can dogs and cats see passed thier differences?

I have a cat that I posted about earlier. I love her. She's the psycho cat from ya know where, but that's what makes her so cool. She gets along fine with the old dog that we had when we first got her, but last summer i got a puppy.

She's full grown now and sleeps in my room at night. My cat used to sleep on my bed, but now she won't go in my room if the dog is in there even though the dog never bothers her. The problem is not with the dog chasing the cat. The problem is that the cat chases the dog. Most of the time the dog tries to ignore her, but sometimes the dog will have enough and retaliate against the cat. Is it possible that my cat will ever calm down and learn to accept my dog, or is that a stupid question?

It's not a stupid question I can't tell you for sure that the cat will finally accept the dog. When I brought the dog into the house, it took about a month for all the cats to adjust. However, I have one cat who was about 4 at the time, who after 2 years still takes his aggression out on the dog. The dog is good about it and avoids him, but after 2 years, I don't think the cat's going to change his mind.

It's hard for me to give you any good advice since there's a couple things missing in your post. Has the puppy given the cat a reason to be agressive towards her? What leads up to the cat chasing the pup? Does she pester the cat a lot? Is the pup an active one?(I know that sounds silly but there are calm puppies!) In what manner does the dog retaliate against the cat? Or is the cat the instegator? What breed of dog is she?

Not really knowing much about the situation I can say this, it may be possible that the cat will never be buddies with the dog but she may be able to tolarate her.

If you can answer those questions I will be able to help you more.

The dog is a 1 yr. old english pointer mix. Basically she looks a lot like a dalmation which was probably what she was crossed with. She is very active, but not destructive or aggressive at all. The dog(angel) tries to play with her sometimes which is what provokes the cat(tawny) the most. The cat plays with the older dog(sparky, a 16 yr. old) all the time and doesnt mind her at all, which is strange considering that since the old dog is senile she forgets who the cat is sometimes and tries to attack her(she has not teeth so she cant hurt the cat).

Most of the time Angel is just minding her own business and Tawny will be like on the couch or the table and jump down hissing and biting at Angel. It surprises Angel and she runs and the cat chases after her(its hillarious). Angel will chase her sometimes when she is being hyper, and the only way i've seen Angel retaliate is when Tawny swats her paw at Angel, Angel will swat a paw back at her (its so cute). Most of the time its just the cat. I think it is mostly the cat's personality since she does that to any company we have over as well.

Tawny has bitten Angel before,w/out the dog provoking, and caused her to bleed. The dog has a great dispostion and she handles the cat wonderfully. I just mainly miss the cat sleeping at the foot of my bed. Now the cat usually sleeps in my parent's room which is fine, I guess I won't keep all the pets to myself. It seems most of the time that Angel just wants to make friends with Tawny, but that may never happen. I really hope the dog will keep her good attitude toward the cat. They are both my babies.

Many times our concern is for the cat when thinking about dog-cat relationships, but in this case, I would say that it's your job to protect the dog. It's not fair that the dog can be chased, startled or even bitten when she hasn't done anything wrong at all, and you as your owner should be able to make her feel safe. Otherwise I'd be afraid that she'll start to retaliate more and with more strength. I would think that the paw swatting is the dog being playful, thinking that's what the cat is doing too. We always try to make sure that cats can be safe from being chased etc when there are dogs around, I think it's important to make sure it works both ways for peaceful coexistence.

You do have places for the cat to go to when she wants to be out of the dog's way, and same for the dog? So that they can get away from each other if they want to, and make sure they're not bothered. I know my cats love to sit on top of the bookshelf or their cat tree and watch the dogs, and they know the dogs can't reach them there. It's also good to train the dog to ignore the cat, seems like she does already for the most part, but at least the dog won't then provoke the cat in any way. I also think that the cat should be trained, if possible, not to hurt or chase the dog, but I'm not very good at training cats or giving tips on that, so I'm hoping others will do that. The point would be to show the cat that good things come when the dog's around and the cat's being nice, same goes for the dog of course. Any kind of punishment is probably not a very good idea, or the cat might start to associate that with the dog. Sorry I don't have any more specific suggestions, but I'm sure you'll get other responses. Good luck with all your pets.

LOL I used to have a cat when I was younger who would chase our neighbor's dog around the yard.

Anyway your problem is made a little easier by Angel not disliking the cat and if she did it would make for a dangerous situation. Tawny may not mind Sparky due to the fact that animals seem to respect the order in which they came(sometimes). When I was younger my mom got a dog named Sheba and she was as sweet and mello as can be. Then we got Benny, a big lazy cat who hated dogs. Although at first he didn't like Sheba too much since she never bothered him he didn't bother in. In fact after a while they began to play together and to this day(They now live with my dad) they're still pals.

Then a couple years back, when I lived at home with my dad I brought home a big energetic Lab and Benny FLIPPED!! He poofed up real big and as soon as Natala saw him she cahsed him up the mini blinds. From that day on he refeused to come in the house. He'd eat all his meals on the deck and no matter how hungry he was he would not come in the house to eat.

It took almost a year, then he slowly started to come in the house. He'd only stay down stairs though and when he finally made his way upstairs into the guestroom, no matter what I couldn't get him to come in my room. After two years and me moving out and taking Natala with me, Benny is back to his old self. If I knew then what I know now I could haved saved myself and Benny a lot of aggrevation.

If you can get Angel and Tawny in the same room(perferably a big one) have them be on opposite sides of the room. This will work best if you have a friend help. Each person takes an animal and plays with them. The idea is to keep their(mostly Tawny's) attentions away from Angel. Play with Tawny with her favorite toy, feed her some of her favorite treats. Have Angel do obedience commands like sit and down roll over, play with her with some toys.

Reward them if they remain calm in each other's presence. It takes a while but if you continue to do this over time Tawny will see that being in Angel's presence is rewarding and maybe not that bad.

If at the distance you start out with they both remain calm and relaxed you can move a little closer to each other next time around.

They may never become buddies but you can hope that Tawny will be able to live with Angel without biting or scratching.

Hey thanks guys! I am definitely gonna try that(gettin them in the same room, playing w/them, and rewarding them).