Duh !

Above, Bella and Min Cat keep warm. 

Duh!  As a service to dogkind, I am including several studies, proving that dogs are smarter than cats, and dogs are even smarter than many children.  We have always know that, but there are non-believers out there that don't always give dogs the credit they are due.   Link to source here.

Dogs Are More Clever Than Cats, Study Says

"In an experiment, scientists gave cats string with a treat on the end. The cats would pull the string and get the treat. Faced with two strings — one bearing a treat, the other not — the cats were befuddled.

Dogs figured the two-string experiment out, however. "Cats do not understand cause-and-effect connections between objects," the researcher says. Perhaps that explains how they can sneak up and scratch you, again and again, even though you make it clear you do not like it. Dogs, well, they learn to please, don't they?

A study in 2007 found dogs could use touch-screen computers to accurately classify color photographs by recognizing the concept of a dog vs. a photo with no dog."

Then to follow up on that 2007 study that proves that dogs can use computers, I have included the following for your reference:   Link to source here.

They sport bejeweled chokers, lavish in spa bubble baths and have their own leather-bag chauffeurs. And now our almost-human dogs might also try their paws at computers.

Four dogs strutted their stuff recently by using touch-screen computers to classify color photographs for a study of animal cognition.

"Using touch-screen computers with dogs opens up a whole world of possibilities on how to test the cognitive abilities of dogs by basically completely controlling any influence from the owner or experimenter," the University of Vienna, Austria, researchers write in the most recent online issue of the journal Animal Cognition.

Getting inside the brains of our canine pets has been frustrating for researchers, because a foolproof method for testing dog smarts has remained elusive. Until now, methods relied on the dog's owner or an experimenter to cue the animal, a variable that could influence the results.

Friederike Range and colleagues turned to computers. In order to test whether dogs can visually categorize pictures and transfer their knowledge to new situations, four dogs were shown landscape and dog photographs, and expected to make a selection on a computer touch-screen.

In the training phase the dogs were shown a landscape photo and dog photo simultaneously on a computer screen. When they nose-selected the dog, they received a treat.

To test whether the canines could transfer the learned info to a new situation, the researchers flashed onto the screens a different set of dog-landscape photographs. Sure enough, the four-legged subjects chose the dog photographs.

Then, the researchers added a twist: The dog pictures were pasted onto the landscape pictures used in the training phase. In this test, the dogs had to choose between a dog-on-landscape image and a landscape-only photo. Good doggies ... they aced the test, selecting the images that included dogs.

The results indicate, according to the authors, the dogs were able to form a concept of a "dog." Whether the dogs recognized the pup pictures as actual dogs, however, is unknown.

Here is the article that proves that the average dog is smarter than the average toddler:

Dogs are cuddly, playful, loyal -- and smart. But you totally already knew that. Now science tells us just how smart they really are.    Link to source here.

The average dog has mental abilities akin to those of a two-year-old child, according to Stanley Coren, a dog expert and professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia. Coren presented an overview of dog-intelligence studies at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting this week.

In tests of language development, Coren said, the average dog can learn 165 words, including signals and gestures. That's comparable to the performance of a two-year-old toddler. The brainiest breeds can do even better, with some smarty-pants mastering a whopping 250 words (we're guessing half of these are synonyms for dinner).

Dogs are also impressive when it comes to crunching numbers. Pups can count to four or five -- a skill on par with a three- or four-year old child, reports Livescience.com.

Other studies have found that dogs have good spatial problem-solving skills, and can show basic emotions such as happiness, disgust and anger. One emotion man's best friend doesn't suffer from? Guilt. What may seem like a guilty look is actually a dog's fear, according to Coren.

Not all canines are created equal, and Coren weighed in on which breeds are smartest -- and which aren't exactly the sharpest knives in the drawer. He surveyed more than 200 dog-obedience judges to rank 110 breeds by intelligence. The top five smartest dogs, in order of their scores, were border collies, poodles, German shepherds, golden retrievers and doberman pinschers. The five breeds that aren't the sharpest spikes on the collar? Borzois, chow chows, bulldogs, basenjis and, in dead last, Afghan hounds (ouch!).

Coren noted that the dog varieties which scored lower on intelligence tests were often older breeds developed for skills like hunting. They might do better on tests of instinctive intelligence, such as in locating something by sight or smell. The craftier canines, meanwhile, are more recent breeds that were likely bred to be more human-friendly.

Today, people often go for the smartest breeds when adopting a new pooch. "We like dogs that understand us," Coren told Livescience.com. But having Einstein for a pet has a downside. Super-smart dogs will easily learn precisely what they can get away with, Coren warned. And on the flip side, Coren said, some dimwitted dogs like beagles make popular pets, thanks to their sweet and sociable natures. "Sometimes people love the dumb blonde."

The above article has been included in my blog as a public service. Not to mention that it is going to irritate our cat readers immensely. Humans are the ones that need to be evaluated for intelligence! Hey, Mr. Scientist person, who do you think writes all of the dog blogs? Do Scientists think that humans are smart enough to do it?  How silly.

Border collies, poodles and shepherds have esteem problems, which is why they listed them first in the intelligence rankings.   Golden Retrievers and Labs are really the smartest, but we don't have self esteem problems, so they listed us as fourth to help the others feel better about themselves.    I guess it is a small sacrifice to make to help our friends. 



So there!  Take that you "smarty cats".  Dogs Rule!

Mogley G. Retriever