How to explore ideas with your child: Are cats smarter than dogs?

Hey Alana, how are you?

I'm good, how are you?

I'm very well, thank you. So I was wondering, which do you think are smarter, cats or dogs?

Um, I would actually go with cats. I've heard that they're really smart, and I've never really heard from a book or from someone that dogs are Really smart. Like, they're really smart. Like, they're smart, but I would go cats are kind of smarter.

Okay. And what kind of things do you think— I'm getting an echo for some reason. Let's see if I have an echo. What kind of things can cats do that dogs cannot do?

Well, they can jump really high. They can land on their feet from like high distances. So if they jumped off maybe the TV or that mirror in front of me, they would land on their feet.

So does the ability to jump—

Yeah, like they know what they're doing. They know what they're doing. They know how to do it. Like if they're going through a bush of thorns, they know where to move. But they're sleek, they move fast.

Okay, so knowing where to move, I can't take it that's evidence of being smart?

Yeah.

Okay, do you think the dogs don't know where to move?

Well, they do know where to move, but like if, like for my example, like if they were going through a thorn, a bush of thorns, I would probably vote that dogs will kind of get more scratches than cats.

Okay, and so if we get scratched more going through thorns, that means we're stupider?

No. It's just like you don't know, well, it's not that you're stupider, it's just like you don't know, like maybe the cat has gone through it at least one time and the dog has, is just going there. Maybe he doesn't really follow the cat and her movements and he makes up his own maybe, and he get, I would kind of vote that he would get the most scratches.

But we were— you were using this as evidence that a cat is smarter, is that correct?

Yes.

So suppose, um, the cat goes through the bush— bushes, and the dog goes through the bushes, and then you go through the bushes, um, with the thorns. Do you think that you're gonna get scratched up as well?

Yeah, I would kind of be the same as the dog, not because I'm stupid or smarter may just be because I'm bigger and the dog too. Like maybe it's just because he and me is bigger than the cat because a cat can be really sleek and small. So if they go— so they can go through kind of small places.

If that's the case, if the reason the dog gets scratched up more is because he's bigger or she's bigger, then it sort of seems unfair to give the cat credit for being smart. We're going through there.

Yeah, I need to find another example.

Okay, fair enough. Okay, fair enough. So what's other evidence that Catherine is smarter?

Um, maybe— well, I don't really have any evidence, but this could happen, like maybe the dog and the cat were being attacked, maybe the dog wouldn't know what to do except bark. Maybe the cat would hide and sometimes maybe find like a space to like wait until it's safe, or maybe she can do something to help, like maybe jump on him and scratch him and drive him away. And the dog could do that too. Actually, no, no, I don't know.

Okay, I'm going to give you a different kind of direction. So people can train dogs to roll over. Can they train cats to roll over?

Um, they probably could.

And they can train dogs to, um, you know, they can train dogs to track somebody. So like if somebody's lost, a little kid is lost, they can train a dog to— because dogs smell really well, they can train a dog to go track the lost child. Do you think they could train cats to do that?

They could, but I've never seen one. Actually, now that you say it, now I don't know, but there's some advantages to dog and there's some advantages to cat. I just don't know which one is better.

So it might be the dogs are smarter in some ways and cats are smarter in other ways?

Yeah.

Okay. How about people? Are people smarter than dogs and cats or are dogs and cats just as smart as people?

If you say like math, I would say— like math or reading or spelling, I would think humans, but other than that, I don't really know.

So math or reading or spelling, humans? Math or reading or spelling, humans?

Yeah. Um, if you're talking about that kind of smart.

How about not getting lost? How about not getting lost?

Hmm. Yeah. Like maybe if you're lost in the grocery store, you, a human would, or like a person would stay in one place. So if your parent or aunt or whoever you're with walks by, you can just go to them.

Do you think that humans do that better than dogs? Do you think that humans do that better than dogs?

Um, probably because, um, maybe the dog would go running looking for its owner or something.

Okay, and how about cats? Okay, and how about cats?

Um, cats would probably go to a high place and kind of search death and kind of look down to find her owner. Then when she sees him, she just jumps down and finds it.

Okay, well, um, because I've got a strange echo and we've sort of figured out partially dogs and cats and humans, um, anything else you want to say about it before we call it a day?

Um, not really.

Okay, have a great week. Maybe we talk next week. Okay, bye-bye.