Cats and dogs!

SillyMangoX

Hey there! I'm puppy sitting my uncle's pup today and I had her out running around the garden there for a while. I sat down in the grass beside the cat for a while to watch the pup play around and she did a 'play bow' to my cat who then proceeded to arch up, hiss and try slap her! Now, I know that he doesn't know that the dog is only playing (and the pup thought the cat was playing along!) but I really don't want him actually catching her someday in case he hurts the dog and she decides to turn and snap! I wouldn't expect her to, she's an extremely friendly well socialised little thing but who knows how she'd respond to pain.

Keeping them separated isn't really an option as they all share a garden and all love spending time outside. Usually they are friendly enough together (well they tolerate each other!) but today was just a bit of a worry. Today is the first day I've actually sat out on the ground with them though so is it possible that maybe the cat was being protective over me? I haven't really seen cat's being overly protective before so does anyone have experience on this kind of thing? And is there anyway to tell him to behave himself?! haha:D

wexie

Just leave them at it, they'll need to learn to 'speak' each others language. In my experience dogs tend to learn fairly swiftly that cats are sharp and don't usually want to play.

Our dog still tries to play with the cats every so often and (very rarely) still gets slapped. Doesn't stop them from curling up on the couch in the evenings though.

planetX

I don't agree - I think you should do the opposite, and keep an eye on them all the time. I've been amazed since getting my dog how little the cats are able to stand their ground against him. It's not fair on your cat and he could get hurt.

wexie

Really? Never known that to happen. Your dog must be a real bruiser.

Any time I've had cats and dogs they've always worked it out fairly quickly, even big dogs with little kittens. Amazing to see a little kitten getting a big dog to back off.

Maybe I've always had little b*ll*xes of cats (I've always suspected it).

Probably depends on the type/character of dog as well I guess.

seefin

Admittedly I only had dogs for 6 months but while they seemed to get on ok and resident cat had no fear of them,I stupidly left them unsupervised one night and they killed the cat. Googled and a lot of people said that dogs and cats can learn to get on but at same time,the prey instinct in dogs can take over when they see the cat moving and should never be left alone without human present. Wish id Googled a bit earlier!

The Sweeper

Outdoors, keep the pup on-leash. The cat will stand its ground but the play bounces of a pup are a bit much for a cat to handle unless it's very used to dogs.

Do NOT let them sort it out themselves. The only permanent scar on my now-adult dog is where my husband took that approach and my burmese cross split the tip of the pup's ear in two because the pup got too full-on with the cat.

It takes a long time for dogs to learn to avoid cats, and usually it's because the cat has to be very aggressive at the dog. I'd prefer to preserve a chance of them being companions in adulthood by correcting the pup if he bounces at the cats. The other option is to put the cat somewhere up high, but again, supervise them.

SillyMangoX

Hmm I guess I have nothing to worry about.. Just walked out to the garden to find puppy panned out under a tree and kitty sunbathing on top of her! I guess having black fur makes puppy warmer to lie on since black attracts heat. Kitty must just been showing off in front of me yesterday! Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm sure once the pup has gotten more mature and less bouncy they will be best friends. My cat actually loved the pups Mom when my uncle was minding her last summer, they used to follow each other around and do everything together, it was so cute!