make you work for their affection, they don't sell out the way dogs do."

Sent from my LG-D801 using Tapatalk

 

[PanzoN88]

I have owned both, but dogs are definitely smarter. Cats dont really care what happens and dogs are willing to take one in between the eyes for their owners.

 

[The Snark]

FACEPALM!

I did not mean to do it, oh holy moderapators upon high! Blame the Nescafe!

Meanwhile, using the scale of adaptive reasoning (remember all that noise about survival of the species?), verified by both behavioral and biological brain analysis, canines are several miles above felines. IE Primal does not equate to 'smart'. Now let the flame war commence!

 

[Chris LXXIX]

FACEPALM!

I did not mean to do it, oh holy moderapators upon high! Blame the Nescafe!

Meanwhile, using the scale of adaptive reasoning (remember all that noise about survival of the species?), verified by both behavioral and biological brain analysis, canines are several miles above felines. IE Primal does not equate to 'smart'. Now let the flame war commence!

Seriously, do you like Nescafe? It's not the first time i hear that from you

 

[The Snark]

Seriously, do you like Nescafe? It's not the first time i hear that from you

:barf: But on our budget it's either that or Khao Shan roasted sawdust and rabbit droppings simulated coffee like substance

 

[Chris LXXIX]

:barf: But on our budget it's either that or Khao Shan roasted sawdust and rabbit droppings simulated coffee like substance

What about Chai tea?

 

[Thistles]

Not my cat Aoife. She's probably 2 IQ points below a tarantula.

 

[PanzoN88]

Not my cat Aoife. She's probably 2 IQ points below a tarantula.

sounds like a dog i used to have (she grew in intelligence with age)

 

[The Snark]

It's very difficult to ascertain the intelligence of canines due to their adaptability. Training aside they auto-anthropomorphize as well as adopt other animals traits and behavior.

On the other hand, felines.
We can take the rock bottom of the spectrum with Bubble, aka The Blob. Normal position, on it's back, legs in the air, tongue sticking out. Exercise/activity regimen, the 20 or less steps to it's food bowl. Other activities, see normal position. I seriously doubt if it had more than 20 active synapses.

On the high end would be as demonstrated by a cougar I whiled away a few weeks tracking. It had worked out a deer herd to an exact science. It knew when they would be where over their normal 20 mile 24 hour schedule, when they would be in a long line and the precise location where it could take a straggler without spooking the rest of the herd. Added to this when it had taken a deer it did not make a general beeline towards it's den but made two wide circles going nearly a half mile out of it's way. One of the circles became immediately obvious; a bear patrol route. It didn't want the bear picking up the scent and tracking it. The other took me a couple of weeks to figure out. It circumvented another omnivores territory; mine. Where I had gone through the area several times to pick up it's tracks.
There was something almost Machiavellian in how it had worked out the kill spot where the herd would continue to travel through that area and it wouldn't have to extend it's territorial range. This enabled it to take 2 deer that I know of and I suspect 1 or 2 more over the course of that summer in that same general location. Smart, in an extremely primal, cunning sense.

 

[Formerphobe]

Cats vs dogs, apples vs oranges.... Depends on the individual, the day, the situation. I've seen a lot of rocks smarter than the average human.

 

[Thistles]

I have a few cats including Aoife the squash. She's actually brain damaged, so I suppose she has an excuse. I've never met a clumsier cat. "Feline grace?" No. At least she's pretty.

My (only) male cat is actually very bright. I call him my "puppy," which should tell you which species I consider to be smarter. Silas comes when called, knows what "no" means, and has taught himself a lot of "tricks" in the course of his mischief. He can open doors. He started opening the lever-type handles but he can now open round knobs, too. He also opens cabinets. If I haven't fed him in the morning, he will open and slam cabinets repeatedly to wake me up, or he'll bite my hair and shake it like a rat. He's also extremely charismatic and intuitive with other animals. He's wooed all of my lady cats, which have varying degrees of past trauma and disdain for one another but now all love him, by being patient and respectful.

 

[PanzoN88]

Cats vs dogs, apples vs oranges.... Depends on the individual, the day, the situation. I've seen a lot of rocks smarter than the average human.

best statement i have read all day

 

[spacekoyote]

I have to agree with formerphobes statement. I saw a prime example of that today. Me personally I prefer dogs but that's because iv grown up with then.

 

[Galapoheros]

:barf: But on our budget it's either that or Khao Shan roasted sawdust and rabbit droppings simulated coffee like substance

hmmm, don't give me any ideas, I like to experiment. I see cats as more instinctual, generally not as social in nature as canines are so they just don't come with the same kind of programming capability dogs do that allows them to work and with each other by learning more rather than instinct, imo. Cats have amazing innate talents, I've heard of them relocating their owners when being lost, miles away in unfamiliar territory, ..how do they do that?!

 

[cold blood]

Depends on the breed of dog...I firmly believe most dogs are smarter than most cats, and significantly so....just about anyone with a little effort can easily train just about any dog...I'd estimate less than 5% of all cats have ANY training aside from the basics....much, much easier to train even a dumber dog than an average cat.

Just look at all the acts of brilliance from dogs, they're everywhere daily occurrences...yeah, they happen with cats, but not nearly to the same level or with the same consistency.

Dogs are bred to learn, cats are just bred.

When was the last time you saw a seeing eye cat, or a bomb sniffing cat, or a rescue cat or a drug sniffing cat? The last time I saw any of those was never.

---------- Post added 09-19-2015 at 01:29 PM ----------

Cats have amazing innate talents, I've heard of them relocating their owners when being lost, miles away in unfamiliar territory, ..how do they do that?!

I'd bet historically, that there have been more dogs that have accomplished this than cats....cats have less reason to come home as is indicated by the feral cat population...its far more important for a dog, who will suffer and likely die if left feral. As a kid we lost a dog at a friends house, some 10 miles away from home....a few days later she was at the back porch.

 

[PanzoN88]

The statement of dogs being smarter than cats is backed up by science.

 

[Galapoheros]

I'd bet historically, that there have been more dogs that have accomplished this than cats....cats have less reason to come home as is indicated by the feral cat population...its far more important for a dog, who will suffer and likely die if left feral. As a kid we lost a dog at a friends house, some 10 miles away from home....a few days later she was at the back porch.

I guess there's no way to find that out, but I've heard stories about people taking their cats 20 miles out to the boonies only to find their cat back in the yard a few days later, it's weird, I wonder how they do it. I've heard that story from people I know more than a few times also. I haven't put it in a search engine but I bet you'd be surprised. I used to work with some rough people years ago, one guy that worked there before I showed up would live trap cats and then drop the cage in the deep end of his pool, terrible.

 

[The Snark]

I realize this is a subject near and dear to many, but may I please ask that we attempt to keep our contributions more along the lines of the scientific?

Adaptability. In evolutionary circles, this is the decisive factor. The difference between the prolific and successful and the wrong end of the conservation scale.

With felines, felis domesticus, the lines become blurred. They are very successful in adaptation but with a limited range of environments and as they adapt they move down the predator pyramid, becoming more and more removed from their apex predator ancestry. They are a synthesized breed, created by humans and are able to find niches in ecosystems. In fact of the matter, very similar to rabbits and numerous other 'invasive' animals. They require a habitat that is conducive to their survival. They are unable to alter their primal instincts and functions significantly. Should the habitat not provide them with necessities of survival they die out.

With canines it is an entirely different story. They have adaptability far beyond feline lines. Just looking at the family trees of dogs gives a picture of the drastic difference between them and cats. Felis domesticus is a potential evolutionary dead end. It has to find a conducive environment to survive. The canine alters it's body, all it's food acquisition functions and it's breeding habits. Climate wise the canine again demonstrates this adaptability with tolerance to extreme temperatures and water availability. Compare the lupines, the dingo or the St. Bernard to the Chihuahua. They are the same species, able to interbreed freely mechanics notwithstanding. The lion and the domestic Persian cat can not.

So you will always find the lines being crossed with individual examples, but with the entire breeds as a whole being taken into account, the ability to evolve and adapt is the deciding factor. Then intelligence weighs in on this adaptability scale. Note this isn't primal instruction sets but the animals ability to modify these instructions and pass the modifications down in it's genes. This is where the canine takes a huge leap past many other animals. It isn't all that effective as a predator. Most rely on packs for food. Packs equate to social interaction. But canine packs, unlike, as example, prides of lions, can readily adapt to accept outside members or even combine entire packs,. They are far more fluid and much less dependent upon their environment. They alter readily to a wide variety of environments and can move relatively freely across environmental borders.