Dogs Smarter Than Humans?

[noz92]

Are dogs smarter than humans?

 

Let's assume that you buy a brand new puppy. Within a month (if you're good), you can have that puppy listening to and understanding simple commands, such as "sit" and "come here". But with a human child, who's aproximatly a year old, they still can't understand basic commands. If you tell him/her to walk over here (if they're able to walk yet), they just sit there and stare at you, while a dog would walk over there (usually, assuming you trained it right).

 

It's obvious that puppies are smarter than babies. But adults on the other hand, are (we think) smarter than adult dogs.

[iglak]

I went to preschool when i was 1.5yo....

usually kids won't listen to commands because they don't want to. when you train a dog you cram the word into it's head until it does whatever action when you say the word. if you do that to a baby i'm sure they'd follow commants as well, but nobody would ever want their children to do that, or to put them through that.

 

and notice that dogs live for about 1/4 of the time humans live, so they HAVE to learn basic things fast, humans don't. but humans learn more overall, and just a year later the human toddler would have learned a lot more than the dog.

[Lance]

Dogs develop (and die) faster. That doesn’t make them smarter.

[5614]

Dogs develop (and die) faster. That doesn’t make them smarter.

 

i totaly agree, that was exactly my thoughts.

 

to expand, sure a dog can sit when its young, well done... when was the last time you saw dogs crating new mathematical equations and physical theories, creating vacinations or nuking each other?

 

they just arent that clever.

[Auburngirl05]

Dogs are also sexually mature by six months of age. You can't really compare developmental milestones between (unclosely related) species like that.

[5614]

thats because they live shorter lives.

 

if they had to wait until they were ~14 years old or whatever, they'd be dead before they could reproduce and you'd never even know they existed.

 

they HAVE become sexually mature younger, thats their life span - nothing to do with smartness, cleverness or IQ.

[Auburngirl05]

I totally agree with you that it's because they have shorter lives, I wasn't implying that sexuality and IQ are related, I was just using that as an example of how developmental timing is different.

 

On a slightly different train of thought, has anyone seen reports on that scientist that raised an ape infant (I think it was a chimp but I can't remember) that was the same age as his own child, and treated them as much the same as possible, and compared the developmental results? I can't remember his name, but it was a pretty interesting project.

[5614]

well that's an interesting post... here's what i came up with:

 

http://www.psy.fsu.edu/history/wnk/ape.html

 

it seems a pretty good site with loadsa interesting stuff.

[Sayonara]

Let's assume that you buy a brand new puppy. Within a month (if you're good), you can have that puppy listening to and understanding simple commands, such as "sit" and "come here". But with a human child, who's aproximatly a year old, they still can't understand basic commands. If you tell him/her to walk over here (if they're able to walk yet), they just sit there and stare at you, while a dog would walk over there (usually, assuming you trained it right).

If I have a car that can accelerate to 60mph in half the time it takes yours to reach the same speed, it doesn't necessarily follow that my car goes faster than yours.

[mossoi]

One species gets fed, housed and looked after by the other. That sounds like the smarter of the two.

[Lance]

We do pick up its poop though.

[Mokele]

Yes, but which species uses it's own tongue as toilet paper?

[john5746]

And which species destroys their ecosystem with their waste?

[Sayonara]

One species gets fed, housed and looked after by the other. That sounds like the smarter of the two.

No, it sounds like the more dependent species.

 

 

We do pick up its poop though.

Because we are intelligent enough to have identified it as a risk to our persons.

 

 

And which species destroys their ecosystem with their waste?

Have you any idea how much devastation 6.5 billion dogs would cause?

 

Imagine the smell

[Kindria2000]

My dog Merlin runs smack first into walls... My dog Chewy drools all over herself...and My dog Darwin is a manic depressive (actually diagnosed!! I dont know how... things are just fooked up that way)

 

Now... I'm pretty sure that somewhere...right now... there is one dog planning to rule the world, but untill then, merkabah's (merlin's) head is getting nice nd flat... and I'm not joking.

[john5746]

Have you any idea how much devastation 6.5 billion dogs would cause?

 

Imagine the smell

 

Good Point! I guess cats would have been a better candidate!

[noz92]

If I have a car that can accelerate to 60mph in half the time it takes yours to reach the same speed, it doesn't necessarily follow that my car goes faster than yours.

 

Okay, you're right, until a certain age, dogs learn and mature faster than us, making them more intelligent than us (until about 1, depending on the dog).

[5614]

ok, so dogs can learn basic commands like 'sit' quicker than humans can.

 

but as is obvious... dogs are not smarter than humans.

 

"One species gets fed, housed and looked after by the other. That sounds like the smarter of the two"

 

"to expand, sure a dog can sit when its young, well done... when was the last time you saw dogs creating new mathematical equations and physical theories, creating vacinations or nuking each other?

they just arent that clever."

[noz92]

Okay, you're right, until a certain age, dogs learn and mature faster than us, making them more intelligent than us (until about 1, depending on the dog).

 

Intelligence and smartness (if that's even a word) arn't the same thing. Since dogs mature seven times faster than we do, then it's only natrual that at a certain time, the dog's IQ would be 7x what a baby of the same age has.

 

Obviously we surpass them eventually, but for that time, they are more intelligent than us.

 

(oh, and this thread goes for almost any animal, not just dogs)

[Auburngirl05]

Actually the "one dog year is seven human years" formula isn't accurate. I work for a vet, and according to her the first year of a dog's life is the equivalent of about 15 "human years", the second year is 10 "human years", and each additional years is about 3 "human years", although large breeds tend to age faster and die younger, so there is no absolute standard.

[mak10]

Obviously we surpass them eventually, but for that time, they are more intelligent than us.

 

so if we can develop a drug that can increase the life-span of the average dog to that of the average man.. can it then surpass us by its 7x intelligence?? just a thought...

 

-mak10

[Mokele]

Intelligence and smartness (if that's even a word) arn't the same thing. Since dogs mature seven times faster than we do, then it's only natrual that at a certain time, the dog's IQ would be 7x what a baby of the same age has.

 

Wrong. IQ cannot be used in cross-species comparisons like that. IQ is a measure within a group of the deviation from an average. Thus, that a dog performs actions before a human child is meanginless, becuase the averages for the species are so different.

 

By your logic, a baby lizard is more intelligent than any baby mammal, as it has an effective IQ of infinity: Mental age of an adult of the species / chronological age of 0 (fresh out of the egg).

 

IQ doesn't even measure accurately across races of humans. Why would you think it would work across species?

 

Mokele

[5614]

so if we can develop a drug that can increase the life-span of the average dog to that of the average man.. can it then surpass us by its 7x intelligence?? just a thought...

unlikely, its mental capacity is reached by the end of its current life.... if it lived longer, maybe it could learn more "tricks" but i dont think it'd be cleverer.

[ecoli]

so if we can develop a drug that can increase the life-span of the average dog to that of the average man.. can it then surpass us by its 7x intelligence?? just a thought...

 

 

It's not the life span that gives a dog the time to learn, it's the capacity to learn. Dogs have smaller cerebrums then humans, and thus are less capable of intellectual thought (although I wouldn't consider them dumb by any means)

[Jake712]

Not only do they have smaller cerebrums, but I'm pretty sure they also have larger cerebellums. While the cerebrum is used for ration thought or reasoning, the cerebellum is for habitual activities such as walking and driving which require very little thinking once a person has done it long enough. Therefore, the fact that a dog learns to sit when he hears "sit" before a human could learn something similar is because of the different constructions of our brains. This makes us more capable of reasoning and problem solving while a dog must rely on his instincts.