Over the years, dog owners have convinced me that dogs are smarter than cats. [View All]

[Buzz Clik]

Until the past year, I'd never owned a dog. I had shared quarters with a bunch of dogs, but never owned one. I'm strictly a cat person.

The cat vs dog intelligence discussion has always left me uninterested, but the dog owner always seem to have the more compelling argument, so I've accepted that maybe dogs are smarter than cats. I simply prefer cats. No problem there.

But then we got a dog. Yes, dogs can be trained to do certain things and respond to some commands. But are dogs smart? Err. Well.

I filled the bird feed this morning with sunflower seeds. It's 9 degrees outside, and we have attracted a lot of birds, so I feel obligated to keep it filled at this time of year. I fill the feeder outside on the deck, and I'm clumsy in my gloves and spilled some seed on the deck. As I came back in the house, the dog blasted past me and dashed onto the deck. He immediately began lapping up the sunflowers seeds and swallowing them without chewing. That's just stupid. Those seeds will pass straight through him -- perhaps painfully. Not smart. Not good instincts. And he pulls stuff like this all the time.

Whatever. I didn't agree to this animal because I needed an intellectual companion. But, please -- spare me the "dogs are smarter than cats" routine. At best, they are equally stupid.