Will they EVER get along????

I have my cat for 3 1/2 years...she was 6 weeks old when we adopted her at North Shore Animal League. She is and has been a wonderful cat since we have gotten her. She has never went to the bathroom outside of her litter box, she doesn't chew furniture, she is friendly, and she doesn't really hide when people come over...she is sort of a social butterfly lol

We recently (a few months ago) adopted a puppy from a shelter that has adoption events at Petco every week - she was 4 1/2 months when we adopted her. She is a mix of black lab and chow (she is soooo cute).

The first day we brought the puppy home, we put her in the the cage so we could introduce her to the cat (The foster family had a cage and said she loves it, so we bought one for her)....Anyway, we let the cat roam into the kitchen where the dog was in the cage. Everything was fine, until the dog started barking. She started hissing, and Well, I never saw my cat jump so high...she jumped over the baby fence (we installed baby fences in the kitchen for the dog) and ran down the basement (which is where her litter box, her condo, and some of her other stuff is). She went into hiding and wouldn't come out. After we found where she was, she hissed when we went near her....she stayed there for hours.

After she came out of hiding, she was sort of okay. She was still confused and staring at the dog. She now goes near the gates, but when the dog comes near the gates, she hisses. We have let the dog out of the kitchen to see what happens, and she will chase the cat. The cat always comes back though...and when she does, her ears go back and she swats her paw towards the dog and then hisses really loud.

My question is.....will they ever get along?? We hate keeping the dog in the kitchen so much. It's not a small kitchen so it's not too bad, and it has a door that leads to the back yard, which she loves. She loves her long walks also. We want to let her out of the kitchen more, but fear that one of them will get hurt.

Any suggestions??

Thanks in advance

IMO the very first thing you must teach the dog, is not to chase the cat. Ever. Don't worry too much right now on the hissing or swatting the cat is doing. It's more of a warning of leave me alone. I would advise you to never try to hold the cat near the dog though. Someone is liable to get hurt.

The dog is young and probably just so excited about possibly having a new friend. But for now your cat wants nothing to do with the dog.

Do you have high spots for your cat to go to when she wants get away from the dog? This is very important so that the cat feels safe up high.
Right now your cat is not comfortable with this big dog that makes lots of noise and just wants to play.

One other thing you can do is have a very active play time outside with the dog before allowing the dog access to the rest of the house. What this should do is make her so tired she doesn't want to mess with the cat.


The main goal is to work with the dog and ignore the cat. Eventually the cat will just ignore the dog or at least snub her nose at her.

Good luck and let me know if you have any other questions.

I just posted about bringing two 4 month old kittens home to meet my dogs. I have a 10 to 12 yr old boxer, hard to tell he was a stray and a 2 yr old pug. Its only been since saturday but already today the pug was sleeping on the sofa on my wifes leg and only 3 feet away one of the kittens was snoozing on the sofa as well. The other kitten was hanging out on the arm of the sofa and the boxer was on his bed slightly interested but ok with it all.

There are several websites written by profesionals and I recomend you look them up for advice. Everything is fine with the 4 of them as long as there is no chasing, and its only been 4 days.

The turning point for ours was leaving the dogs on the leash while we let the kittens roam around. This kept the dogs from being able to give chase but allowed for the all important sniffing.

I am sure there will be episodes and it will be a long time before they are left alone together but so far so good. Look up the web sites!!

Thank you both!!

I forgot to mention that the dog was only let loose once or twice...the other times she is on a leash mostly in the living room (it's long enough so she can wander but we still have hold of her)....also, she has gotten a bit better and doesn't really bark when the cat comes near her. But the cat STILL chooses to growl and hiss even though the dog is quiet.

We don't ever hold the cat near the dog. She is never forced to go near her.

The cat does have lots of places to go (high as well as low).....The house is pretty big, so she is free to roam where she wants. The funny thing is, she will run from the dog, but she will come right back to confront her....she's a trooper. LOL

Thanks again for the suggestions

I watch Its Me or the Dog on Animal Planet and the one this I liked that the trainer did (Victoria Stillwell for looking up purposes) is that everytime the dog ignores the cat (or whatever you want the dog to ignore) PRAISE IT TO HIGH HEAVENS and give it a treat. We actually had to teach our dog "get the kitty" because it was the only way he would come inside from being outside and he is a PITA!!! But along with that we taught him "NO kitties" so if he does try and play with the cats and it gets out of hand we tell him NO kitties and he stops playing so rough. It probably helps my case though that all my cats are bigger that my dog. Hes a mini doxie so aside from his teeth he really is no threat whatsoever to them. But for what its worth try looking up Victoria Stillwells training she does really neat stuff on her show and Im a huge fan of her training. I used it to teach Franklin most of his tricks...**my wee dances like a pretty boy lol**

Originally Posted by snosrap5

IMO the very first thing you must teach the dog, is not to chase the cat. Ever.

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VERY important, this can and will cause you're cat and dog to NEVER get along if the dog keeps chasing the cat. I had Bruno on a leash attached to my hip for about 3 weeks to a month (I forgot). He was crated at nights and when werenâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t home. Bruno was never loose in the house. Every time he did something wrong he was corrected immediately since he was literally attached to my hip i missed nothing.

My cats hissed at him, swatted him, stared at him seemingly plotted his death LOL. After awhile when the gang realized everything was safe, the trust aspect was there, everything calmed down and now they all cuddle.

We were very paranoid with Bruno though, he had a few cat tests done before we even brought him home. But like i said, once home, he was never loose until he learned that the cats were in charge.