Do Dogs Get Along With Cats?
The Boss (also known as The Cat) walks through
Do dogs get along with cats?
That depends on the cat and how the well mannered the dogs are.
This cat is the OG on the yard. He’s been here for about 15 years.
He has cat broke many a dog here. Usually, it takes one good whack from him, and then whoever is a little too rambunctious learns where the boundaries are with him.
I ask the dogs to just say hello and then move on.
The chances that the cat is going to smack one of them are low now because they have been a family for almost 7 years. But, in the beginning, it was on.
When the dogs were crazy little nippy things, old Fat boy had his work cut out for him. I had 4 little dogs at that time, and the oldest was very cautious around the fat boy. He would get kind of close, but you could see the respect the dog gave the cat.
As the others were added to the pack, Fat Boy trained all of them with a smack here or there. Never really doing damage but just a sharp claw touch once or twice was enough to make it clear to the dog that they didn’t want to mess with him.
The last dogs to be added to the pack were the big dogs. The female loves that cat. But the Fat Boy had to go hard on her when she was a pup. One morning, I heard a scream and just knew that Fat Boy had delivered a lesson.
I found that my female had a bloody nose from the inside of one of her nostrils. I got a tissue, applied pressure to stop the bleeding and waited. It was a good scratch. I applied Neosporin to it. It healed in a few days.
She still loves that cat but now knows how much “dog-loving” he can endure in one session. Every time the pack comes outside, Fat Boy shows up to say hi and hang out with his dogs.
So yes, dogs do get along with cats as long as its on the cat’s terms.
Compatibility: Solving Behavior Problems in Your Cat-Dog Household
