# How does your cat get along with your dog?



## Jazztoon (May 27, 2010)

One of my biggest worries about getting a Poodle is introducing a dog into my two 10 year old cats. One of them is curious and thinks the world is a good, friendly place, so I think he will do fine. His sister is the completely opposite and is always on guard. But she is also sweet and loving. She's just slow to warm up, took her 5 years to like my husband (loves him now) and took her exactly 5 years also to let my older child pet her and love on her.

So, wondering how other people's cats get along with their dogs/poodle?


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## TZel (Apr 3, 2010)

Sam wants desperately to play with our cat (he play bows and wags his tail) and will try, but the cat hates him vehemently and will scratch him if given the chance. But they are still working it out, as it has only been 2 months since we got Sam and he is still just a puppy.


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## Flake (Oct 18, 2009)

Its taken close to a year, but the weather took a rather nasty turn recently and it was enough for my cat to spend a few days inside all day, and I came in to find them both curled up, next to each other but in their seperate balls, on the washing. 

The cat has also started letting the dog clean his ears lol. Guess thats a good thing!


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## partial2poodles (Feb 11, 2010)

ALL of my dogs have a very high prey drive. The little toy, Gino, is fierce and stomps his front feet at a cat while he's barking. The cat hisses and swats and then the chase is ON. The standards can be sound asleep and the cat tippy-toes in the same room and the poodle leaps up and the cat jumps on something high. I can't get rid of the cats OR the poodles so they have to co-exist. Never a dull moment is all I can say. My one cat that is around 19 is the least tormented. She has seniority.


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## jak (Aug 15, 2009)

Flake said:


> Its taken close to a year, *but the weather took a rather nasty turn recently *and it was enough for my cat to spend a few days inside all day, and I came in to find them both curled up, next to each other but in their seperate balls, on the washing.
> 
> The cat has also started letting the dog clean his ears lol. Guess thats a good thing!


UGH!!

Tell me about it!! Non stop rain!! it's flooding everywhere!!
It rain non stop when I drove back from Chch last monday.. UGH .. UGH .. UGH!!

Anyway.. back on topic..

With Saffy, we got her as a rehome, where she was terribly undersocialized etc..

Whe had two cats when we got her, one of which grew up with dogs.. but that was 7 or so years ago.. the other one was a psychotic little 1 yr old kitten... :wacko:


It took us about a week for Saffy to leave the cats alone, and from then on, the one used to dogs became reasonably well acquainted with her.. and the psychotic one took a shining to the people next door lol..


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## bigpoodleperson (Jul 14, 2009)

Riley and the cats have always gotten along very well! No one snuggles up or anything but Reggie will rub up and under Riley frequently.


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## grab (Jun 1, 2010)

our cats and dogs are fine together. Our oldest cat will sometimes yell at the dogs if she feels they're in her bubble, but they just ignore those shenanigans.

We do have one room with a babygate, where we keep their boxes and food bowls, this gives them a dog free area to go when they want. But, they don't often hang out in there..they're usually out and about with us


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## Karma'sACat (Jun 1, 2010)

I'm living at my parents' right now and so is my brother, so between us there are 8 cats in the house (2 of which are mine). They all do fine, the cats will smack the dogs if they irritate them too much but that is rare. Quite a few we raised as orphans so they actually have some dog behaviors. And our dogs have learned some cat behaviors. Lola will sit up on her back legs and bat aws with the cats like two cats do when they play!


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## Spencer (Oct 7, 2009)

The poodle and the cat are great together... however I don't have a standard, I have a mini/toy. The cat loves to hide and surprise Tate then rub all over him and try to play, and sometimes Tate will hide and pounce on the cat and they'll roll around. TQ pins the cat down and cleans him... which kitty man isn't thrilled about, and thegrey is oblivious to the cat.

So I would say we're a cat friendly household.


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## Underpants Gnome (Oct 12, 2009)

My two cats don't want anything to do with my poodle. They had the house to themselves for 10 years and have only previously met dogs who chased them. When our poodle puppy came home, he wanted to play with the cats. We keep him separated from the cats with a baby gate and the cats are a little curious about him. At first, everytime one of the cats would come up to the baby gate, he would bounce up to the gate and the cat would run away. He's 9 months old now and he has learned that the only way to get near the cats is to stand still. Now if a cat comes to the gate, he freezes, then s l o w l y moves one foot at a time. He even keeps his tail still. He can get right up to the gate, but it takes a few minutes. The cats still run away when he gets too close, but it's the funniest thing to watch.

He wants to be friends with the cats so much. If we come in from out walk and a cat is on the stairs, he refuses to come upstairs until the cat moves. He knows if he moves first, the cat will run away.

I have no idea how long this will go on, but I believe that one day the cats are going to give in and become friends. In the meantime, he is demonstrating to me how incredibly smart poodles are. Plus it is hilarious to watch him try to figure out what to do to get near a cat!


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## Salukie (Dec 18, 2009)

It's pretty good for the most part, until Dana decides to chase one! LOL 










More here: http://www.poodleforum.com/3-poodle-pictures/7722-dana-cats.html


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

Mine are OK most of the time, but then the dogs were introduced as tiny, kitten sized pups to very dog-savvy cats. The dogs do have a tendency to bully Pippin, the larger of my cats, and to try to persuade Tilly to play chase with them. I think the most important thing is to manage introductions very carefully, and try to make sure the pup never gets the chance to chase - it is such an exciting game that it is very difficult to stop once started. Patricia McConnell's blog discussed it a few days ago - she reckons on managing interactions for months, rather than days or weeks, to be sure of long term behaviour. Most of us tend to slip after a week or two ...

Are you planning on a standard, or a smaller puppy? And can you get a pup that has been properlt socialised with cats (although that may make them assume a level of friendly relations your own cats are not up for, of course!)


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