Cat Friendly How Would You Temperament Test

[Quickasyoucan]

Hi I am curious as to how you would test a dog as to whether it is cat friendly and what you would classify as cat friendly?

I have been toying with the idea of giving a home to a rescue cat and I do see in ads cats that are tolerant of dogs etc.

My boy does spend time indoors with a cat as my friend, di, who walks him in the arvo has a confident old cat, Ellie. Ellie just miaows if a dog gets in her face so Jake (apart from trying to smell her behind and occasionally trying to lick her in the face) leaves her alone. Di's mum also has a confident dog savvy cat who Jake will again try to irritate occasinoally by sniffing his bum but otherwise ignores, because the cat ignores him.

However, he will definitely (or would if I let him and he wasn't on the lead) chase cats that run off in the street.

We did meet a dog friendly cat in the street and Jake was waggy and bum sniffy but I thought still just a tad too interested. He has what I would call a fairly strong prey drive ie ball crazy, skateboard obssessed.

I know there are no guarantees in life, but does anyone have any cat testing guidelines, recommendations?

[corvus]

It sounds like he'd be fine. A cat in the street running and a cat in the house are completely different things. Even Penny, who is fine with my rabbits, sometimes looks like she'd chase a cat in the street that runs.

With the bunnies, I've found you can generally tell if a dog can be taught to be okay with them or not by watching the first meeting. When Penny first met them, she wagged her tail, poked her nose in their ears, licked them a little, and just followed them around until she lost interest. When my mother's vallhund first laid eyes on them, he ran up to the cage and tried to get at them, all stares and excitement and no hesitation. He knew what they were and he knew you chase and kill them. My mother's boxer/kelpie cross was more curious, approaching slowly, wagging her tail, sniffing, and fairly relaxed. If the bunnies ran in front of her, they'd be in trouble, and I would never trust her with them, but I could trust her in the same room as long as they were safe in their cages and she'd leave them alone. Pyry would try to break into their cages to get at them. It should be noted that Pyry is fine with cats, though, but he was brought up with them and not brought up with rabbits.

So it sounds like he would be fine as long as you didn't take in a cat that was afraid of dogs and would run from him all the time. There's a lot to be said for cats that aren't afraid of dogs if you're not sure how the dog would do! I tend to think cats are not natural prey for dogs and it's not until they run that they might be treated like prey, but not all dogs have heard of my theories. :rolleyes: