Compared with other animals, human babies start out with a lot to learn. Whereas some animals walk within hours of being born or hatching, human babies take months or years to master even the most basic functions. If you've ever had a baby and a pet at the same time, you might have wondered which one is smarter.
How smart are dogs compared with babies?
While it's not possible to draw an exact comparison between dog and human intelligence, Coren said dogs do have some cognitive skills, such as vocabulary and counting, that roughly correspond to those of young toddlers. For example, the average dog can understand about 165 words and signals. In exceptional cases, some dogs can learn significantly more. For example, Chaser the border collie, who was specially trained by a retired psychology professor, was reported to understand over 1,000 words.
How smart are cats versus babies?
Other research has evaluated cats' memory, which is another important dimension of cognition. Studies have found that cats strategically search for food based on just a single memory, for example. Studies also show that cats grasp the concept of object permanence — the understanding that an object still exists even if it is no longer visible. Human babies usually learn object permanence between 4 and 10 months of age. And a recent study found that cats may even be better at associating words with pictures than human toddlers are.
An interesting and thoughtful article. Nonetheless, humans ultimately learns much more than dogs and cats because they need that learning for their survival. In fact, I believe cognition for animals relate to their survival methods. Dog and cats (and other animals) learn as much as they require for their survival, while humans learn beyond it because, they have/evolved desires greater than survival.