Who's Smarter: Dogs Or Cats?

Pooch ready for play at the Duke Canine Cognition Center. Photo courtesy of the Wall Street Journal

Well, if the Wall street Journal can't decide, neither can we! Check out this essay written by two animal researchers from a recent Wall Street Journal, for proof positive (despite the title) that the jury's still out on which species is smarter-but it does provide a review of some of the latest research on dog and cat cognition that is quite eye-opening.

Let us know what you think. In general, which species do you think is smarter, dogs or cats?
We'll vote first and go with dogs as the smarter species. But hey, even though I'm forced to live with a cat, this is my blog after all!

P.S. Speaking of animal cognition, here's a heads up: In a few weeks we'll be bringing you a review and giveaway of a wonderful new book: Animal Wise-The Thoughts And Emotions Of Our Fellow Creatures by science writer, Virgina Morell. Ms. Morell is the author of three other books and is a regular contributor to National Geographic, Science and Smithsonian, among other prestigious publications.

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Who's Smarter...Dogs Or Cats?

Well, after you read this article from the Science Section of the  Huffington Post, published just a few days ago, feel free to let us know what you think. It seems that the scientists are at a bit of a standoff. Of course from my perspective, dogs are way smarter! We have larger brains, which in theory, at least allow us the opportunity to be smarter. And we engage more with humans in both play and work, which increases our brain power.

But there's another side to the story. It turns out that cats have a different kind of intelligence, sort of like book learning versus emotional intelligence in humans, and really can't be accurately compared. And cats have twice as many neurons in their cerebral cortex, the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory, as dogs, so their capacity to process information is greater. Hmmmm.

So where do you fall in the great debate? We'd love to hear!

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