Does your dog "get" cats?

milos_mommy

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#1
How do they interact with cats?? Chase aggressively, play too roughly, treat them like another dog, scared of them, ignore them, other?

Milo grew up with a cat...and was usually fine with her, although sometimes he would get a bit aggressive if she did something to **** him off, he never hurt her and could be called off. He'd annoy her by nudging her and trying to get her to play, most of the time. She died before his aggression issues got more serious, though.

Now, we have two cats, and Milo is mostly separated from them except when closely supervised. One of the dumbass cats thinks chasing him, darting out at him, etc. is hilarious, and seemingly had a death wish (Milo growled at him a few times when he startled Milo, which the cat thought was incredibly amusing, so their bonding time has been cut VERY short).

But recently, Milo's been a lot more tolerant of surprises, and the cat has been a lot more interested in just chilling in the room with him instead of hiding atop bookshelves and leaping into his face unexpectedly. So, they've spent a bit of time together, which usually involves Milo running from me to the cat with a big stupid grin on his face, and the cat pawing at him, to Milo's extreme delight.

Tonight, my dad was petting the cat in the living room, and I let Milo in to hang out. The whole family was there, and since Milo was being super nice to the kitty and was really relaxed and happy, he got 3x the praise he usually does around the cat, which nearly made him explode with happiness. He kept running up and licking Dash's ears and then darting a few feet away, so I said "Milo, he's gonna getcha!" which is what I say when Milo and I play chase, so Milo took off across the house.

When he realized the cat was not following, he tried again. No luck. So...it was time to problem solve. He ran, grabbed a ball, and threw it in the cat's face before playing bowing and spazzing out. The cat was not amused, but the ball bounced enough that I'm pretty much Milo thought Dash was responsible for it. So he spent a good 15 minutes throwing his ball at the cat, then prancing around in full bliss that the cat was playing with him every time the ball rolled away.

He really does enjoy the company of other animals, and it makes me so happy to see him playing with another dog, or our cat, after all the work we put into it. It would be worth it, even just for the peace it brings and having a dog that doesn't flip out around other animals, but it seems 100% more worth it when he's racing around with the other dogs or smiling so hard at the cat it looks like his face will fall off.
 

JessLough

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#3
Well, it is very important to me that any dog in my house knows that animals inside must be tolerated.

So inside cats are respected and given space. Cats (and other animals) outside are things to chase and scare off.
 

yoko

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#4
Yoshi... I won't say she gets them but she's pretty good with them. All she wants to do is run up and sniff them but then she's usually done.

Sometimes if a cat swats at her she thinks it's playing but it's never rough it's just her jumping around.

In the house and outside of the house she's the same.
 

Lyzelle

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#5
Zander plays like cats like he would puppies. So I'm not sure. He's gentle with little animals in the house, and he'll be polite outside if I tell him to. But I wouldn't say he "gets" them.

Given the opportunity, he wouldn't turn down the chance to run, aka chase something that ran outside.
 

Katem

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#6
The cats and the dogs coexist in the house...not necessarily peacefully, but they tolerate each other. Bear is quite happy to ignore the cats entirely, although his patience for them wanes a bit if they swat at him. He also has a far lower tolerance level at night for some reason. If they slink about when it's just the dogs and I up and everyone else is sleeping, he tends to go into 'alert' mode and really wants to chase them off. He settles for making pitiful whiney growly noises while staring them down.

Pig and the cats have a love/hate relationship. Pig loves them, they hate her. She doesn't understand why they won't play with her. Sometimes they'll chase her around and she thinks it's the greatest thing ever. The cats aren't exactly in 'play' mode when they chase her, but she doesn't care as long as they're chasing her. I have a feeling that if the cats did actually play with her, she would get too rough with them.

Outside cats are fair game. Pig is very interested in them, but she looks like she just wants to play. Bear thinks they need to be watched carefully off of the property. On the property they need to be chased off and possibly mauled/eaten if caught. Luckily he's never caught one. He did 'tree' one after chasing it up a lattice wall. I had to physically put him back in the house because he didn't want to leave it.
 

Panzerotti

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#7
My old guy, Solo, completely ignores the cats. Pan gets along really well with my Siamese. She can get a bit rough sometimes, but then he will bite her legs/face to tell her to back off. I wouldn't say she "gets" cats in general though. I don't trust her with my old tabby cat because he'll start fights and that gets her overstimulated, fast.





 

Saeleofu

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#8
Gavroch chases cats, and so I don't let him near cats unless he's on a STRONG leash. I really only trust him around cats with my brass-hardwared Ella's Lead slip leash because that sucker is HEAVY DUTY.

Logan LOVES cats, but the cats hate him. He wants to play sooooooo badly, and they just smack him upside the head. Poor dog. Since usually if I have one dog downstairs I have them both downstairs, Logan doesn't get to see the cats often.

Whn I had tango he LOOOOOOOOOOVED the cats and played with them as if they were dogs...and the cats played back in the same way, because they're pretty sure they ARE dogs lol.
 

Dizzy

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#9
Bodhi understands cats better than she does other dogs. She's amazing with them, and even befriended the last cat we lived with who was a renowned dog hater. A cat that used to be called Tyson....

Fred has met cats, but doesn't really understand their purpose. Do you play with them, stalk them, chase them, lick them or what?!
 

Dogs6

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#10
Tika treats cats as if they are annoying puppies. She'll sometimes snap at them if they're annoying but that's it. Although she and they work together stealing food.

Taz, pretty much just ignores them but the cats like to cuddle up to him.

Fudge ignores our cats inside, wants to sniff and poke at them outside and chases strange cats and ours if they run.

Scamp considers inside cats ours, knows he must never even think about looking at a cat in someone else's house and chases/attacks any cat outside unless they're tabby (our inside cats are tabby and come out to play with the dogs). Our cats have ran up, attacked his tail and ran off and he just ignores it.

Aura knows that she isn't allowed to bother the cats but she desperately wants to make friends with them but she is far too rough with them.

Diesel gets bullied by our cats. They love sneaking up on him, beating him up and sprinting off. They especially love it when all mum sees is him chasing them so he gets yelled at. They will do this over and over again. But if Diesel ever gets too rough they can pin him to the ground with one paw and then they bite his ear.

Ozzy doesn't know we have cats lol

If I ever yell at the cats (fighting, clawing furniture/me, etc) all the dogs come flying and I have to be careful extracting the cat without it getting hurt because as a pack they would attack a cat if they got too excited.
 

Laurelin

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#11
Good enough answer?


DSC_1367 by Summer_Papillon, on Flickr

The cat is pretty much one of the dogs. She likes the dogs and the dogs LOVE her. Poor cat is always getting bathed by the papillons.

Mia will chase other cats and was very interested in Joy the first few meetings. But with a little supervision has figured this cat thing out.
 

Taqroy

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#12
Murphy ignores cats when he knows them. He did flush a cat out of the brush in our backyard and chase it up a tree one day. I have no doubt that if he'd caught it he would have killed it.

Mu is terrified of cats. She is certain that they're all out to kill her.

Tipper LOVES cats. She thinks they're little dogs. Last time I had her at the vet she saw their resident cat and just melted. Then play bowed, then barked, then play bowed again, then got really sad because the cat didn't want anything to do with the fluffy orange monster. Lol.
 

stardogs

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#13
Ziva thinks cats are scary weird and will avoid even our cat. She likes to act like he doesn't exist, but if he startles her, she'll run.

Kes thinks our cat is awesome but he's way too rough with him. Outside they are prey animals.

Aeri also loves our cat but she's too rough most of the time. Her fav activity is to run into his room and lay on top of him. Sometimes Pi seems to enjoy this, sometimes not. She seems to be mildly interested in outside cats as friends as well.

Snipe thinks cats are fascinating and is gradually learning to control her enthusiasm around Pi, so they've had some positive interactions. Outside the house, cats are prey.

Maggie and Pi were great friends. They played well together and I have several videos of that play that crack me up every time I run across them. I do think Pi misses having a dog to play with sometimes.
 

*blackrose

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#14
Chloe was raised with cats (and has raised kittens), so she has an understanding for cats. She knows they are cats, they have their own little quirks, and she has to interact with them differently than she does other animals. Depending on the cat (and age), she either mothers it, ignores it, plays with it, or chases it (any feral/barn cats that come onto our property are fair game for her to chase down - we actually encouraged that behavior to keep our kitties safe from the wandering cats). She behaves the same way with ferrets (minus the chasing part, as they were never outside loose together).





Cynder ignores all cats. If one runs when she is outside she may chase it, but she will recall off of it. Inside, they are "pets", thus they are to be ignored at all costs, regardless of their behavior. Same goes with other pocket pets.

Gracie and Cooper have no idea WTF cats are. As with most of my smaller pocket pets. They are torn between being terrified, being curious, and being aggressive. When they're at my mom's they will bark at and chase the cats because the cats run from them, especially outside. Again, they typically recall off of them or stop when they're yelled at. I had Gracie with me at my apartment the other day and she met Willie (FIV+ foster kitty I have). He adored her, but she basically just slunk around the apartment trying to avoid him. And if she couldn't (he kept trying to follow her around and rub up on her LOL) she would just stand there and look worried.
 

Sit Stay

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#15
Quinn used to like cats way more lol. She and my moms cat (who showed up as a pregnant stray) used to be inseparable. Quinn has since helped raise two litters of bad kittens who like to jump out at her and attack her tail, so she's become a little bit more protective of herself. She will still lie with the cats though and greets them when she comes home.

Strange cats get her pretty worked up. She just gets very excited and wants to meet them. She would never kill a cat.
 

Julee

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#16
Embyr likes cats. She likes to play with ours, they enjoy rubbing up against her. She knows they aren't dogs, but enjoys them just the same.

Deke... thinks cats are dogs and OBVIOUSLY must want to play with him, always.

Copper and Shadow don't give the cats much attention.

Bloo... likes chasing cats. We've done a looot of impulse control work, but she an the cats will never be in the same room without a crate or leash between them. If she accidentally slips through a door and there are cats on the other side, she'll run up to them, but looks back to me and won't attack them. Thankfully, since my family is no longer allowed to handle Bloo, it hasn't happened lately. It's happened a total of three? times ever.
 

Babyblue5290

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#17
Artimis has a healthy respect of them when they are inside, and even outside to a point. With our Kat he lets the cat sniff him and stands there until the temperamental jerk leaves him alone. With my sisters kitten Gizmo, he is gentle and grooms her or plays with her depending on the mood. Outside,unless it's one of our cats he will chase them down with a vengence! When he corners them (happened only once) he backs off and goes "boy that was fun wasn't it?" :rolleyes:

Talon: Only cat he's been around was Gizmo and Kat. Kat, he gives decent respect of her space, only curiosity from a distance. Gizmo he plays with, but in a good way not too rough. Outside he's seen a few cats and only show mild curiosity unless they are running. If they run he is more "I want to HERD!" lol
 

Southpaw

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#18
Happy is fine and ignores them.

Lucy and Juno I don't really know. They are fine with our cat. They ignore him. But they live with him... I have no idea what they would do if they met a strange cat.
 

Maxy24

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#19
Tucker can read cat body language better than most of the people in our house (knows what pinned ears, tense bodies, wagging tails, staring at each other means) un fortunately he uses his powers for evil. If the cats get ticked at each other he chases and nips Neko, its alarming when he does it but he never hurts him. He also does not let them play. If hes upstairs and heres their feet or bodies thump on the floor in a way that suggests they are playing he runs down to chase Neko.

He also really wishes Willie were a dog, he used to try sooooo hard to get him to play, luckiy he's mostly given up, Willie was being harassed. If a cat shows any aggression towards him he thinks its a play thing. He will become more intense in his attempt to play, I think hes actually ran from a cat once and I think the cat had gotten stuck in his face.

But deep down hes afraid of Neko. Neko continually tries to snuggle with him and Tucker looks terrified, he freezes and cant move. As soon as he has the oppurtunity to leave ( if neko gets up to readjust) he bolts away. He's less worried about Willie but will still look alarmed if he comes to cuddle.


Outside Im not sure. If he sees a cat out the window he goes nuts, but he does that to dogs too. On walks he acts like I would if I saw a black bear in someones yard, moves slow, bobs head, looks spooked and doesnt stop looking back until its far out of range.
 

k9krazee

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#20
I'm not really sure how Crossbone is with cats...

He's met my parent's cats behind gates and is always really excited, crying, play bowing & spinning in circles. I don't think he'd hurt them inside unless they ran from him - he did chase one of the cats outside. I'm not sure if he'd hurt or kill a cat if he caught one.

He did meet Ken's brother's cat and kept a distance after the cat hissed at him.
 

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