Cats and dogs together?

[Bernermom]

Hi, new here

My name is sara and my mom , sister and newphew live with me and we all decided ages ago on getting a Dog and a year ago or so we found our perfect breed the Bernese mountain dog. Were not ready yet and have a few years before we will be ready, but mom would love to have another cat and asked me if she could have one. I said im happy to have a cat and have always wanted to have both a cat and dog as i love both but i dont know anything about cats and most importantly cats and dogs together. I know a lot about dogs and have studied dog behaviour so am more glued up on dogs.

So i wanted to ask here regarding having a cat and dog together and to learn about cats in general.

What makes me nervous is the misconceptions that i have about cats , such as they dont love there owners and you are always covered in scratches as they are more aggressive ect. Which is probably not true its just what ive heard from friends with cats, thats why i am having an open mind and want to learn more and knew asking here would be a great idea.

mom told me she never got scratched by her first and only cat and he was very loving to her. I suppose its Reading horror stories of cats who attack there owners all the time is a little worrying but mom assures me that if you learn to understand and read your cats body language just like you do with dogs you will be fine and thats why hers never attacked her as she read his body language and knew when not to cuddle him and instead leave him alone.

She also said there are some cat breeds like ragdolls that are more laid back and a bit more friendly , Which i quit like the look of ragdolls and i like maine coons who seem to be the cat who is dog like.

Ive spoken with my berner owner friends who say berners are great with cats provided they have been well socialized with the cat.

About 4 owners have maine coons and reccomended them.

The 2 things i wanted to ask other than any general advice you'd like to give is

1) which should i get first? Most berner friends have said cat first so pup can learn to be around the cat?

2) do cats and dogs get along? Or do all just hate each other. Out of the 4 who own cats and dogs 3 said there cats are best friend's with there berner but all 3 of these cats are maine coons again.

Just looking for advice really , thank you in advance

[fjm]

I have both cats and dogs, but the dogs are tiny (papillon and toy poodle) so at the other end of the scale to your planned Bernese. The cats were adults when I got my first pup - they were very dog savvy as several of my neighbours had friendly dogs of various sizes, and the puppy was too small to be much of a challenge. They firmly told her No! when she got too bouncy, and she quickly learned. They get on well most of the time - there is the occasional mild squabble but nothing serious. In the past I have introduced kittens to adult dogs, and puppies to adult cats - both worked, with care. I think kitten to puppy might make for a wilder ride, though!

There are many similarities in raising puppies and kittens - both need socialising to humans and the human world; both thrive on empathy and routine; both can be loving companions, careful with teeth and claws, if taught properly; both go through phases of being less careful until they have learned to inhibit their play style. The two big differences are the ease of house training a kitten to use a litter tray (aka "delicatessen" for many dogs), and the approach to training. Cats do respond even less well than dogs to any form of punishment - they will retaliate, withdraw, or even leave home. Whichever you choose to get first - cat or dog - I would take care to get both from a situation where they have been raised with the other species, and to choose a puppy with a low prey drive. Be prepared for lots of management in the early weeks and months, but with care there is no reason why they should not be excellent friends.

[Bernermom]

I have both cats and dogs, but the dogs are tiny (papillon and toy poodle) so at the other end of the scale to your planned Bernese. The cats were adults when I got my first pup - they were very dog savvy as several of my neighbours had friendly dogs of various sizes, and the puppy was too small to be much of a challenge. They firmly told her No! when she got too bouncy, and she quickly learned. They get on well most of the time - there is the occasional mild squabble but nothing serious. In the past I have introduced kittens to adult dogs, and puppies to adult cats - both worked, with care. I think kitten to puppy might make for a wilder ride, though!

There are many similarities in raising puppies and kittens - both need socialising to humans and the human world; both thrive on empathy and routine; both can be loving companions, careful with teeth and claws, if taught properly; both go through phases of being less careful until they have learned to inhibit their play style. The two big differences are the ease of house training a kitten to use a litter tray (aka "delicatessen" for many dogs), and the approach to training. Cats do respond even less well than dogs to any form of punishment - they will retaliate, withdraw, or even leave home. Whichever you choose to get first - cat or dog - I would take care to get both from a situation where they have been raised with the other species, and to choose a puppy with a low prey drive. Be prepared for lots of management in the early weeks and months, but with care there is no reason why they should not be excellent friends.

Thank you so much for your advice , were between a ragdoll and maine coon.

How are cats in general with small animals , i own a holland lop rabbit who has free access to the house and often likes to cuddle next to me on the sofa. Hes a very lazy rabbit and doesn't move fast at all so there wont be any fast movements , when a friends dog stayed once he just ignored the dog and never ran off at all just stayed near me and ignored the dog.

[Mollycat]

Wonderful. I'm the opposite, had cats all my life and new to dogs. If you possibly can time it that way, I would honestly jump in with both feet at the deep end and get them both at the same time, preferably literally the same day. That's as close as you can get to a cast iron guarantee that they will be inseparable and have a lifelong respect for each other and each other's species. But once you have one of each, when one goes first, the other can teach any future newbies the ropes of living together.

The dog I have came with my partner. He was found abandoned 4 weeks old and left to die, coincidentally the day they were due to pick up a planned kitten. The pair played, ate, slept and groomed together, and the dog is so respectful around cats though he sometimes tries to chase strange cats he meets outside, he is a terrier type so that's understandable. But I had no qualms about him meeting my two adult cats and he behaved so humbly around them that the boy quickly made friends and as a matter of fact in 3 weeks they were sharing the sofa. The girl, well, she is another case, but nobody is in danger of getting hurt. She hisses, can spit or even lash out when the dog is a bit too bouncy or loud, but he turns away and defuses the situation.

Cats are incredibly versatile and varied creatures, and breed is a pretty poor indicator of character. My Ragdoll would bite me if I annoyed him just like any other cat. The main thing you have to respect is that a cat is not a dog, stupid as it sounds, and you cannot use the same methods with both. Cats are unique among our domesticated and companion animals in that they are by nature solitary. Not to say they can't live with others, just that social hierarchy and therefore rules and discipline mean absolutely nothing to them. So you have to work with them, for everything you say no to you have to offer a better alternative. If you say no to scratching furniture you not only have to provide scratch posts, you also have to put them where the cat wants them and be prepared for that to fail. If you want them to keep off the kitchen counters, you have to offer a better vantage point with better rewards, and even then be prepared to fail. It's negotiation. Telling off and shouting or finger wagging is much more likely to cause escalation, confrontation and eventually outright aggression, or a fearful and traumatised cat.

The cat's body language is very very different to the dog's too and that can make for some misunderstandings from humans. Cats can be very passive-aggressive and do things that look submissive or neutral but are in fact quite dangerous or challenging. Dog will know! Check out You-tube videos of cats blocking dogs on the stairs for a good example.

If you really want one first though, I would say dog first, because an adult dog can be taught to leave it whereas once a puppy has started chasing and annoying a cat, it will be much harder to get a friendship going or even a happy truce.

In experiments, cats brought up with small animals were much less likely to see them as prey. Like, only something like 1 in 10 cats would go on to kill mice if they had been raised with mice. They really are very versatile, but there are no guarantees. Cats do chase things that move, but they also bat things that don't move to make them move or see if they will. If your rabbit stands up to a kitten, your kitten will respect him and is very unlikely to think of hurting him. Kittens like puppies are wired to learn for the first months so at that stage you can step in and teach them like their mother would. But once they are grown up it becomes extremely difficult.

Oh, and cats can be very, very loving with their pet humans, just as loving as a dog, but often it's on their terms, and you have to earn their affection, they are not like a dog desperate to give love to someone. Much more independent, but can be loving to the point of annoying.

[Bernermom]

Thank you for your advice Mollycat , interestingly a lot of people who own both dog and cat have said to get the cat first as an adult dog could easily injure a kitten by accident.

Were between maine coon and ragdoll at the moment.

Have you found your ragdoll to be laid back? Thats what i read on ragdolls.

Fellow Bernese owners have said maine coons are laid back cats and dog like?

I'd also appreciate any book reccomendations so i can learn about cat body language and behavior and learn about cats in general

[Mollycat]

Have you found your ragdoll to be laid back? Thats what i read on ragdolls.

He was the only cat of a breed I ever had, he was a retired stud so a really fine example of his Traditional lines bla bla bla, sorry I'm just not into the "breed" concept at all I love my alley cats bred by natural selection.

I would say he was dopey rather than laid back, a gentleman, very sweet natured but no more so than my other alley cat boy. This is a very personal opinion now but I found it heartbreaking that he was bred to be chocolate box pretty at the expense of all the things I love best about the essence of catness - his magnificent ruff was so long he couldn't get his tongue off the end of his hair to groom himself, for example. His senses and reactions were very noticeably less sharp than those of any common moggy I have ever known. He wasn't bred for his brains or these things, he was bred to be the best in show and have a nice sweet temperament. I actively encouraged him to have character, to tell me when he wasn't happy, to tell me what he wanted. I encouraged him to have an opinion. I love cats for their independence, their self-maintenance, their individual spirit, and Boo to me was just a cat wrapped in a fancy wrapper with the lights on but not everybody home.

He was an incredible soothing gentle calming influence on the household, he was the one who tamed Molly and showed her the world was no danger to her. He was helping the dog get over his fear of fireworks. The breeder I got him from told me he had managed to persuade one of her girls to mate who never in her life let another male touch her. I thought I knew how special he was while he was alive, but after his quiet calm was gone and his influence faded a little I have come to appreciate he was 10 times bigger than I ever knew. He was lonely on his own though, I could not have kept him as an only cat, I can't put that down to his breed, I can't put it down to being a late neutered tom, but maybe both have their part to play. He's been gone 15 months and his hair is still everywhere, even in the wardrobe and behind the fridge, be prepared to wear a ragdoll everywhere you go on every outfit you own.

[Bernermom]

Have you found your ragdoll to be laid back? Thats what i read on ragdolls.

He was the only cat of a breed I ever had, he was a retired stud so a really fine example of his Traditional lines bla bla bla, sorry I'm just not into the "breed" concept at all I love my alley cats bred by natural selection.

I would say he was dopey rather than laid back, a gentleman, very sweet natured but no more so than my other alley cat boy. This is a very personal opinion now but I found it heartbreaking that he was bred to be chocolate box pretty at the expense of all the things I love best about the essence of catness - his magnificent ruff was so long he couldn't get his tongue off the end of his hair to groom himself, for example. His senses and reactions were very noticeably less sharp than those of any common moggy I have ever known. He wasn't bred for his brains or these things, he was bred to be the best in show and have a nice sweet temperament. I actively encouraged him to have character, to tell me when he wasn't happy, to tell me what he wanted. I encouraged him to have an opinion. I love cats for their independence, their self-maintenance, their individual spirit, and Boo to me was just a cat wrapped in a fancy wrapper with the lights on but not everybody home.

He was an incredible soothing gentle calming influence on the household, he was the one who tamed Molly and showed her the world was no danger to her. He was helping the dog get over his fear of fireworks. The breeder I got him from told me he had managed to persuade one of her girls to mate who never in her life let another male touch her. I thought I knew how special he was while he was alive, but after his quiet calm was gone and his influence faded a little I have come to appreciate he was 10 times bigger than I ever knew. He was lonely on his own though, I could not have kept him as an only cat, I can't put that down to his breed, I can't put it down to being a late neutered tom, but maybe both have their part to play. He's been gone 15 months and his hair is still everywhere, even in the wardrobe and behind the fridge, be prepared to wear a ragdoll everywhere you go on every outfit you own.

He sounds wonderful and perfect to me. Im leaning more towards Ragdoll , ive read a lot on them and watched a ton of videos and there are a lot with bernese mountain dogs which was a nice suprise.

I'll be covered in berner and ragdoll fur

Everything i have read says there so gentle and chilled and that there famous for there temperments.

[Margaux]

Yes, cats and dogs can get along. Although dogs have been domesticated to assist us in hunting, they can also be great companions. The problem arises when they are house trained, but they find their way back to their wild state and do the opposite of what you want them to do; that is attack. Dogs are territorial, so they are very likely to get into fights. However, they can learn to get along with humans, and it takes a while for them to learn that they can not attack. A good place to start is to let your cat know that it is not allowed in the house. If they continue to bite you, try taking them outside. They will realize they cannot get into your house or go through your furniture, and the fear of you will drive them away. They will probably become house trained as soon as you realize they are not allowed to be there. Cats can learn to be house trained just as quickly as dogs.