Ah, the old debate between dog and cat lovers. Let’s explore the commonly asked question, “Are cats smarter than dogs?” What do your instincts tell you? This question has been raising the eyebrows of dog and cat lovers for decades. In the past, brain size has been used as the main determining factor in answering this question. Dogs do have larger brains than cats, so it was once believed that no matter what, the larger the brain, the smarter the animal.
Consideration
But just because a dog’s brain is larger, does that automatically mean dogs are smarter? Joan Liebmann-Smith Ph.D, Huffington Post writer mentions, “Men, for example, have somewhat larger brains than women do, but men are not necessarily smarter.” She also points out that Alex, the famous African Grey Parrot has a tiny bird brain, but has demonstrated intelligence that far surpasses dogs, reciting a vocabulary of over 100 words for example.
Research
With that being said, according to a recent study at Oxford University, the size of a dog’s brain has been continually growing over centuries, where the size of a cat’s brain has remained unchanged for the past 8,000 years when cats were domesticated. This brain growth in dogs may be attributed to the fact that dogs are far more social by nature than cats are. Cats on the other hand are loners by nature, who only interact with others when they absolutely need to.
Logical Examination
One might easily be led to believe that dogs are smarter than cats, simply because of all of the ways a dog’s natural skills and instincts are used for the greater good. For example, police dogs are trained to sniff out drugs, and apprehend criminals who are on the run. Someone may be able to outrun a police officer, but the keen instincts of a German shepherd are hard to outsmart.
Service dogs are another perfect example. Seeing-eye dogs guide the blind. Search and rescue dogs save human lives. Therapy dogs stand by the side of their owners, and provide them with a sense of safety that they might have had difficulty finding otherwise.
Have you ever heard of a search and rescue cat? Not so much. Cats are very special in their own way, but their natural skills and instincts simply cannot match a canine’s.
The Obvious Answer
The bottom line is that dogs have recently been scientifically proven to be smarter than cats. An international research team made up of scientists from the US, Brazil, Denmark and South Africa published their findings in the medical journal publication, Frontiers in Neuroanatomy. The team developed a method of counting brain cells in dogs and cats, thereby comparing the two. Here is what they found. A cat’s cerebral cortex has around 250 million neurons, and a 15-pound mixed breed dog has 429 million. So basically this proves that dogs have almost twice as many neurons as cats do in their brain. This fact further supports earlier research that hypothesized that dogs are truly smarter than cats.
So the final answer? Your finicky cat’s brain cannot outweigh the intelligence and natural instincts of your trusty canine companion.