# Are dogs smarter than cats?



## Hooked (2/12/17)

Who needs scientific research to answer this? My dogs told me the answer a long time ago! 

"You know that age-old debate about whether dogs are smarter than cats? Well, science now has a definitive answer. It's dogs.

That's the conclusion of an international team of researchers, who found that dogs possess twice the number of neurons than cats. Neurons are cells that process information. And so, the more neurons an animal has, the better its information processing capability, these scientists say.
The study was conducted by researchers from six universities in the US, Brazil, Denmark and South Africa. It's been accepted for publication in the journal Frontiers in Neuroanatomy."

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/01/health/dogs-smarter-than-cats-study-trnd/index.html

Reactions: Winner 1


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## Rob Fisher (2/12/17)

I won't show this to Baby Choo because she would disagree.

Reactions: Funny 3


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## Stillwaters (2/12/17)

Cats are definitely smarter. Dogs have owners, cats have slaves

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 3


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## DaveH (3/12/17)

I have no idea if dogs are smarter than cats, however I do know a lot of dogs are smarter than their owners.
Dave

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 4 | Funny 3


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## Raindance (3/12/17)

One often hears statements relating brain size to intelligence and cognitive abilities. If I however consider the abilities if most birds to navigate and control their movement along three axis while moving at relative speed through a moving medium, not even mentioning their construction abilities, this relationship seems flawed.
It can be argued that birds come pre-programmed with this knowledge and their abilities are the result of hard wired instinct rather than learned behavior. But knowledge is knowledge none the less.

Dogs may and surely have a larger capacity for learning than cats. Their eagerness to please also contributes to this ability whereas cats would much rather modify their owners behavior than their own. A skill that may be hot-wired but is very effective none the less.

Cats in general are solitary animals whereas dogs are pack animals and as pack members needed to evolve the ability to develop, learn, understand and function within intricate and complex social structures. The ability to learn behaviors rather than reacting based on instinctive impulses therefore may create differences in the parts of the brain responsible for each. Referring to the primitive brain, etc. here.

So the question is what exactly is to be considered as being smarter? The person born with the mathematical ability of a genius as the result of genetic inheritance or the person that achieved the same level of mathematical proficiency through learned behavior? Relating this to cats and dogs, which is to be considered smarter? The animal born with the skill to manipulate its servants to do their bidding or the animal which has the ability to learn behaviors in order to please their masters?

Looking at brain size alone is like judging the effectiveness of a software program by the number of lines of coding it contains and then saying the more code it contains the better the program must be. Fact is the opposite is mostly the case. So, larger brains may in fact indicate the opposite of what popular opinion may want us to believe. 

Please be aware that the above is the very biased opinion of a cat servant with many masters.

Regards

Reactions: Winner 5 | Funny 1


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## Hooked (3/12/17)

Raindance said:


> ... cats and dogs, which is to be considered smarter? The animal born with the skill to manipulate its servants to do their bidding or the animal which has the ability to learn behaviors in order to please their masters?
> 
> Please be aware that the above is the very biased opinion of a cat servant with many masters.
> 
> Regards



@Raindance Believe me, my dogs manipulate me every day, but nevertheless, I am the pack leader and I have their permission to say so.

Reactions: Like 2


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## Raindance (3/12/17)

In a slight deviation from the original topic, if we were to ask whom is the smartest between cats, dogs and people, it is the human whom would come in last. That we can agree on that no doubt.

Regards

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Silver (3/12/17)

Raindance said:


> One often hears statements relating brain size to intelligence and cognitive abilities. If I however consider the abilities if most birds to navigate and control their movement along three axis while moving at relative speed through a moving medium, not even mentioning their construction abilities, this relationship seems flawed.
> It can be argued that birds come pre-programmed with this knowledge and their abilities are the result of hard wired instinct rather than learned behavior. But knowledge is knowledge none the less.
> 
> Dogs may and surely have a larger capacity for learning than cats. Their eagerness to please also contributes to this ability whereas cats would much rather modify their owners behavior than their own. A skill that may be hot-wired but is very effective none the less.
> ...



Loved this post @Raindance

Reactions: Agree 1 | Thanks 1


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## antonherbst (3/12/17)

Depends on your perspective of smart. I am a total dog type of person and my jackrussel; meisiekind is absolutely smart. She can judge the trajectory and landing position of a returning tennis ball I threw against the wall. In my opinion that is super smart as I know some folks that can't even do that.

Reactions: Like 2 | Agree 1


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