What sort of dog would you recommend for a cat lover?

[buzzybee]

My friend has been a cat lover all her life and currently has 2 cats. Her 10 year old daughter loves dogs and for a variety of reasons she has decided to get a dog for her daughter. What sort of dog do you think might suit them? Is there such a thing as a dog that's like a cat??!!

Whippet or Italian greyhound.

I wouldn't recommend this person gets a dog at all unless they are totally clear on what being a dog-owner entails.
There is far more responsibility required for being an effective dog-owner. Correct training is essential and then the exercise the dog will need should never be under-estimated. You would be a good friend to make sure your friend fully understands what she would be taking on.

A feline one?

Agree that a whippet is the most cat-like dog you can have, in terms of how it behaves in the house. Quiet and gentle, and probably laze around on the sofa all day, unless it's on the prowl to steal food. However, out and about and the dog will need the opportunity to run around and be playful, and will chase small furry things. It might be difficult to find a whippet that won't chase the households existing cats!

As a life long "cat person" my children finally wore me down a couple of years ago and I agreed to having a dog, with the proviso that I chose the breed. We got a Papillon puppy as he ticked every ones boxes, plays like a mad thing with the kids when out and about, will walk for miles, jumps in lakes and streams and generally does all the doggy things they love. On the "cat" side, he weighs 5lbs soaking wet and a bath involves a quick rinse under the mixer tap, he doesn't shed hair, doesn't smell doggy and leaves no muddy paw prints. Best of all, he's like a lightweight hot water bottle and when he settles down on your knee at night it's just the best! I've been so firmly converted that I now really want a second one.

i thinik OP means a cat friendly dog not a dog that looks like a cat! I could be wrong of course but that's waht I understood. I would go for a retreiver breed, Golden retriever, labrador retriever. They are reputedly great with cats. It will probably be the cats that object to the dog not the other way round.

sorry , just re-read the OP. I'm wrong!

I'm with alienbump on this. Always been a cat lover it was only I was worn down by dd that I finally gave in and bought a chihauahua puppy.
Far from being the yappy, spoilt little creature as possible but a big dog in every way apart from size. Absolutely love this little dog and he has given so much to us as a family that we are thinking of getting a second one.
Whatever breed your friend goes for, the first few months were the hardest but worth persevering in the end.

Yes what I meant was, given that she's always been a cat lover - and they say that people are either dog lovers or cat lovers - but she's decided to go ahead and get a dog, what sort of dog would you recommend. Of course there are loads of other things to take into account but my feeling is that she will be happier to have a dog with cat-like attributes, i.e. not be too needy and be relatively self-sufficient, not need loads of walking etc. Given that there are cats already in the household I agree it will either be necessary to get a puppy or a cat-socialised dog! I like the sound of the papillon. I don't think she'd go with a retriever - too big and smelly. I think she's quite committed to doing all the right things once she's made the commitment, training etc. Thanks!!!

The king charles cavalier spaniel is a lovely temperment for children, and might appeal to your friends daughter as a breed. These gentle dogs aren't known for cat chasing.

We have a rescue cat-tested whippet and she's pretty cat-like in some of her habits. Notably her love of warm, soft places to curl up and snooze in. You don't know she's in the house most of the time. She also doesn't have hugely onerous excercise needs. 2 or 3 x 20min free runs off lead a day (make recal a training priority) and a nice family walk at weekends.

Do ask a rescue for an animal that's been in foster and is cat tested though as our whippy is LETHAL to squirrels, rodents, rabbits and other small furries and the "dog has eaten the cat" is not a good thing to have to share with a child.

Many nice dogs end up iin rescue through things like bereavement, divorce etc. The trick seems to be to find a rescue that does a lot of fostering as they are able to properly assess what a dog is like in a home environment so you'll "get what it says on the tin".

My last dog was a chihuahua - treat em like dogs not dolls and they are smashing. I miss my old git summat chronic. I was just a bit concerned about size and clumsy growing boys when choosing his replacement (esp as some of my son's friends have sens which mean they don't always realise they are being a bit rough). The whippet is large enough for me to see what's happening and fast enough to get out of the way. My chi did NEED a lot more excercise than people would assume from his size though.

I also like the papillon but again they need more stimulation and excercise than people would assume from 1st glance.

bochead I chose a cavalier KCS partly because I'd researched lots of breeds and thought cavaliers were less likely to chase my cats. In fact my cavalier does try to chase the cats but she is responding well to training (i.e. 'leave it' when she is about to pursue a cat). In addition this is quite a small breed so cats can easily remove themselves out of the way and I can normally intervene if she starts to chase. In other words I think it is as much her size as her breed characteristics. I think also once she gets a bit older she will calm down and be less excited when she sees them. It's not easy though and my puppy also loves eating cat poo, so that is another consideration!

OP I think you can go onto the Kennel Club website and do a search for suitable breeds. Loads of information there on which breeds have a 'chase' instinct for instance which would make them unsuitable to live with cats.