Dogs and house cats?

[ohbigdaddio]

Has anybody successfully introduced a new dog to house cats or is it completely impossible? Our 2 cats are 10 years old and we've never had any other pets whilst we've had them.

This question may or may not be influenced by my recent thread on the abandoned dog next door! (Still thinking about that lovely, sweet dog!)

My cat isn't a house cat, she goes in and out, but we have introduced two border terriers to her over the last 2 years. She's 11. She doesn't love them but isn't stressed by them. She would be far more stressed if I tried to bring in another cat. It really depends on the tempraments of the cats and the dog bit it can be done

Yes! Dog has a high prey drive (husky, collie, greyhound cross) but has learned to live with Cat (longhaired pampered princess). Cat refused to come downstairs for weeks, but slowly made her way down. Dog was praised with lots of treats for calm behaviour when the Cat appeared.

They're not friends, but they are funny together, especially when the Cat steals the Dog's bed.

Cat was 11, Dog was 9months when introduced.

Aww, they look like friends SilverHairedCat !

It's definitely the Cat tolerating the Dog! Dog wants to play, but can't understand why Cat won't engage!

Exactly the same here. Dog wants to be friends but the cat is having none of it. Cat has upstairs defended by stair gate. Dog is down. And peace reigns

I had the opposite situation. A local stray cat came to our cul-de-sac of flats and decided my flat was the one he fancied moving into (he was by then an occasional diner in many flats). He'd seen the dog lots of times outside so set about smooching up to the dog as the next stage of his big plan (aged dog has little lie down in sun on pavement on way back from walk, cat comes to meet us and lies down next to the dog, snuggling up to her, etc). Eventually he managed to sort of move in (was thrown out during the days when I was out because of free roaming parrot). Sadly, he got some horrible fatal cat virus and I had to have him pts - aged dog died 3 weeks later so I think of them gambolling about together in a better place.

Our dog adores our two cats - one very elderly female who spends most of the day asleep and one ex-middle east street cat who rules the roost. Sadly the dog’s adoration is completely unrequited.. the cats mostly tolerate him but sometimes biff him as he’s going past just cos they can ... it means that if one of the cats is sitting on the stairs the dog can be marooned upstairs as there’s no way he’ll go past them without a human escort. If either of them steals his bed he’ll lie on the floor looking mournful...

Very occasionally the younger cat will come up to the dog for a nose sniff and allows the dog to lick his back quickly - this makes the dog pathetically happy

My mum has a Ragdoll housecat and 2 JRT x border terriers , cat is 16 in May and the dogs are 6 months younger , they have to be kept separate at all times but that is only because one of the dogs is very aggressive . When she first got the cat we had a different aged dog ( whippet x) and they got on fine .

This is good to read. We have two 9 year old house cats and we're getting a puppy at some point this year. I'm planning to separate them with a stair gate on the stairs too.

We had it the other way round, 2 year old dog and a rescue cat coming in from Portugal, it's been 5 months, but my dream came true - they are now the best of friends! We had cat up stairs, dog downstairs originally for a week, let them smell each other for a couple of days, feed them their dinner on opposite sides of a door so they get used to their sounds, any barking/bad behaviour stop and try again another time, then you put cat in a crate for 5 mins at a time so they can see each other and make sure the dog doesn't bark or isn't obsessed by the cat, lots of praise and treats with all eyes on you! Then eventually let cat roam free with dog on lead! Our dog was more just very intrigued by this thing that looks like a dog but doesn't speak the same language. Cats rule the roost though, they'll soon give a whack if they're not comfortable! Our poor dog was a shivering wreck for a week and now, totally fine! It was tough for a week or so but trust me, hard work pays off! So worth it to see them comfortable and happy now :)