No, not quite. Some animals, especially those as complex as dogs and cats do indeed think about what the see and experience. Like you said, they can learn that they go out through a door, they can learn to anticipate what is about to happen by indicators like reaching for door handles, etc.
But they don't conceptualize. They can't take what they learned about your door and apply it to all doors they'll ever experience. In fact, they don't have a sense for "door" at all. If they were to see a strange door of totally different size, shape, color, etc from any door they've experienced they may not know that it's a door at all (especially if it doesn't share obvious characteristics with the doors they know and love).
We humans on the other hand can conceptualize "door". When confronted with a door like object we've never experienced we can observe it, sum it up as "door like enough" to be considered a door, and then apply all that we know about doors in general to this door. AND if we learn anything new from this specific door we can decide if our learnings apply to all doors in general or are unique to this specific door.
That's rational, and that's what separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom.
Unfortunately, on more than one occasion, I've had people ask where the exit was when they were almost standing in front of the door -- even looked at it ::).
More to
Omag's example, I'm reminded of the events with two of our cats and one of our dogs (Stubby, mentioned on another thread last month). Except as a puppy, Stubby wasn't allowed inside the house but the cats were. Occasionally, we'd come home to find all three inside and mom blamed my sister and I for letting the dog in or leaving the door open and it was a couple years before the puzzle was solved. My dad cut the end of the house off (where the carriage/slay was kept in the by-gone days of former owners). Our entry was then changed to an old door we'd never used, not visible until after rounding the driveway. I came around the corner and saw both cats trying to manipulate the door knob but they didn't have the strength to turn it. Stubby had been laying nearby, saw what the cats were doing, trotted over, stretched up with his paws and opened the door.
Even amongst the same species (unquestionably, including human), the intelligence levels vary. Much research is carried out testing animals' ability to think and reason. A gorilla attained a fairly good working vocabulary to communicate via keyboard, including words of abstract meaning (love, anger, upset, etc.) so the verdict is yet in appeal. If we're too assuming of the definitive, it may not be rational and the rocks may be brought to life and we'll be left stoned.
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People Eating Tasty Animals.
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