Dog breeds with low prey drive to live with an indoor cat

[sweetpickle2]

Want to get a dog, our cat is indoors (health reasons) so want a breed that will work with this ie no high prey drive types. Any suggestions?

I don’t think focusing on breed will help. I would say either go for a puppy where you can introduce early and you should be fine or get a rescue. A good rehoming charity will match you.

Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. Lovely little dogs and every one I've had has been fine with cats.

And kindly, this seems like a bit of a daft response. There are lots of dogs that could not live with a cat, for example those with high prey drives.

I do not want to stress my cat out, which is why I'm researching and asking on here. As you can see from the many replies to this thread, lots of people own dogs and cats together and the cats are not stressed. It is possible.

Just to add that I had the cats first and then introduced the puppy and it didn’t work - as soon as he was past the tiny cute stage his prey drive kicked in and now I live in a house of stair gates with the cats and dog in different areas. It isn’t automatic that it will work because you introduce the puppy after the cat. We make it work because we have to, but it is stressful and in hindsight I wish I’d stuck to one species!

The important thing is to get a puppy so they can grow up learning boundaries and be trained

Avoid terriers and sight hounds. Border collie will want to herd the cat

People are suggesting pugs and bulldogs and other brachycephalic dogs, which is a terrible idea for people who like to walk. How is a bulldog going to get up Mam Tor or Kinder Scout?

I have goldies. Fabulous dogs well designed for the outdoor lifestyle and walks. They can be high prey drive though. My first was fine, as I had cats firsr and she learned what a pet was. She would 100% chase a cat in the 'wild' but never any in a house, including those she never met when visiting others. She even met a ferret on a lead once in a popular dog walking spot and knew it was a pet so decided to gently guard it when two Staffies came close by, as she never trusted that breed. She totally ignored sheep, but would go after deer and foxes.

My current dog is terrible around cats but he was never exposed to them as a puppy, so I feel like I have missed my chance. Everyone I know with cats has really shy and nervous ones, whereas when I had cats they were confident and stood their ground. My current dog would absolutely go after sheep if he had the chance, and will chase birds, rabbits, squirrels, deer, foxes etc given the chance. In other ways he is one of the best trained dogs you could hope to meet and everyone comments on how unflappable and well behaved he is in all sorts of locations from mountain tops to cramped gift shops, to other dogs that don't know boundaries or are aggressive.

Just to echo others, while breed has an input it’s not everything. I have both a sight hound (lurcher) and a Jack Russell and they both co-habit happily with our cats. Because we trained them to. Outside of our house our lurcher is v keen to chase cats (obvs we don’t let them) but at home the cat rules. So I wouldn’t rule out any breed.

Really depends on the dog ,I've had border terriers for yrs along side, chickens ,rabbits ,bearded dragons birds etc . I did keep a bit of an eye on them all when all out ,but slept in same bed as the cats .
Cats were always the boss

We have a lab and she is great with our two cats but we really focused on training that behaviour when she was a puppy. My mum's cocker spaniel follows her lead when she is around and is also very respectful of the cats. Our cats found it enormously stressful at first having a dog in the house. They have free access in and outdoors and that probably helped as they could get away. It may be much more stressful for your cat being an indoor only cat.

Goldie, I have had 4 and all lived with cats
Where cats came first there tends to be mostly cautious respect but where the dog was there first there can be a lovely relationship
Of course it depends on the cats and dogs though
Your set up sounds good for a Goldie as well

By contrast my miniature poodle will chase anything that moves!

Agree with PP about going to a rescue for a dog with a personality that is already formed.

We introduced a secondhand young dog (9mths) that turned out to have a high prey drive to my 11yo house cat. Dog is a mix of greyhound, husky and collie....

They learned to live together but the cat was furious for weeks. I used a baby gate to let the cat have the run of upstairs away from the dog and put her food and litter tray up there.

The dog was mostly worried about the cat who developed the habit of occasionally sprinting across the living room to give her a smack in the chops then run off.... But in the end they shared a bed. The dog was frozen in terror but the cat was snuggled in 😂

The week we lost the cat to kidney failure the dogs prey drove shot up to its full and we've never been able to be near another cat again, so no more moggies while she's around.

My lurcher and our cat (who was here first) tolerate each other, but any other cat and anything else that small and furry are fair game.

I’d avoid any sight hound and anything terrier.

My ex-working lurcher learned to ignore the chinchillas we had at the time - even in the same room - although chasing rabbits (similar size and shape) was her favourite activity. I know of a group of sighthounds who have recently accepted 3 tiny rescue kittens - yes, they had been with cats before, but these tiny things were certainly not confident and were scared of everything including the dogs - but now they all live happily together with no problem. These might chase cats when out, but their own cats are a different proposition. And of course some rescues can tell you when a dog has already lived with a cat which is a good starting point. Of course if I were to be in this sort of position I would always ensure a very careful introduction, never leave the dog with the cat on their own, and always make sure that there were escape routes for the cats to take that would take them out of the way of the dog. But I wouldn't completely dismiss sighthounds because of the cat issue.

We have a lab who gets on fine with our cats. We got them when she was under year old. When the cats fall out though she does start to police them all to make them play nicely which is hilarious.
I'd register with the Labrador rescue groups unless you are desperate for a puppy.

That is so interesting about the closeness of the relationship depending on who was established first. Our cats were first in and it is more of a tolerating each other relationship though I can't remember the exact scenario but a while ago the dog was upset/ hurt and made a terrible sound, and they both sprinted to her side. They are elderly so they are not in the habit of dashing about.

I think if the cats are there before you bring a puppy home it will be easier than the other way around.

Poodle. We've got two Toy poodles and they've no prey drive at all (we also have terriers and hounds). A Poodle is a much safer, sensible choice than a random bred Poodle crossed with whatever some idiot comes up with.

A rescue dog that is cat tested.

It does depend on the cat just as much as it depends on the dog. Our current cat is a rescue. He came to us when our last dog (rough collie) was around 5 years old. The dog was sleeping peacefully on the floor and the cat ran over and bashed him on the nose. He effectively showed who was boss from then on until dog died. A few months after dog died we got a puppy. Another rough collie. It’ll be fine I thought. Dcat will show it who is boss again and all will be great. But no. Cat was scared of the puppy for several months and gave him a wide berth. Puppy of course was very interested in cat and would try to follow. Dcat never put pup in his place. Now that pup is now nearly 2 things are better and the cat will face off against the dog- and usually win - but it certainly wasn’t as easy as I expected.
Another cat we had was about 1 year old when our last dog came to us as a puppy. This was a very bolshy cat. He took one look at the dog and ran out of the cat flap! He never really settled with the dog.

We have three dogs and two cats. Two are rescue dogs - one cav who wouldn’t hurt a fly and a ex street dog who also doesn’t care for the cats. We also have a cocker spaniel who we have had since a puppy, she is fine with the cats in the house but would chase a strange cat. Cats were here first on all three occasions.