Dog and Cats

[Passport1]

I have a four year old female golden retreiver. Adopted her from a rescue agency six months ago. She has a sweet personality and gets along well with everybody, dogs included. Next week I'm going to adopt two young female cats, sisters. Rescued also. I've had lots of dogs and cats but never together.

What kinds of hiccups can I expect?

 

[shortyb]

Well, maybe none. Or there might be a lot of fur flying. Or something in between. Goldens usually have a great disposition with other animals though, so you'll probably be ok. Dogs like the treasures in a litter box, so be aware of that. They seem to like cat food better than their own food for some reason too, from my experience with cats and dogs cohabitating. Post the funny stories though.

 

[Jetronic]

no matter what, they will have to come to an agreement about who wears the pants. might go quick or take some time

 

[SC Maintenance]

We adopted an elderly stray cat during covid. Well he adopted us. Well actually the hag on the corner threw him out. I digress.

One of our little dogs - the Bijon, got along fine with him They would lay down and sleep together even.

The other dog - a Shih Tzu, didn't like the cat one bit, and never got over it. She would get all snarled and barking if the cat got close. However Shih-Tzu's are like that. She doesn't like much to be honest.

I presume the retriever won't have issues. Growing up we had large dogs and cats. Sometimes they were friends, sometimes they were not but they figured it out.

 

[Bud]

no matter what, they will have to come to an agreement about who wears the pants. might go quick or take some time

I have a feeling the cats will wear the pants.

 

[Kira]

So many people have both, it isn't even "noticed", practically speaking.
Perhaps a high "refuge space" is all the cats will need. Our cat essentially flies up to a cabinet when she plays with the canine.
They cohabitate just fine.

I bet yours will too unless you got 'psycho-kitties'.

We feed the cat first because she eats slowly.
They sit side by side rather attentively at mealtime.
The one thing I had to do was, with the help of a long dowel, make sure that the dog didn't go near the cat while she's eating. The dog learned quickly.

Also, our litter box is in the basement and the dog doesn't seem to like descending the steps as they're just treads (no risers).

 

[R18Civic]

I dunno. I had a dog that terrorized a cat I owned. Once she passed I got a male cat that would torture the dog that tortured the old cat. I let it happen. Karma is a mistress.

 

[OVERKILL]

Will depend on the dog's personality most likely, and with a golden, you are probably, pardon the pun, but "golden" lol

We have 2x Himalayans (they are morons) that are brothers, born a litter apart, and we have a boxer that's around the same age as them. He doesn't care at all about the cats. We got a German Shepherd a few years back now and of course these dogs have a very high prey drive, but are generally fine around cats if they grow up with them. Well, she very quickly asserted herself as the alpha dog, dominating the boxer, but she's had challenges with the cats, who aren't into that sort of thing. The fat one has no qualms about smacking her in the face when she gets sniffy with him, which causes her to back off a bit and stare at him whimpering.

Anyway, where this gets weird, is that she'll often chase the skinnier of the two cats, then pin him down and "nibble clean" him. Like she does on her own pelt, rapid nibbles in the fur to groom it. However, mixed in with this, she often puts his head in her mouth (his whole head) but then stops herself and goes back to cleaning. As I said, these cats are morons, he doesn't do anything when this goes on other than maybe put some really low effort into trying to get away from her if he was going somewhere and she interrupted him. But, I think the head-in-mouth thing underscores the prey drive of the breed where she's having to "correct" her instinct (no, whoops, don't eat the kitty, just clean it) which, if she was a mature dog that didn't grow up around cats, introduced to them, would likely have been disastrous.

 

[AZjeff]

Was your dog exposed to cats while at the rescue to see if she's cat friendly? I volunteer at a rescue and that's part of the procedure to tell adopters about the dog. There are probably 1000 videos on youtube on the subject, watch a few.

Also it helps a lot to make introductions on neutral ground. Don't bring the cats into your house for introduction to the dog, it's the dog's territory. Maybe the rescue has space to check compatibility? I'd introduce on neutral ground and if all goes well bring the cats into the house with the dog outside for a while to let the cats explore around then carefully bring the dog in. It's likely the cats will torment the dog, it's what cats do, and the golden will love it.

We got a rescue cat once and for a week our terrier thought it was her duty to kill that cat. She finally realized the cat was part of the household and while they were never play pals they got along. My wife wanted the cat so naturally the cat picked me to be her servant. They're evil creatures.

 

[Ausfahrt]

Pets can be like a box of chocolates.

We had backyard free range chickens for many years and our labs learned not to mess with them. Sadly, our labs passed and we subsequently adopted a rescue Jack Russell Terrier from Mexico. Max is a sweet dog but has a prey drive that overwhelms him and he absolutely cannot control himself. After a few dead chickens we realized that either Max or the chickens would have to go and we chose to keep Mexi Max.

 

[Dave Sherman]

The wife's akita/lab mix seemed very curious about my cats when we combined households. The scaredy cat usually made herself scarce when the dog came around, but eventually she figured out the dog was not so terrifying. The older cat tolerated the dog unless it got too close, then the dog might get a swat on the nose and she'd back off. No injuries and no fights, though. The cats were used to being fed mornings and evenings, and they figured out that if they didn't eat it in one sitting, the dog would happily finish it for them. Had to start keeping an eye on that.

 

[JRay’07]

When I owned both pets simultaneously, our dog would take the cat’s food during feeding time. The cat would also stand its ground whenever our lab invaded his personal space by giving a few swats to the face. Aside from that things went well.

 

[redtrucker610]

Both are rescues. Got them about 2 years apart. Had the cats first. There is also a sister to the cat. He use to chase both the cats. After getting batted a few times he figured it out. Now the dog and the male cat are buddies. They even sometimes play. The female doesn’t want anything to do with the dog.

 

[Pablo]

Personalities are going to be #1

Dog with prey drive, it's difficult. Most Golden's are very mellow.

We have two MELLOW cats. And a pretty active 8 month, smart, and a bit stubborn pit-aussie-border-cattle-shep-husky-chi- etc dog with some level of playful prey drive.

It's finally amicable. She wouldn't hurt the cats, and the tom will/would fight back. The she cat hmmm so passive, just ran.

Humans need to be God. No rough shenanigans allowed. Eventually everyone can walk by anyone.

 

[Wheel]

I have a feeling the cats will wear the pants.

It really depends on the dog. Our mastiffs never put up with cats antics, they didn't care what kind of show the cat put on, the cat would end up on the floor with a big paw keeping it in place. Not sure on our new-ish dane, but I get the feeling it would be similar.

 

[Pablo]

Younger Cats are quicker than any dog and kiddy gates required for the first whatever months.

 

[K-Man]

Dogs like cat food because the cat food tends to be richer. Cats need more fat content in their diets.

 

[Pablo]

Slow introduction mandatory

 

[Pablo]

Female cat

 

[Brons2]

them Siamese are a handful. A cat lover's cat.