Some say cats don’t do the kind of tricks dogs do because they lack the intelligence to. Spokane cat lovers say cats are too smart to bother with such nonsense. For over a century, cats have been a favorite subject for studying brain functions and learning
Dogs have been trained to protect, hunt, search/rescue, assist, and carry out circus tricks, to scores of people; this is a sure sign of their intelligence of the canine intellect over feline intelligence. Cats have been trained to perform tricks as seen in movies or TV advertisements, but do not have the same gamut as dogs.
Tests were given where cats and dogs were expected to find the way through mazes, most cats performed shoddily. Dogs soon learned to navigate the maze and attain the reward. Bored cats sat down and groomed themselves. They checked out blind alleys. They did not finish the maze in the allocated time and were therefore judged as "failing the test" or "apathetic". Eager-to-please dogs learned that they got a prize for learning the maze... Cats are not moved in this way. Being pioneers, investigating every blind alley made perfect sense to the cat, after all, who knows where prey may be hiding in the real world? Sitting down and washing is a displacement activity when a cat is uncertain. Cats simply didn’t want to play the game.
Dogs are highly social creatures. Cats have a dissimilar social structure. Where food is plentiful they are for the most part solitary although females, usually relatives, may form social groups. Males have a tendency to roam in search of females on their own rather than remain as part of a group. Where food sources are localized, such as a dump, feral felines form colonies with social structures more akin to that of a lion
Dogs often perform for praise. Cats do not do so. .To train a cat you must find out what motivates him/her. Generally this means food. Even in that case, cats are not motivated by food in the same way dogs are and if obtaining the food reward is too much of an effort, the cat will often cut his/her losses and go in search of easier "prey". In the wild, it is foolish for a solo hunter to use up more energy on finding or killing prey than it gets from eating that prey. Dogs will stalk and hunt prey over long distances and wear down their target, cats hunt by hiding, waiting in ambush and pursuing quarry for short distances only. Starving a cat does not make it easier to train either, cats are better than dogs at disregarding hunger pangs. Cats have pride.
For young cats and kittens, although food is a potent reward, activities such as handling of simple objects such as a ball, or a catnip mouse, or the opportunity to explore an unfamiliar space can be sufficient rewards in performing many tasks. There will always be those cats that not only learn effortlessly, but seem to take pleasure in learning, rare.
Reports have it that cats right here in Spokane have taught themselves to knock on the door when they want in, use the toilet for a litter box, can be walked, ride in baby strollers, ring the doorbell, beg, fetch,, open latches, jump on owner’s shoulder from across the room, open cabinets to get their own food, turn on the faucet and more.
Truth is cats are cats and dogs are dogs. It’s a matter of preference
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