How do I break it to the cat that the dog is just not that into him?

[AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]

12yr old dog, 1yr old cats. They both love the dog but one in particular absolutely adores her, he will rub himself all over her and roll onto his back and show her his belly, he’ll paw at her and nibble at her, lick her ears and try everything he can to get her to pay any kind of attention to him at all.

But she just acts like they don’t exist, she won’t look at them, she won’t sniff them and she ignores every single attempt from him to get her attention. Even when he’s pawing at her and rubbing over her she’ll just stand there like a statue looking in the opposite direction!

It’s been 15 months and the cat just won’t accept that she’s just not that into him.

I do give the dog plenty of time away from the cats so this isn’t a constant all-day/every day thing, it’s mostly in the evenings when we’re all sitting down together and the dog decides to join us (she’s not very sociable and likes to keep to herself).

Have you considered that your dog and cat have discovered a secret body-swapping machine and are now living out their own version of Freaky Friday?

A cat will never understand that they are not the centre of everyone's attention.

I have no useful advice but your thread title made me laugh 😂

Maybe the cat doesn't mind? If you don't let on to the cat, he may not notice?

He notices 🥲 all he wants is to love her and for her to reciprocate, even a tiny bit.

That's going to be tricky. Maybe he is attracted to the strong silent type.

Could you possibly give him something nice from her? Maybe spread dog food on him and let her lick it off? (that sounds revolting in my head but might actually work.)

I’m almost half contemplating that now 🤣

I don't have a cat but I grew up with cats, rather more than with people, so I totally get what you mean. I think I'd be tempted to get some of the jelly from a tin of dog food and brush it on the cat and see if that would motivate the dog a bit. But cats can't have dog food can they, so it would have to be cat food, which might only motivate the cat. Very complicated.

It's a bit hard to know what to do.

We have the opposite problem, the dog adores the cat and wants to love him lots, but the cat is appalled and slightly repulsed by the dog 😂

Maybe we need to swap cats?

I have no suggestions, but that photo is hilarious. The dog is like «if I don’t look left, you don’t exist» 😂

The photo really is great.

The dog is not for turning.

Love her ignoring, it's so expressive

😂Thankyou I'm full of a cold and just the image of this made me howl with laughter.

Is the dog scared of the cat?

It looks like the dog doesn't want to make eye contact with the cat or the cat will win lol

I have exactly this situation.

My young dog wants to be bff with my old and grumpy ginger Tom cat. Cat is having none of it. He has the disgusted, disapproving look off pat. He gets very annoyed by her but won't move out of her way. If you lift him up to a safe place he just goes back to the "play with me" zone.
I think he secretly likes getting a free wash all over so he has an excuse to wack her.

I saw something like this (other way around) and the owners got a teddy made that looked like the cat. The dog carried it around and played with the toy and eventually the cat started to give the dog attention. Maybe get a nice teddy made that looks like the dog.

That's our house too @HollopingHooligans sometimes the cat will tap the dog as he walks by or tease him by doing a "chase me" run past him, then looks horrified when the dog responds to it. 😁

Oh her face 😆 she looks thoroughly pissed off with all of the adulation being forced upon her!

I reckon the cat just wants to use her as a rubbing post because she's got rough type fur. The cat is just in it for himself I think and the dog probably knows this all too well

Cats always gravitate to people who don't like them (hello MiL and sister) , turns out that includes dogs too!

It's completely out there but I saw a video where the roles were reversed and the dog didn't end up getting any attention until he started playing with a pillow that looked exactly like the cat and the cat then got jealous. Also that picture after your description is hilarious but heartbreaking :D poor kitty!

I think your dog is my spirit animal......

Old, grumpy and can't arsed with attention seeking shit from others

Love the photo, the dog looks very stoic 🙂
From what I’ve noticed with cats, some of them prefer the company of people (in this case the dog) that don’t pay much attention to them. So perhaps your cat is ok with the current setup, not sure how much your dog is bothered by this situation though 🙂

The cat already knows how the dog feels, the same way a visitor that comes to the house that hates cats gets all the love from a cat while the cat living visitor gets treated with disdain.

Sounds like your dog is an introvert, or thinks it's a cat. Haha

That is one very funny photo.