The smartest of dogs are impressively smart indeed.
Dumb dogs, however, are pretty darn dumb.
Ever met a dumb cat? I have, and it was pretty dumb.
My previous kitty did, in fact, know her name (and came when called – ahem – when she felt like it, of course), and also understood the following phrases: “Wanna go outside?”, “Let’s go in the house”, and “Ok, duck” (she would stand perfectly still while I unhooked her harness until I said “Ok, duck”, even if I finished unhooking her and just made her stand there to prove she was responding to the words, not the action). And we literally had to start spelling the words ‘brush’ and ‘brushed’ around her, unless we really were in the mood to brush her!
Speaking of which, this cat loved to be brushed so much that she learned exactly how to get us to do so, through a series of steps. First, she figured out that whenever she heard the hairdryer, that meant I had a brush in my hand, so she’d come in the bathroom, sit on the toilet (we always keep the lid down), and “ask” to be brushed, both verbally and with those Puss in Boots eyes.
Then, she figured out that every time she heard the hair dryer, she had heard the shower just before that, so instead of waiting until hearing the dryer, she started showing up in the bathroom, sitting patiently on the toilet, while I was showering. I’ll tell you, it was quite hilarious the first time I drew back the curtain to find her already perched and ready!
And finally, she decided that she had no intention of waiting until I was ready to shower in order to be brushed. She figured out that all she had to do was go into the bathroom, jump up on the toilet and start yelling, and finding her in there, we’d naturally do whatever our Kitty Overlady demanded. Go Mew!
My current cat definitely knows her name and comes when she’s called. I haven’t figured out any other words or phrases she may know yet, as I’ve only had her for a year, and got her as an adult (I had the previous one from 8 weeks old). But she’s definitely smart in other ways, too. For instance, she creates obstacles for herself to overcome during play, such as bringing her chosen toy to a particular location, hiding it, then “hunting” for it. She also goes to her toy basket and digs around in it until she finds whatever she wants to play with, takes it out either with her teeth or her paw, whichever will work best, then goes about playing with it.
And she’s very good at talking to us to tell us when she wants something, too. The other night she was making a major fuss in the other room, so I asked my husband to find out what she wanted. Seems she’d batted a favorite mousie under the microwave cart and need assistance getting it out. It worked – smart cat!
Very true - hence the Lurcher (an animal with most of the speed of a greyhound, but with some of the dumb taken out by crossing with a collie)
Going back 35 years, all my cats have known how to spell. They’ve understood that E-A-T means chow time. And a couple of them have learned how to fetch without being taught. And they learned *from each other *to come running when they hear the can opener, even though the more recent ones weren’t even born when I stopped using it for cat food.
The only word that cat’s cannot comprehend is “No!”
My cat understands “no”, but chooses not to follow the command most of the time. She also knows her name and the different meanings of the tongue clickings I employ when I’m too lazy to speak.
And she’s certainly smart enough to be vindictive and annoying. I have a closet door that I’ve blocked with a weight to keep her out and off my clean clothes. She knows she can’t open the door, but when I do something she disapproves of - say kicking her out of my chair - she goes right over to that closet door and scratches at it. Smart.
This is exactly what I was going to say, well not so eloquently -
Dogs do what dogs were selected to do, and cats do what cats were selected to do by environmental pressures. In this regard you couldn’t say any animal is “smarter” than another, unless you first agree that the animal is as self-aware as an adult human.
Every single thing dogs and cats do can be explained by natural selection. Sure there might be the mutant in there that learns how to juggle, but as a species they do what they are programmed to do (fetch, lead, follow, hunt, sleep, cuddle, eat, run around the house at top speed for no apparent reason other than to sound like a horse, etc).
Also cats can read, they wait for the dog to fetch the paper, sleeping is the priority
Actually the herding ability of Dogs and the Cats ability to come running when they hear an electric can opener have little to do with natural selection. The first is a bred for trait and the second is, well an example of cats teaching themselves I believe.
Jim
Cecil really dropped the ball on this one. The correct answer is dogs.
Given animals of similar size, social animals are smarter because being a social animal requires more brainpower. Cats are social to an extent, but nowhere near as much as dogs, who hunt in coordinated packs in the wild. That takes brainpower.
Not to mention the vastly larger vocabulary that dogs have. Yes, cats can learn a few words, but dogs can learn many, many more.
The sad truth is that the SDMB is so overpopulated with cat lovers that this question will likely never get any kind of consensus other than “cats are smarter, because my Fluffykins does this super cute blah blah blah.”
The most ridiculous answers – and shame on you for doing this in GQ – involve statements like “dogs will fetch, while cats just sit there. So who’s smarter?” By that same logic, a retarded kid is smarter than an average one.
Cats may hunt alone, but I do believe that they are social animals (lions, for example, live in prides).
My (former) cat, Ashley, is very sociable. In fact, she and I would often play hide-and-seek (seriously!). I’d get on all fours, and “stalk” her. She’d crouch down behind doors, and would run off as soon as I got close.
Once, she even won the game. True story: I was home visiting my Mom at Xmas time. Ashley and I started playing, and she ran into my room. I scurried into the room after her, and looked under the bed. No Ashley. I looked in the closet. No Ashley. I actually started to doubt that she was there. As I turned to leave, however, she darted out of an empty shopping bag laying on the floor, where she had been sitting still and hiding while I had searched the room.
Granted, this may raise the question, “Who is smarter, Atomicktom or a cat?” It does, however, lend credence to the social nature of cats, irrespective of their hunting habits.
My argument pegs lions as being the smartest felines, on par with wolves.
Apolgies for the sidetrack; I now return the thread to the endless parade of cute cat stories.
Indeed! They even read Danish! 
Personally, I like the idea of a dog that’s a willing member and participant in family affairs, instead of a cat that’s a freeloading furball that takes a dump in a box inside the house.
I’ve been around a lot of cats, and they’ve just never struck me as having the same level of interactivity as dogs do, and I’m sure it’s 100% due to the pack nature of dogs vs. the independent hunter nature of cats.
As for intelligence, my old dog used to have a series of different bark patterns depending on what he wanted; he barked differently when he was hungry as opposed to when he wanted to take a leak, or if someone was at the door. Usually, if he was hungry and/or had to whiz, he’d come into the room, bark his particular bark for it, and then lead you to either the bowl or the back door. It was a different enough bark that we would comment 'Oh… he’s hungry." or “He has to take a leak again?”.
Proof positive that cats are indeed the smarter.
The mods may now close this thread 
It’s been said before, but it’s still true:
A Dog says:
this human feeds me, cleans me, comes running when I call, and takes care of my every need.
He must be a god, and I will serve him faithfully.
A Cat says:
this human feeds me, cleans me, comes running when I call, and takes care of my every need.
I must be a god, and he will serve me faithfully.
Awwwwww! I wonder if my cats, who have no Danish ancestry and have never seen anything written in Danish (AFAIK), could read Danish.
My Katya has trained me and Mr. Neville. There is a specific (and extremely cute) squeaking sound she makes when she wants us to follow her. Usually she leads us to her food dish, where we pet her while she eats (and she purrs), but sometimes she will lead us to a toy she wants us to play with her with. I’m extremely bad at figuring out what anybody wants unless they can talk or write and explicitly tell me what they want me to do, so I think training me to respond to this cue is quite an achievement.