I currently have 4 dogs - A doberman, a doberman mix, a possible catahoula mix and a probable pit bull mix. I lost my last indoor Siamese cats a few years ago, and I miss having a cat in the house. My dogs are reasonably trustworthy in the house. I have no guarantee that outside their prey drives might not kick in. I’d want my cats to be indoors, anyway, but I do have a dog door.
Is it fair to bring a cat into a houseful of dogs? Is it better to start with a kitten who can grow up terrorizing the dogs, or try to find a rescue cat with dog experience. I’d prefer a Siamese, as that’s mostly what I’ve had, except for a few barn cats.
Forget about the cat for the moment— do your dogs love, tolerate, etc., cats (and kittens who will want to play with them in all sorts of interesting ways)? If not, I can foresee there being a problem.
ETA
I don’t think “feline racism” is a good idea. Any cat will have a unique personality. There are cats which will even suicidally attack large dogs. I mean, I do not know if a “Siamese” cat will specifically make a difference either way.
I think there is more than a likely chance that the cat may become a prey animal for the dogs, especially since you have a pack of them. If it was one dog, and one adult cat, preferably a cat that had been living there already, I would be less concerned, but four dogs with a new toy to chase and torment? Are you home all day to supervise just in case things go horribly wrong?
Most of my dogs have been around cats successfully. Mostly a mutual ignoring situation. The full doberman is just going on 3 years old, and I rescued him after my two 18 year old cats died. He’s untested around cats. I have a barn cat, but the dogs don’t go down to the barn.
If the dogs are mostly outside, and you end up getting an adult cat that grew up with dogs, that probably wouldn’t be a problem, as long as the cat had a safe place to hide in case things got out of hand. Dogs can be unpredictable, but cats can usually defend themselves. I think getting a kitten and having indoor dogs would be asking for trouble. Maybe ask your vet and see if he/she thinks it’s a good idea?
Respectable foster and rehoming situations generally will know if a cat came from a home with dogs and is accustomed to them, that might be a place to start.
In your shoes I would look for a mostly grown kitten /young adult who is brave and outgoing, or an older cat who knows dogs but isn’t flighty. It absolutely can work, but with a lot of long term monitoring on your end, and if your dogs aren’t highly reactive to small, furry, running things in the house.
The cat needs dog-free or dog proof spots to escape to if necessary. High perches or a room the dogs cant get into. all socialization needs to take place under your eye and with the dogs under control. I’d do one at a time for a while, then two, etc.
You need to be sure that if things go south you can get the dogs back in line and paying attention to you - a lot of that depends on how much obedience training they’ve had and how responsive they will be to you when they are excited and distracted.
If you are ok with working on the relationship for at least a year you should be fine, especially since they have had a cat in their lives before. But you can never really let your guard down. It’s different with puppies coming into a house with resident cats - they generally lay down the law pretty quickly.
But as a dog owner who overwhelmingly shies away from letting 2+ dogs ever say ‘Hi’ to his dog, I’m very conservative when it comes to the pack mentality.
It can go very wrong, blindingly quickly.
Has your pack ever chased down anything they viewed as prey – a rabbit, a squirrel, field mice … anything?
StG - you likely have as much if not more “animal sense and experience” than any of us, so I simply (and unhelpfully!) just urge you to rely on your own best judgment. I think an adult cat with dog experience would be a better bet than a kitten, just because I suspect the adult would have more experience in interacting with - and avoiding - dogs. I would think a big concern would be to provide it plenty of opportunities to get away from the dogs - up high and/or rooms/levels that are fenced off to the dogs.
Having said that, as much as I think I know my dogs, I never ENTIRELY trust them. And, as DNR says - I think that goes even moreso when there are >2 of them together. I was astonished - and pissed at myself for being astonished - when my daughters 2 greyhounds had to be pulled off of my stupid little goldendoodle… The best behaved dogs can/will be unpredictable idiots.
Thank you for that. As I’ve said, I’ve had dogs and cats, and introduced them pretty much all my life. But somehow, I have a bad feeling this time. Something has kept me from getting another cat, even though I’ve almost always had a cat. I think maybe I’m going to pay attention to that “small still voice” and just not indulge myself right now. Maybe if things change in my group of dogs, but I guess now is maybe just not the time.
How often do you hear that small still voice? When you have in the past, how reliable has it been?
I’m not a big one for overly relying on “gut feelings,” but if you think there might be an issue, I’d wager you have a reason to think so. Something about how THESE 4 dogs act and interact is making you hesitate. Or maybe something about how YOU interact with your pack at this stage of your life…
Let me turn it around on you - why do you think you want a cat? It isn’t as though you don’t have enough livestock! If you keep finding yourself returning to, “Boy, I WISH I had a cat!”, well, maybe that ought to be given similar credence as your little voice urging hesitation.
It certainly CAN be done. I’ve encountered my share of cats that I am confident could hold their own with your pack. Heck, I made my wife get rid of her old family cat when it moved in and promptly started bossing my dog around. And my current dummy has been beaten up by a new neighborhood cat. You just have to be honest with yourself as to the effort it might take, and whether you want to exert that effort at this point in your life. And there IS the possibility that it could end horribly, in which case you would have to put up with the vet bills and guilt.
Maybe, instead of looking for a Siamese, go with a shelter adoption. That way, if things go south, you’ll have a source of endless inexpensive replacements. (I KID!)
This is what I’m thinking too. I’ve broken up a number of dog fights, because YOU have to become the scariest thing in the room/yard to all of them. In an instant. It takes their attention away from the fight, and puts it on YOU.
They’ve always stopped and slinked off to their ‘corners’.
I’ve been very lucky.
It happens very, very fast.
If you do get a cat, I think the best would be to hold it, have it close to you so the dogs can acclimate. The cat too. Let everyone get used to each other.
My 2 Siamese are bigoted, rascist assholes. And ain’t sorry about it. They judge me harshly everytime I enter their realm.
They are a specific breed you know.
It’s not a race issue.
It’s a cat.
Come on.
@StGermain , find you a good old style Siamese cat. You can buy pedigreed. But a good Siamese type can be found in shelters or rescues.
I wouldn’t get a tiny baby. I’d go for teenager. I’d pick female.
Siamese can always handle dogs, in my experience.
If you get a cat, get a full grown cat who is used to dogs. And watch the first interactions very carefully, with the dog on leash and a bucket of water handy – better yet, with a really sturdy screen door between them AND the dog on a leash. Each dog separately, and then the dogs together.
The best way to introduce dogs to cats is to start with young puppies. Since you can’t do that, I really wouldn’t start with a kitten.
And all of this.
Do NOT attempt to hold a cat in a situation that the cat is frightened of. That’s a good way to get yourself seriously clawed and bitten – and I do mean seriously. And the cat won’t trust you for a while afterwards.
Do, however, let the dogs see you petting the cat while the cat is willing (and even holding her if, and only if, she’s relaxed enough.) They need to know that you consider the cat part of the household. Make sure you pet them too, of course; you don’t want to make them jealous.
Only Siamese cat I have interacted with was a random cat from either Vietnam or Laos. OK around dogs as far as I could tell. I honestly am not personally familiar with the genetically engineered version.
Beck - I’ve had Siamese pretty much exclusively since I was a preschooler. They have a different personality, but one I like. Demanding (one cat demanded fresh water for every drink, and would yell “water” (no kidding) in the bathroom until someone came and filled her little water dish. Insisting that when she went down the stairs, someone accompany her. She didn’t want to be carried, just have someone walk alongside her. One cat knew my grandmother hated cats, so when she’d come for a visit, the cat would sit just inside her bedroom door. They all slept on my bed, touching me. Which the dogs do to, TBH. I miss them.