Loading ...‘Fighting like Cats and Dogs’ is it really true?
Researchers, studying the relationship between cats and dogs, have concluded that cats and dogs are more than adept at reading each other’s signals. Dogs actually adapt their own greeting behaviour to accommodate the cats in the house.
Although cats and dogs have very distinctive personalities, depending on how you go about setting the relationship up, dogs and cats can often learn to become real friends and even play and nap together.
Most cats can happily live with a dog as long as they are introduced to each other slowly and at first under strict supervision. Allow your Dog and Cat to sniff and inspect each other to their hearts content. It is important owners provide timely corrections to any unwanted behaviour right away as this will help fix any communication problems between dog and cat at the start.
Introduction tips:
· Beforehand, make sure your dog has been well fed and exercised, in a relaxed mood and on a short leash or in his crate.
· Let your cat walk around and be armed with lots of dog treats for good behaviour.
· It’s almost time to let your dog approach the cat, allow your cat and dog time to check each other out at a distance.
· If your dog bolts towards your cat, it needs correction with the leash. Keep your dog calm, if your dog is over excited try again later.
· Repeat these short visits several times a day, gradually giving your dog more leash when appropriate.
It is possible that most dog breeds can live together, especially when introduced from an early age. However, some suggest that dog breeds with a high prey drive may never get along. If this happens and you’ve been trying for a long time, you may need to evaluate your pet situation.
Post supplied with thanks to Net Pet Shop, providing online pet supplies for the UK
February 3rd, 2011 at 4:06 pm
The cat is definitely the boss in our house. He regularly steals our labs bed.
February 22nd, 2011 at 12:20 am
We introduced a mature cat to our two poodles by using a toddler gate across the utility room, with the cat inside and the dogs out side ! Puss could venture out when confident and retreat to safety if things got too much. Coupled with behaviour modification for excited poodles, it worked a treat.
February 22nd, 2011 at 5:24 am
Hi Yasemin
What a brilliant idea and puss, as you say, would feel perfectly safe in the knowledge the dogs cannot get through the gate.
Thanks for sharing that.
March 1st, 2011 at 3:03 am
I’ve got a Jack Russel Terrier and it gets along fine with my Tortoise Shell cat. I think most breeds will get along fine as long as they are introduced to each other at a young age. Getting older pets to live together peacefully is tougher and would probably require a lot of supervision at first.
March 24th, 2011 at 3:14 pm
I had an older cat and introduced a springer spaniel. I didn’t really think about how to do this but things seemed to work out and the cat was certainly in charge. Depending on the breed and situation I can see that having a plan might be a good way to go about it.
April 4th, 2011 at 8:03 pm
weve got an 11 year old irish staff (hes bigger than a ‘normal’ staff and weighs 6 stone (probably down to his love of cakes and biscuits that he robs from the kids…) i was a bit worried when i first brought a kitten home,that being sooo small and him being sooo big,it looked like a tit bit to me…anyway i dont know why i worried as the first oportunity he got he pinned the poor thing down and gave it a full lick over bath! he turned into mother hen and nurtured it,i even cought the kitten trying to suckle from him and him with raised leg letting it???? so it goes to show,old dogs can learn new tricks
April 5th, 2011 at 1:15 am
Hi Stella, what a brilliant story. Tends to work better with kittens than with older cats, who become territorial and understand dogs are “the enemy”.
April 11th, 2011 at 7:06 pm
I have a dog and cat at home and they are very good friends
June 16th, 2011 at 5:50 am
Not all the time!! I have a dog and cat.. They are fighting sometimes..
July 21st, 2011 at 2:21 am
Try to get my dog’s heart rate down so that he’ll even listen to me when he’s around cats would be step one!
August 20th, 2011 at 4:53 pm
hey i know people say that cat and dogs are always enemies they might not get along because their nature. O know this fact but this doesn’t work when it is domesticated @ home or a place where their is lots of similarities.
August 27th, 2011 at 6:35 pm
Thanks, Sally. I think these are excellent general guidelines. It only makes sense that cats and dogs can “read each other’s signals” as both are structurally similar, and both have been domesticated for millenia. It also makes sense that dogs do more of the accomodating because they are more strictly dominance hierarchy oriented. I think it’s important to take into consideration how different the personalities of different individual animals can be. We have 3 cats, and each reacts very differently to dogs when friends bring them over, and often not how we predicted they would. In any case, thanks again
September 7th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Think it depends who arrives first. Cats seem to be OK with dogs if they grow up with them (and so can feel they’re the boss!) Not so good if a dog is introduced into a household which a cat already sees as its own territory!
September 14th, 2011 at 11:27 am
I have to say this is an interesting blog, not sure I’ll try it out on my dog just yet though…..she hates cats a little too much….